Tuesday, October 02, 2007

Another interesting study - immersion works

Dave reports that Colorado Learns Immersion Works. A recent study focused on how poor students do in wealthier schools. One of the findings was:

"Low-income students learning English make greater gains in wealthier schools. These students gained, on average, less than one point per year on state writing exams in schools where 61 percent or more of their classmates received federal lunch aid. That compares with gains, on average, of 26 points per year in low-poverty schools, where 30 percent or fewer students receive lunch aid."

Many people in school try to push bi-lingual education, feeling that by building off what the child already knows they can more easily make the leap into English. The study finds the opposite. Students learn faster when they just dive straight into the deep end of the pool.


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Technorati tags: school, English parenting, children, education

2 comments:

Shauna said...

In my town, if you suggest that there are alternatives to bilingual education, you're immediately dismissed by many as a racist.

Henry Cate said...

That is a fairly common response.

When you can't challenge the validity of an idea, you attack the messenger.

Many people are not even conscious that they have conceded the strength of the idea when they stoop to name calling.

Sad.