New York City’s schools chancellor will propose expanding bilingual education options for children with limited English, allowing immigrants to choose how quickly their kids face English immersion.
Harold O. Levy’s plan follows an October study revealing problems in the current program, including substandard teaching and keeping students too long.
Currently, enrollees who fail an English competence test are automatically assigned to one format of bilingual education. Under the current format, core subjects like math and science are taught in the student’s native tongue.
The proposal would allow parents to choose from three plans: the current format; English as a second language (ESL), which teaches core subjects in rudimentary English, uses props, and requires students to take as many as three additional hours of English per day; and an intensive ESL program.
There are currently 176,000 students enrolled in New York’s bilingual education or ESL program. Over 65 percent of students enrolled in the classes are Latino. The rest are largely of Chinese or Russian decent.
Latino civil rights leaders who fought to establish the standing program in the 1970s worry the plan might reduce the ranks of bilingual teachers, cut program funding and reduce its availability to students.
But critics have long complained that foreign-born students become trapped in bilingual programs that offer substandard academic courses.