ProEnglish Asks Supreme Court: Protect English Immersion
ProEnglish asks Supreme Court to protect English immersion
"In a few weeks, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear the first case in many years to consider how children should be taught English: 'bilingual education' or 'structured English immersion'. In the case Horne v. Flores, No. 08-289, and 08-294, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ordered the Arizona Legislature to pay more for bilingual education and took a swipe at proven, far more effective English immersion teaching techniques.
"In 2000, Arizona voters passed a ballot initiative requiring the State's schools to switch from bilingual classrooms to teaching classes mainly in English. ARIZONA'S NEW STRUCTURED ENGLISH IMMERSION PROGRAM DRAMATICALLY INCREASED ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNERS TEST SCORES. In some grades children who learned English in Arizona's program do better on achievement tests that native-English speaking students.
"This February ProEnglish joined the Center for Equal Opportunity, the American Unity Legal Defense Fund and the English Language Political Action Committee to file an 'amicus curiae' or friend of the court brief in Horne v. Flores that defends structed English immersion classrooms. The brief opens with a quote by ProEnglish board member Rosalie Pedalino Porter, Ed.D., author of the book 'Forked Tongue' and one of the foremost experts in the country on the subject of teaching of non-English speaking students:
"'Without competence in English, immigrants are at a disabling disadvantage, unable to share in the economic opportunities of a democratic society. The sooner this enabling skill is acquired the sooner children can join in the full life of their school and community.'
"It argues that unless the Supreme Court overturns the 9th Circuit ruling, one consequence will be that schools will have an economic incentive to delay the acquisition of English fluency skills by English language learners in order to obtain more court-ordered funding.
"Attorney Barnaby W. Zall who wrote the brief on behalf of Pro-English and the other organizations said, 'It took us thirty years to change federal education policy away from bilingual educatiion and toward learning English. This case could reverse that progress. The courts should protect children, not lock them away again in bilingual education.'
"A copy of the amicus bief is available on ProEnglish's website: www.proenglish.org "
Copied from "The ProEnglish Advocate", Volume 15 - Number 1, April 2009, p. 3.
ProEnglish
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