Research Shows English Immersion Outperforms Bilingual Ed
by Jim Brown
August 19, 2004
(AgapePress) - A large study by the Arizona Department of Education indicates structured English immersion is much better for students academically than bilingual education.The study looked at the scores of 70,000 Arizona students who took the Stanford 9 Achievement Test. The research indicated that students in structured English immersion programs were ahead of students in bilingual education classes, with the achievement gap ranging from a couple of months in the early grades to more than a year head from sixth grade onward.
State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne feels the study simply confirms what educators have known for years: that English immersion is simply a better educational strategy than bilingual programs.
"In every grade level, every subject, there was a statistically significant and educationally significant difference," Horne says, "and in some cases the differences were quite striking -- for instance, there were students who were over a year ahead of other students. But it was also striking how consistent it was."
In Horne's study, students in immersion classes outperformed bilingual education students in every grade level between the second and eighth grades in reading, language, and math. And, he notes, "In every single grade level, every single subject, the structured English immersion students were ahead of the bilingual students in a way that was statistically significant."
According to the Arizona education official, the localized study echoes the findings of a national study, the results of which appeared in the journal Education Next, which is published by Harvard, Stanford, and two research institutions.
In the national study conducted in the winter of 2002, Horne says researchers found "that structured English immersion students outperformed bilingual students in all four areas they measured. First they had more years of schooling; second, more of them entered college; third, they had a higher annual income; and fourth, they exceeded the bilingual students in entry into high-status occupations by a factor of almost two-to-one."
In 2000, Arizona voters overwhelmingly passed an initiative providing that English language learners would be in English immersion programs. However, it was not enforced until Horne took office in 2003.
