Benefits Of Bilingual Education Essay Example For Students

Benefits Of Bilingual Education Essay Bilingual EducationEducation is very important. There use to be a time when you didnt have to go to school. When it was only important for men to have an education. Times have really changed. Now it is crucial for everyone in our society to have an education. Survival is the main reason: a cohesive society is another. Our schools today need to keep Bilingual education as a tool for teaching: not only for the sake of our society but also for the sense of our culture. Bilingual education in our schools is crucial: but still there is talk about banning the use of foreign language in the instruction of our young children. We have to work to change that kind of attitude. We have to proceed from the assumption that bilingual Marquez 2education is a sound educational proposition for all children and that it addresses the needs of all the constituencies of education. Now more than ever the words of Thomas Jefferson ring with special meaning: in 1977, in a letter to his nephew, Jefferson said : Bestow great attention on Spanish and endeavor to acquire an accurate knowledge of it. Our future connections with Spain and Spanish America will render that language a valuable acquisition. The ancient history of that part of America, too, is written in that language. (qt. in A Relook 66). Hispanic leaders should plan an initiative to help Hispanic youths do better in school. Its a coming-together as a community to deal with a very pressing issue. The organizations should be composed of public officials, Marquez3students, educators, administrators, and business people and should try to determine the biggest problems facing Latino students in their community. These groups need to work together to develop a statewide agenda. Hispanic students, according to some studies, lag behind other students in classroom performance; have the highest dropout rate of any ethnic group in the country; and, according to federal data, are less likely to pursue higher learning(Tucson 66). We as a soc iety, need to have a school system that prepares our students for higher education if that is their choice. Society needs to work together to change the educational process for Latino students. Consider these numbers, which we drew from As A Relook at Tucson 66 states Minority groups are being shortchanged by more than 200,000 teaching jobs in the public Marquez4elementary and secondary schools of the nation. In 1972, the enrollment of the nations public schools was 44.6 million. As a relook at Tucson 66 states, the number of English speakers in the Western Hemisphere is only slightly larger than that of Spanish speakers. By the year 2000 the number of Spanish speakers will be far greater than the number of english speakers. Statistics indicate that the United States is now one of the major Spanish-American countries. One statistical example: If the figures on illegal Mexican aliens are correct, that means that every year the United States adds another city the size of Albuquerque a nd Tucson combined. Or, put it another way, it adds another state larger in population than Wyoming and Alaska combined(a relook at Tucson 14). Marquez5The policy of most governments toward bilingualism in the home is and long has been one of neglect. A few countries actively encourage it, especially if the second (non-community) language is the more important language in the country or in the world, or if the minority (community) language is the language of a group given special consideration under the law. Many countries, which have recently been colonies, for example, encourage their young people to learn the language of their former Mother Country, because bilingualism of this type is important in international trade and politics. However, we could find castles full of research and still very little is being done in public Marquez6schools to improve and enforce bilingual education. We have to use the research being conducted about bilingual education and improve bilingual educat ion. Some public schools want to stop bilingual education, saying that its detrimental to students but they dont put any consideration in improving it, or educating themselves on the needs of not just Latino but all children. All bilingual children deserve further discussion on the issues of culture, immigration, ethnicity and adjustment. A Farewell To Armss:A Farewell to Arms Critiq EssayRandom assignment to treatment and control groups, as in medical experiments, is the highest quality research design because it increases the confidence in the conclusion that any differences between the groups after a period of treatment can be attributed to that Marquez12treatment. The results from the five studies in which subjects were randomly assigned to bilingual and control programs favor bilingual education even more strongly. The estimated benefit of bilingual programs on all test scores in English according to these studies with random assignment is .26 of a standard deviation. The positive effect on reading scores is .41 of a standard deviation among the studies with random assignment. And the improvement in scores measured in Spanish is .92 of a standard deviation in the studies with random assignment to treatment and control groups. All of these estimated benefits of bilingual education from studies with random assign ment are extremely unlikely to have been produced by chance. The fact that the studies Marquez13of bilingual programs with random assignment, the highest quality research design, have even stronger results greatly increases the confidence in the conclusion that bilingual education positively affects educational attainment. In sum, the NRC report finds that on average, bilingual education programs are more effective than English-only programs. However, there are many other important factors that influence student outcomes. There is much more work left to do by the schools if we are to enable LEP students to achieve at high academic levels. Improvement would have to focus on teachers, teaching, academic content and standards, Marquez14accountability, school-wide leadership, program integration, parent involvement-and effective use of the native language to assure high level and meaningful learning for all students from the time they enter school. Proposition 227 removes an important t ool use of the native language from the hands of educators it would only serve to make even more difficult the challenges of school improvement. A society with no education cannot compete in the modern world. We as a society need to fight to keep Bilingual education as a teaching tool in the schooling system. Marquez15Works citedA relook at Tucson 66 and beyond. Washington D.C. 1973. Leibowitz, Arnold. A bilingual education act: a legislative analysis. Virginia, 1980. The world book encyclopedia. (E vol. 6) Chicago: World AtlasKrashen, S. Under attack: The case against Bilingual Education. Culver City CA: 1996