I thought this Rocky Mountain News story was very interesting.

A study looking at whether poor children in Denver do better in wealthier schools turned up an unexpected - and far more controversial - finding that is raising questions about the use of Spanish in classrooms.

The analysis by the Piton Foundation and the University of Colorado, to be released today, shows that students learning English make dramatically greater gains in wealthier schools than in poorer ones.

A key difference between the schools is that students in poorer schools typically learn English with help in their native language, generally Spanish.

In wealthier schools, students learning English are typically immersed in English.

Specifically, the study found:

• 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.
• By the fifth grade, students learning English in low-poverty schools perform nearly as well as native English speakers in high-poverty schools on state writing exams. Gains are similar, though not as dramatic, in reading.

I found this statistic incredible. The students gained an average of one point per year in a high-poverty school, where their native language is used, and they gained 26 points at the low-poverty school where they were in English immersion. Further, if they were in the low-poverty school until fifth grade, they caught up with their higher income peers.

If this doesn't encourage the re-evaluation of bilingual education programs, I don't know what will. I think it is unfortunate that sometimes in public education we continue practices because they're comfortable rather than because they're effective. On the surface, bilingual education seems to make logical sense, but unfortunately, in practice the research says it doesn't work as well as English language immersion programs.

Fortunately, California passed Proposition 227, which requires English Learners to be taught in English and was supposed to end bilingual education. Unfortunately, school districts still have bilingual programs. They just get parents to sign a waiver each year. I believe if the parents saw research like this, they'd be a little slower to sign those waivers. Somehow I don't think most local school districts will be sharing that information.