English Advocate Calls Demands for Bilingual Testing 'Ridiculous'
by Jim Brown
March 29, 2004
(AgapePress) - A conservative organization is expressing outrage over a lawsuit that seeks to force the State of Massachusetts to administer its high school equivalency examination in Spanish for students more proficient in that language than in English.The Multicultural Education, Training, and Advocacy Coalition and two lawyers' groups have filed suit, claiming the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment (MCAS) test is unfair to Spanish-speaking students. The group claims the exam given to evaluate students in academic subjects such as math and history is unfair and should be offered to them in Spanish.
But K.C. McAlpin of the Washington, DC-based group Pro-English believes the effort to change the MCAS is just another result of the failure of bilingual education. "It's not in our interests as a nation to be awarding American public high school diplomas to people who cannot speak, read, or understand the language of our country. It's ridiculous -- outrageous -- and no country should be expected to," he says.
The executive director of Pro-English feels immigrant students would be better able to understand the equivalency exam if they were involved in strict English immersion programs. He says a native English-speaking student attending school in Brazil, for instance, would not be expected to graduate and earn a high school diploma without learning to speak and understand Portuguese.
Massachusetts voters overwhelmingly decided to eliminate bilingual education in 2002. However, McAlpin believes the program has already caused the state's young people significant harm. "One of the reasons that they have students who cannot take and pass this high school equivalency exam is because of the failure of bilingual education to teach kids English in the public school system there," he says.
According to Pro-English's research, bilingual education students consistently score lower on standard achievement tests, and far too few of these students meet the goal of transitioning out of the programs. The English language advocacy group says many of these students remain socially isolated and frequently drop out, while millions more graduate without learning fundamental language skills and are thus deprived of opportunity in a predominantly English-speaking country.
