Bilingual Education in Los Angeles

Paper Summary:

This paper looks at how, according to the Los Angeles Times articles, "Hundreds Wait for Bilingual Education", by Louis Sahagun and Nick Anderson (October 23, 1998), there are hundreds of students awaiting arrangements for bilingual classes. This article examines the impact of Proposition 227, which provides an alternative to the total immersion approach by offering bilingual classes taught in English with support in the native language. The problem cited in this article concerns the paucity of requests for exemption in any given school; at least 20 are required in order to form such bilingual classes in a single school.

From the Paper:

"In 1997, for instance, the district reported that there were at least 286 campuses with 100 or more students in bilingual programs; in 1998, though, the initial findings suggest that there were only 43 schools that received 100 or more requests for bilingual education. "In more than half of the campuses that previously had 100 students in bilingual education, not one petition for bilingual education had been received as of mid-October" (Sahagun & Anderson, 1998, p. 5). The authors cite as an example Canoga Park Elementary; in 1997-98, there were 555 students in bilingual classes in that school; during 1998-1998, the school received no petitions for bilingual education at all. Based on interviews with educators in the school system, the authors conclude that many parents may still be weighing their options. The district superintendent, Ruben Zacarias, said, "I can't speak for why parents chose one option versus another.""

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