Proposition 227 results (California)

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Test Scores Soar After California Bans Bilingual Education

In 1998, California voters passes a voter initiative, Proposition 227, that banned bilingual education. Two years later, the state issued its Stanford 9 Achievement Test reports.

Among 2nd grade students with Limited English Proficiency (LEP), the portion of students testing above the median increased nearly 50% in the three subjects tested: Reading, Math, and Language. Opponents of English immersion have long argued that it was necessary for children to spend a few years in bilingual education to prepare themselves for English-language instruction. However, youngest students showed the greatest increases in test scores.

These test scores measure only those students who remain in special classes for LEP. Another important measure of the effectiveness of LEP programs is how many of the students in the programs can be sent into mainstream classes. Redesignation tends to moderate test score improvements, as it removes the top-performing students from the testing pool, lowering the test averages. However, despite this, redesignation rates increased 12%, accelerating their improvements.

Proponents of bilingual education have offered alternative explanation for the improving test scores, including increasing familiarity with the test, smaller class sizes, and a return to "phonics-based" reading instruction. (Phonics is a method of learning to read by recognizing which sounds are produced by letters and letter combinations. Previously, the education establishment had also predicted that the introduction of phonics would be harmful.)

These factors may have played a role; test scores improved among English-language students. In any case, these factors would have made it difficult to prove that ending bilingual education was the factor responsible for the test score improvements. However, many school districts attempted to defy Proposition 227. By doing so, they helped prove the case against themselves. Those school districts which most resisted implementation of Proposition 227 showed the smaller improvements; whereas those that most aggressively implemented Proposition 227 showed the greatest improvements . For instance:

Oceanside school district most aggressively implemented Proposition 227. Their test score improvements were the most dramatic of any major school district.
San Jose Unified School District, because of a previous court order, did not have to implement Proposition 227. Although 2nd-grade math scores showed some improvement, the portion of LEP students achieving median reading scores grew only from 18% to 19%. In fact, the portion of 6th graders achieving median scores actually fell.
In Los Angeles County, roughly half of the students were sent into English immersion classes. The other half were kept in a program which was banned in 1999 when a judge found it to be essentially the same as the banned bilingual program. (No comparisons of these two groups are available.) While Los Angeles' test scores improved, the improvement was significantly smaller than the statewide average.

Various educational reforms may have helped those students who are learning to learn better. No educational reform can help students learn what they are not being taught.

National percentile ranking in Reading tests of LEP students:
Oceanside (No BE) LA (Some BE) San Jose (More BE) Statewide (all students)

Gr 98 99 00 Gr 98 99 00 Gr 98 99 00 Gr 98 99 00 Gr 98 99 00

2 12 23 32 2 17 18 24 2 18 19 19 2 19 23 28 2 39 43 48

3 9 12 22 3 13 15 18 3 14 14 16 3 14 18 21 3 36 40 44

4 8 10 23 4 13 14 17 4 14 14 17 4 15 17 20 4 40 42 45

5 6 9 19 5 12 13 14 5 14 17 18 5 14 16 17 5 40 41 44

6 9 9 20 6 12 13 13 6 15 14 14 6 16 18 19 6 42 45 47

Math Scores:
Oceanside (No BE) LA (Some BE) San Jose (More BE) Statewide (all students)

Gr 98 99 00 Gr 98 99 00 Gr 98 99 00 Gr 98 99 00 Gr 98 99 00

2 12 23 43 2 26 31 35 2 24 32 37 2 27 34 41 2 42 50 58

3 14 25 39 3 24 29 34 3 21 25 33 3 25 32 39 3 36 40 44

4 11 15 33 4 19 22 24 4 16 18 24 4 21 25 30 4 39 44 51

5 11 15 31 5 17 19 21 5 19 21 25 5 21 24 28 5 41 45 51

6 14 20 36 6 18 19 20 6 20 21 24 6 24 28 31 6 48 52 57

Sources: The Read Institute
California Standardized Testing and Reporting (STAR)

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