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Los Angeles School District Fights English A year after Proposition 227 killed bilingual education in California, the Los Angeles Unified School District is still fighting the idea of teaching kids English. To "comply" with the new law, the LAUSD has created two teaching "methods," known as Model A and Model B. Model B is the same kind of "native language instruction" which failed so many kids; Model A is instruction in English. Recent test scores show that Model A works; Model B does not. Kids stuck in Model B simply don't learn English, and score far worse on academic tests in any language. Yet the LAUSD is spending $30 million a year in extra pay for teachers in Model B programs. Teachers in the Model B program get up to $5,000 a year in special "stipends;" a program which could pay up to $1,500 a year to Model A teachers is being "phased down." And LAUSD is pressuring parents to put their kids in Model B classes. The Los Angeles Daily News reported that "tens of thousands of parents of Model B students received letters advising them that in the `professional' opinion of school administrators, their children would `benefit' from another year in the classes with Spanish." What's worse is that parents desperately want their kids in English-language classes. The Daily News reported: "Ramiro Ortiz of Winnetka said that after fighting to move his daughter out of a traditional bilingual class at Fullbright [Avenue Elementary School] a couple of years ago, he decided to lie on the home language survey and to say he spoke English at home to make sure his son was not put into a Model B class." Some Los Angeles schools are abiding by the new law, and helping kids. At Serrania Avenue Elementary School in Woodland Hills, Principal Annette Star said that only Model A, English-language classes will be offered. "We explain both of the programs to the parents, and most of them say, `We want English. We want the one with the most English.'" |
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The
ELPAC Report 