DOCUMENT RESUME FL 020 329 ED 345 542 Cazden, Courtney B. AUTHOR Language Minority Education in the United States: TITLE Implications of the Ramirez Report. Educational Practice Report: 3. National Center for Science Teaching and Learning, INSTITUTION Columbus, OH. Office of Educational Reseal'ch and Improvement (ED), SPONS AGENCY Washington, DC. PU3 DATE 92 R117010022 CONTRACT NOTE 18p. Reports - Evaluative/Feasibility (142) -- Viewpoints PUB TYPE (Opinion/Position Papers, Essays, etc.) (120) MF010001 Plus Postage. EDRS PRICE *BilJngual Education; Comparative Analysis; *English DESCPIPTORS (Second Language); *Immersion Programs; Instructional Effectiveness; *Limited English Speaking; Parent Participation; Program Design; *Program Effectiveness; Teacher Qualifications; Time Factors (Learning) *Language Minorities IDENTIFIERS ABSTRACT A report prepared for the U.S. Department of Education on three school program models for limited-English-speaking children is examined. The models include a structured English immersion strategy and early-exit and late-exit bilingual education. The report describes the three models, reviews evidence of their relative effectiveness, and assesses the study's implications in four areas: teacher qualifications, parent involvement in children's learning, quality of classroom learning environments, and generalizability of the study's findings. The most conservative, uncontroversial conclusion drawn in the report is that there are no differences in results among the programs studied. Additional conclusions are drawn here, among them that the amount of time spent using a language can no longer be considered the most important influence on learning jt, but that a number of factors (e.g., teacher qualifications and parent involvement) are critical in second larguage learning and school success. It is concluded that although there is other evidence of the long-term benefits, of late-exit bilingual programs, bilingual programs are not feasible for all language minority children. In instances where bilingual education is not feasible, it is argued that carefully implemented immersion programs are clearly better than lack of any support. A brief bibliography is included. (MSE) ************************************A******************************* Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. *********************************************************************** DUCATIONAL PHAC 1 ICI-. RI PON!. 3 $410% - MINORITY EDUCATION LANGUAGE IN THE UNITED STATES: OF IMPLICATIONS THE RAMIREZ REPORT s COURTNEY B. CAZDEN OF EDUCATION U S DEPARTMENT Ana 1,,,C),Ovempr, F4050,11,t TION SOURCES INF ORMA (UCA TIONAL qt. T NTE cwt., 1).0(..Pcj as In,. l7IPSOn Ove.,3 ..4.r.af,riq r ly f.cr API rxx .11>iSn, P.'",),'S S7elled, F4, BEST COPY AVAIIZIE LANGUAGE MINORITY EDUCATION IN THE UNITED STATES: IMPLICATIONS OF THE RAMIREZ REPORT COURTNEY B. CAZDEN HARVARD GRADUATE SCHOOL (W EDUCATION NATIONAL CENTER FOR RESEARCH ON CULTURAL DIVERSITY AND SECOND LANGUA GE LEARNING 1992 This report wa!i prepared with funding frcin the Office of Educational Research and Improvement kOERI) of the U.S. Department of Education, under Cooperative Agreement No. R117G10022. The findings and opinions expressed here are those of the author(s), and do not necessarily reflect the positions or policies of OERI. 3 CULTURAL NATIONAL CENTER FOR RESEARCH ON LEARNING DIVERSITY AND SECOND LANGUAGE COLLABORATING INSTITUTIONS and Second The National Center for Research on Cultural Diversity University of California Research and Language Learning is funded by the Office of Educational Santa Cruz research on Improvement of the U.S. Department of Education to conduct the United States. The the education of language minority students in University of California Cruz, through the Center is operated by the University of California, Santa Berkeley Research Project, in University of California's statewide Linguistic Minority collaboration with a number of other institutions nationwide. University of California development, The Center is committed to promoting the intellectual Irvine students and to literacy, and thoughtful citizenship of language minority diversity of the Ameri- increasing appreciation of the cultural and linguistic University of California from a variety of disciplines are conducting can people. Center researchers Los Angeles of language studies across the country with participants from a wide range ore-kindergarten through grade 12 classrooms. Re- minority groups ir University of California first and second lan- search projects deal with the relationship between San Diego cultural and linguistic factors in the guage learning; the relationship between from diverse achievement of literacy; teaching strategies to help children University of California material; alter- linguistic and cultural backgrounds gain access to content Santa Barbara various instruc- hate models of assessment for language minority students; effect ol modifications tional models for language minority children; and the University of Arizona academic performance of in the social organization of schools on the Tucson students from diverse backgrounds. Information on Dissemination is a key feature of Center activities. University of Oklahoma Research Reports Center research is published in two series of reports. Norman research describe ongoing research or present the resutts of completed various They are written primarily for researchers studying projects. University of Southern California Educational aspects of the education of language minority students. Los Angeles application in Practice Reports discuss research findings and their practical teachers, administra- classroom settings. They are designed primarily for Center for Applied Linguistics of students from tors, and policy makers responsible for the education Washington, DC diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds. to have For more information about individual research projects or Technical Education Research Center please contact: your name added to the mailing list, Cambridge, MA Eugene Garcia and Barry McLaughlin, Co-Directors National Center for Research nn Cuttu al Diversity and Socond Language Learning 399 Kerr Hall University of California Santa Cruz, CA 95064 IMPLICATIONS OF THE RAMIREZ REPORT 4 LANGUAGE MINORITY EDUCATION IN THE UNITED STATES: IMPLICATIONS OF THE RAMIREZ REPORT OVERVIEW Controversy continues over the most reasonable conclusions to draw from the accumulated research evidence on the effectiveness of various program models for students who are not proficient in English. This paper examines a report prepared for the U.S. Department of Education on three program models for language minority children: structured English immer- sion strategy and early-exit and late-exit bilingual education. The most conservative, uncontroversial conclusion drawn from the report is that there are no differences in results among the programs studied (Ran irez, Yuen, & Ramey, 1991). The author of this paper draws additional conclusions. An obvious implication is that the amount of time spent usirl a second language can no longer be considered the most important influence on learning it. A number of other factor?, can be critically important in minority language children's second language learning and school success. Teacher qualifications and parent invotvement are two such factors that receive strong research support and are rightly emphasized by Ramirez et al. Teachers in late-exit programs, for example, had more gradmate education cod more specialized training for woncing with language minorly children than teachers in immersion or early-exit programs. They were also more proficient in Spanish and as proficient in English as teachers in the other programs. In addition, late-exit parents repoited more participation in their children's education. Although there is other evidence of the long-term benefits of late-exit bilingual programs (see, e.g., Rosier & Holm, 1990), the author reasons that bilingual programs are not feasible for all language minority children. In instances where bilingual education is not feasible, carefully implemented immersion strategy programs are clearly better than the lack of any support that too many language minority children confront today. IMPLICATIONS OF THE RAMIREZ REPORT 5 3F.ST COPY AVAILABLE A BRIEF HISTORY One earty action in the Reagan administration's attack on bilingual education was to review program evaluations conducted in this country and Canada. Baker and de Kanter (1963); reviewed 28 studies that met certain methodological criteria, and concluded that the case for transitional bilingual education was weak. As an alternative approach to the education of language minority children, Baker and de Kanter advocated what they called "structured "structured" to differentiate ft from English-only programs with immersion" children, "immersion" after no special provisions for non-English-speaking Canada. the successful French programs for English-speaking children in experience (It should be noted, however, that in Canada, the total immersion English, is bilir gual from the first day of school. The children's first language, the is the language of the school offices, halls, and playgrounds; and in be earlies, grades when all instruction is in French, the teachers must bilinqual so the children can always be understood.) Controversy has continued over the most reasonable conclusions to effectiveness of draw from the accumulated research evidence on the various program models for students whL are not proficient in English (e.g., Imhoff, 1990; Mulhauser, 1990; Secede, 1990). Throughout this contro- the U.S. context has versy, evidence supporting structured immersion within been weak. Baker and de Kanter could find only one U.S. study of structured Solis, immersion invoMng Spanish-speaking children (Pena-Hughes & 1980), ano that was a program that existed only in kindergarten. Further research was clearly needed. Thus the decision by the U.S. Department of Education to initiate and finance a study of educational conducted by J.D. programs for language minority children. The study was Ramirez, S.D. Yuen, and D.R. Ramey.2 I was asked by the National Center for Research on Cultural Diversity Ramirez et and Second Language Learning to discuss the implications of education in the al.'s research for our knowledge about language minotity I understand that someone else has been asked to do a United States. In what follows, I therefore assume no technical review of the research. technical flaws that would negate significant findings; rather, I discuss what I first I see as the important implications of the research as it is reported. describe briefly the three programs for language minority childron that are compared in the Ramirez study, then summarize the study's main findings and discuss what seem to me the most ir Iportant implications. PROGRAM MODELS THE THREE The three types of programs studied by Ramirez and his colleagues and early-exit and late-exit were structured English immersion strategy PAGE I IMPLICATIONS OP THE RAMIREZ REPORT 6 bilingual education. All three °have the same instructional goals, the acqui- sition of English language skills so that the language-minority child can succeed in an English-only mainstream classroom." They differ "primarily in the amount and duration that English is used for instruction as well as the length of time students are to participate in each program" (Ramirez, Yuen, & Ramey, 1991, Executive Summary, hereafter ES, p. 1): All instruction in an immersion strategy program is in English... Drawing on the Canadian Immersion program models, the target language (in this study, English) is taught through the content areas. .. . In an early-exit program there is some initial instruction in the child's primary language, thirty to sixty minutes a day. This is usually limited to the introduction of initial reading skills. All other [and] instruction in the primary instruction is in English . . . so that by grade two, virtually language is quickly phased out . . all instruction is in English. . . . In contrast, students in the late-exit program receive a minimum of forty percent of their total instuctional time in Spanish. . . . Students are to remain in this program through the sixth grade, regardless of when they are reclassified as fluent-English-profi- cient, (ES, p. 2) Figure 1 (from ES, p. 5) shows that in the classrooms of the three programs, the actual proportions of teacher utterances in English fit the definitions that guided the initial program selections. On the dimension of teacher English language use, these are three markedly different programs. FIGURE 1 Mean Proportion of Teacher Utterances in English 100 80 - 1- Immersion 60 Strategy 40 0- Early Exit 20 0 - Late Exit K 4 2 3 1 GRADE Adapted from Figure 1, ES, p.5. IMPLICATIONS OP ME RAMIREZ REPORT PAGE 2 RELATIVE EFFECTIVENESS OF THE THREE PROGRAMS Program effectiveness was measured by children's scores on tests in English language arts, reading, and mathematics, all administered in The scores were compared in two separate ways, Because English. immersion and early-exit programs existed either in the same school (though without random assignment of children) or within the same district, children's achievement through a direct comparison could be made of these the third grade. But because late-exit programs were found only in school districts that had neither of the other two, and because these programs were the only ones to go through sixth (rather than third) grade, a three-way program comparison could be done only indirectly. Immersion vs. Early-Extt (Kindergarten - Grade 3) The clearest comparisons in the Ramirez study are between immer- sion and early-exit within the four schools that had both programs. There school to another. were no within-program differences in effects from one That is, children in immersion programs had comparable test scores regardless of the school they attended; the same was true for students in the early-exit programs (Ramirez et al., 1991, Vol. II, p. 96). Therefore, in all combined analyses, the achievement test scores from all four schools were within each program type. The results are clear and uncomplicated: At the end of third grade, there is no difference in student test resuits between the immersion and early-exit programs. The same results were obtained from comparisons in those districts that had both programs but in different schools. In sum, after four years [K-3] in their respective programs, limited- English proficient students in immersion strategy and early-exit programs (as defined in this study) demonstrate comparable skills in mathematics, language, and reading when tested in English. (ES, p. 20) As would be expected, the immersion programs gave the youngest students advantage disappeared an initial advantage when tested in English, but this by third grade. Immersion vs. Early-Extt vs. Late-Extt A three-way comparison was done indirectly by comparing the achievement growth of the children in each of the three programs with that of a norming population. "As the scope of worii required that the test date for older . an this study had to be comparable to that of other federal studies . . version of the CTBS [California Test of Basic Skills] was used" (ES, p. 22). PAGE 3 IMPLICATIONS OF THE RAMIREZ REPORT As Ramirez et al. acknowledge, the norms for that version of the CTBS were established In 1972-73, and there is ample evidence for (and consid- erable controversy about) the increase in norms in the 15 years between then and the late 1980s, when the tests were given for this study. As the authors say, the children in the three programs can still be compared with each other, because "any potential overestimation in performance would likely affect each group equally" (Vol. II, p. 57). But any comparison of these language minority children's progress with that of the norming population must be tempered by the possible invalidity of the old norms. Overall, the most conservative, uncontroversial conclusion is that there are still no differences in results among programs: There appears to be no difference in the academic growth relative to the norming population between Immersion strategy and early-exit students. Moreover, the form of this growth tin the years through the third grade, when comparison of all three programs is possible) is similar to that found for late-exit students. (Vol. II, p. 641) However, the picture of the effects of the late-exit programs is complicated by the fact that, in contrast to the homogeneity wrong the immersion and early-exit programs, there were differences among the three late-exit district sitesboth in program characteristics and in their effects on students' achievement. Through the fourth grade, the programs in all three sites fit the late-exit model in their use of English: Kindergarten: less than 10% First and second grade: about 33% Third grade: about 50% Fourth grade: about 60%. Beyond the fourth grade, however, only sites D (one school in Florida) and E (seven schools in New York) continued to fit the model, using English about 60% of the time in fifth grade and about 75% of the time in sixth grade. In site G (six schools in California), English was increased abruptly to 92% in fifth grade and 94% in sixth grade. Here are the achievement results: In sum, there are differences between the three late-exit sites in achievement level for mathematics, English language, and English reading at the end of sixth grade. Students at the site with the highest skills in English language and reading in first grade (site D) also completed sixth grade with the highest scores in these two areas. Students in the two remaining sites PAGE 4 IMPLICATIONS OF THE RAMIREZ REPORT (the one with the most use of Spanish [El and the one with the most use of English PI) ended the sixth grade with the same skills in English language and reading. However, although all three late- exit sites had comparable mathemattcs skills in grade one, by the end of grade six, students in the two late-exit sites that used the growth most Spanish for instruction (sites D and E) posted higher than the site which had abruptly transitioned into almost all English instruction (site G). (ES, p. 21) compari- Conclusive statements cannot be made about the long-term because of district son of immersion, early-exit, and late-exit programs through sixth differences, and because only late-exit students were studied however, grade (in two separate cohorts, K-3 and 3-6). The report suggests, late-exit via the indirect comparisons with the norming population, that the (esplcially students in the programs that fit the model as defined in the study school--be the seven schools in site E) mayby the end of elementary achieving the best results of all: There are differences in the growth curves between immersion strategy, early-exit, and late-exit students. While the growth students show curves for immersion strategy and early-exit growth for first to third grade in mathematics, English language, and reading skills, they also show a slowing down in the rate of growth in each of these content areas as grade level increases. This deceleration in growth is similar to that observed for students in the general population. In contrast, the growth curves for students in the late-exit program (particularly in the implementa- tion that was most faithful to the late-exit instructional model) from first grade to third grade and from third grade to sixth grade suggest not only continued growth in these areas, but continued acceleration in the rate of growth, which is as fast or faster than the norming population. That is, late-exit students appear to be gaining on students in the general population. (ES, p. 22) If we take into account the problem of the 15-year-old norms, the suggestion general that the late-exit students in site E are "gaining on students in the population" may be overly optimistic. But if they are the only students about whom this can even be suggested, it seems a reasonable inference that the only pattern of their growth was more accelerated than that of students not in the other late-exit schools but in the immersion or early-exit programs as well. This result is all the more striking when we consider social class differences among the late-exit sites. In site D (Florida), the families, many levels than of them from Cuba, had slightly higher incomes and educational PAGE 5 IMPLICATIONS OF THE RAMIREZ REPORT