New Research Casts Doubt On "UNZ" Initiatives

Initial findings from studies commissioned by the Civil Rights Project at the University of California, Los Angeles, and the Linguistic Minority Research Initiative at University of California, Santa Barbara, suggest that states that have replaced bilingual education with structured English immersion have seen little benefit, according to Mary Ann Zehr in Education Week. Though the language and implementation of the referenda that brought this change varied slightly from state to state, findings from the studies indicate that the achievement gap on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) in both reading and math is wider in California, Massachusetts, and Arizona than in two other states that still require bilingual education. Russell Rumberger, director of the Linguistic Minority Research Institute said "there's no visual evidence that these three states are doing better than the national average or other states," with regard to educating English Language Learners, based on NAEP results.

Researchers found instead that other factors - such as whether students have books at home - have greater impact upon English Language Learners' (ELLs) achievement than state instructional policies. However, the NAEP data did show that rigorous academic standards reduced the achievement gap between ELLs and their non-ELL peers in the fourth grade, and that those with the lowest proficiency in English benefited most from specialized English instruction.

For further details visit the Education Week site and read Mary Ann Zehr's piece "Researchers Study Impact" of Unz Initiatives.

‘Reading First’ Not Helping Students Grasp Meaning, Federal Study Finds

The $1 billion-a-year Reading First program has had no measurable effect on students’ reading comprehension, on average, although participating schools are spending significantly more time teaching the basic skills that researchers say children need to become proficient readers, a major federal report finds.

The long-awaited interim report from the Reading First Impact Study, released May 1 by the Institute of Education Sciences, says that students in schools receiving grants from the federal program have not fared any better than their counterparts in comparison schools in gaining meaning from print.

To read an overview visit the Education Week site and read Kathleen Kennedy Manzo's article: Reading First Doesn't Help Pupils 'Get it'.