Half of the students enrolled in bilingual education in the Chicago Public Schools are learning enough English after only three years in the program to transfer into regular classes, according to data released by the board of education Wednesday.
Public school officials say the findings show that revising the system’s bilingual education policy two years ago–which limited a student to three years of bilingual instruction–has worked.School’s chief Paul Vallas said the data validates what he has believed all along: Students learn more English when they know bilingual instruction will be limited.
“We used to have some kids enrolled in bilingual education all the way through to the 12th grade, and they would leave the system not being able to function very well,” said Vallas.
He added that students who don’t get up to par in three years can be enrolled in a 4th year of bilingual education after an intensive skills assessment.
“Bilingual education was designed to be a transitional program, not something that a student stays in for their whole academic career,” he said.
The public schools have 64,000 children enrolled in bilingual education at about 300 schools across the city. In most of those classrooms, teachers instruct primarily in Spanish.
The school board’s data showed that 13,246 students, or about 50 percent of those who were enrolled continually in the bilingual program since 1998, have transitioned into regular classes. The data also show that those students tended to do as well or better academically than their native-English-speaking counterparts.
Before the policy was changed, only about 16 percent of students in the bilingual program were fluent enough to make the transition into regular classes, officials said.
But the data drew some concern from a school reform organization that suggested the school board may be rushing students through bilingual education. That only half the system’s bilingual students in the program since 1998 have shown they are prepared to move into regular classes shows many continue to need more intensive assistance, according to Parents United for Responsible Education.
“It’s like they want to just get the students in and out the door without really knowing if they are ready for the next level,” said Julie Woestehoff, the group’s executive director.
“I would have thought the numbers moving on would have been much greater, considering all the board said about how this was going to be a good thing.”
