what is the merit of bilingual education as it currently stands now? what are your thoughts on it?

do people feel that you are actually being prepare for higher education from bilingual education?

are there qualified personell in these programs

i think it has its merits. for the most part, i think it is not what it used to be 15 years ago. at present, i think the subdivision into different categories or level of esl is not preparing the students for a better understanding of the language

There is no more bilingual ed. in Massachusetts

The students in the new program that replaced the bilingual Ed are called English Language Learners.

Here is the result of the ending of bilingual programs in Boston:

Latinos, blacks lag on MCAS
Elementary schools fail to boost scores
From Boston Globe:

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January 19, 2006

Melanie Lessard, a student intern, helped Tredavon Elston, 7, and others at the Winthrop School in Dorchester. Black and Latino pupils have been found to lag behind Asians and whites. (Globe Staff Photo / Essdras M. Suarez)

By Tracy Jan, Globe Staff | January 19, 2006

Not one Boston elementary school is significantly boosting the scores of black and Hispanic students on the state's English and math tests, renewing concerns that the schools have made no headway in narrowing the achievement gap between those students and whites and Asians, according to a report announced last night.

At only a handful of elementary schools, the performance of black and Hispanic students on one of the state MCAS tests improved in 2005, compared with 2004, said Boston School Department officials, who delivered the report last night at a School Committee meeting.

They added that none had reported progress on English and math measures, said school officials.

The gap in achievement between blacks and Hispanics and other elementary students has not narrowed since the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System exams were first given in 1998, school officials say.

Boston's lack of progress with African-American and Hispanic students during the tenure of Superintendent Thomas W. Payzant has become a key sticking point at recent community forums, at which parents, educators, and others have described what they want from the next superintendent after Payzant retires.

GLOBE GRAPHIC: The achievement gap

Overall, MCAS scores have improved during Payzant's tenure, but the report released yesterday highlighted a need to do more to raise the performance of blacks and Hispanics, who make up the majority of the 58,600 students in the school system, school officials and others said.

''This sets the stage for the future," said Theresa Perry, an education and African studies professor at Simmons College and an author of books about the achievement gap. ''Unless the achievement gap is eliminated in elementary school, it sets up a two-tiered system in Boston, a system that leads to opportunity for white and Asian kids and limited opportunity for black and Latino students."

Yesterday's report is the second that the school system has done since 2004 in an effort to track the progress of each racial and ethnic subgroup of students, as well as that of special education students and of English-as-a-second-language students. Black and Hispanic students made greater gains districtwide between 2003 and 2004, according to district data.

Schools that have made progress did so by scrutinizing the test data and changing teacher practices, Payzant said. ''They're paying attention to it," he said.

The school system measured improvement by judging how much progress students were making toward achieving proficiency on the MCAS tests.

The tests signify that they are performing at their grade level. The federal No Child Left Behind law requires school systems to ensure that all students, regardless of their backgrounds, become proficient in reading and math by 2014, as measured by state tests.

In 2005, only about 20 percent of Boston's black and Hispanic fourth-graders scored ''proficient" or above on the English MCAS tests, compared with almost 50 percent of their Asian and white peers, according to school system data.

Page 2 of 2 --The gap also exists for the percentage of fourth-graders who passed the test with a ''needs improvement" score, the minimum requirement; close to 90 percent of white and Asian students passed the English test, compared to about 70 percent of black and Hispanic students. That gap of roughly 20 percentage points has held steady since 1998.

Statewide, 27 percent of blacks and 22 percent of Hispanics scored ''proficient" or above on the 2005 fourth-grade English test, compared with 56 percent of white students.

Special education students were the only group districtwide to make significant improvement on the MCAS tests in the last year.

Meanwhile, English-as-a-second-language students showed the least improvement, the report said.

At higher grades, only one high school and one middle school made significant progress in 2005 in raising the scores of all subgroups of students on both state tests, the report said.

GLOBE GRAPHIC: The achievement gap

''This is a problem that is across all levels of schools," said Barbara Fields, senior officer for equity in the Boston public schools.

The gap in achievement shows in other areas in the school system: Fewer black and Hispanic elementary students are getting into advanced classes that prepare them for the city's exam schools, and more black and Hispanic students drop out of high school.

Fields and other administrators said the school system made closing the achievement gap a priority two years ago. The district has trained principals and teachers on developing high expectations for all students, teaching to different learning styles, and finding connections with students and their families from various cultural backgrounds.

At the Winthrop Elementary School in Dorchester, where 97 percent of students are black or Hispanic, an independent consultant began training teachers last September on developing high expectations of students. Principal Emily Shamieh and teachers met with 75 parents on a Saturday, asking the parents to describe the dreams they had for their children and to discuss ways to overcome the obstacles.

Only 20 percent of black students and 10 percent of Hispanic students at the Winthrop scored ''proficient" on the 2005 English MCAS. In math, 7 percent of blacks and 5 percent of Hispanics scored ''proficient."

Tracy Jan can be reached at

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There should be a few questions asked prior to making a statement like the article above made. The vague assumption that I am getting is that bilingual education should be brought back because blacks and latinos have fallen back somewhat. The article proves none of the sort but begs the question on how they came up with the statistics.

Lets start this by presenting our ideas or questions in a natural order.

1) why are whites and Asians succeeding where Hispanics and blacks are failing? Are they naturally smarter than their counterparts?
2) is the curriculum different
3) what is the support chain that a student has
4) what is the climate that the school s sending out to kids

Are the level of staff at the same proficiency level or must there be a way to provide training, school-based coaches, and other professional development that supports teachers to adopt proven instructional methods that can reach all students, including low-performing, with challenging and rich curriculum relevant to students' lives.

Are there academic support for failing students, in the classroom or beyond the classroom

Lets look at the family engagement or structure
What is the communication level between parents and kids
Accountability
What about the ongoing responsibility of the parent to monitor the childs progress

The sole responsibility cannot be placed on the school system. The student has to take some of the sole responsibility to take the initiative and take advantage of the resources they are given.

On a quick note, I remember going to school and making fun of the kids whose parents were always on their cases about their homework. I have a younger brother whose grades went from a’s and b’s in freshman year to high d’s in sophomore year. By supporting him and creating a family environment of learning and responsibility, he has turned around.

I think at times most of our conversation on this forum start of with great premises but end up weak when we use vague or abstract terms to support our premise. Regardless of how this topic started, I am glad that some have responded. Education is something that we need to improve upon, but I feel that we put to much emphasis on schools and not on the person themselves.





By the way, what are the numbers behind the statistic

The point made in this topic is of great importance to the community ( especially for the Capeverdean Community) and I would especially thank the participant who brought this topic for discussion and the teacher who brought us some datas to reflect upon while we try to elaborate on the issues that may be related to each aspect of the problem.

It seems that for certain communities - ethnic communities - in general, the result of student performance in schools are lower than others. But that has always been the cases in the United States.

Trying to answer the why's and how's is of utmost importance but that is the question that we will always have and it is important that we are never happy with the final answer. One answer that may be valid today may be obsolet 5 years from today, or one answer that may prove true with this group may prove false or questionable in another community.

I think the question now is how can we all together work on our community and help with the understanding of the process of Education which is so important for the success of any community. For that, the teachers would be of great help by letting us know what we, as a community or as a parent, can do to help.

SO, TEACHERS THE CALL IS ON!!!!!!! PLEASE GIVE US THE TOOL TO WORK WITH!!!

COMMUNITY WORKERS DO THE SAME!!!!

As far as I am concerned, no one single source explain all the causes of the problem. They come from different origin and they differ in different schools. Combined impact of the different sources of problem have the impact they have. Of course the type of life that especially low income community (Capeverdians, Espanics, Blacks etc.) are the ones more affected because of the so known social problems in these communities.

I work in schools and I move from different elementary schools in different neighborhoods and I notice one important aspect of the type of population in each school.
In the schools whose neighborhoods are white, higher income people, single family home, etc, most of the parents pick up their kids in schools but when the case is schools where there is a majority of low income communities (again espanics, blacks, hatian and capeverdians) the picture is completely different. Kids almost all go home in the school bus, do not participate in paid after schools program, etc. This, right there, is a sign that the communities with higher income or even more educated also spend more time with their kids, or make time for their kids, or arrange schedule to match the schedule of their kids, or even one of the parents can afford not to work while their kids are younger.

Whichever the reason(s) may be, it is almost certain that higher income people provide more support for their kids than lower income people.

Of course it will become visible in the results of their performance in schools.

When I talk to different kids I notice different level of communications from different students. Biopsychologist deffend that children inherit intelligence from their parents, but it is not clear how much is the impact of the environment where the chuild is raised and how much i s the result of genetics. If nothing is proven as to why the differences between Blacks, Spanics and White's performance, it remains to assume that the environmet plays an important role in the kids development.

In pooor communities there are many "disfunctional" families. They deal with serious issues like drug addiction, single parenting, domestic violence, etc. These families are more negletfull, have more stress on their daily lives and have different type of communication with their kids, again because of lack of education that trapped them in that predicament in the first place, added with the stress that results from the effort to cope with the type of lives they have. The kids who come from these environments will be affected in their performaces in school, drop out early because of consitent frustration in trying to succeed, they follow the role model they have at hand (crime) and go back to the destiny of their parents and their community.

To me, bilingual education is not necessarily a bad thing to start with. It is not the idea of bilingual education that makes the student achieve less but the lack of resources, or low level of teacher. Public Schools are desperate to find good teachers to work with the bilingual students. But when well educated teachers, who often had to have loans to pay for their education, see the low pay of Public schools, they look for better paid jobs.

Even though now bilingual education is out of question, I think that in the face of lack of enough qualified bilingual teachers, the students being in the main stream programs will help make up for the lack of resources for ESL students, at least they will have the same teachers as the other students.

How they will perform is another question.

Cabrala

i dont think the questions were answered. regarding the the welfare of the kids or the work habits of the parents. there are a lot of asian and white kids who are poor and live in distressed communities. the question that you should be asking more so is not where are the teachers, but where are the parents. look at the education level of the parent s or how do they raise their kids. there is a huge difference or gap as to how kids are raised by people of different backgrounds. i never saw my mother untill late at night when i went to elementary and high school. she worked two jobs. that never stopped her from sitting down with me and my brothers to go over the work assigned or talk to us about school.

parenting is the issue here as much as teachers if not so. look at cabo verde, there are poor kids, but look at the way the parents are involved in their kids education. look at the habits of successfull black kids, hispanic or cape verdeans. look at who or what was involved. the parents. a litle time out goes a long way.

we need to stop blaming others for our failures. i have a child, almost 6. i work a lot due to my profession, but i always spend the time to let her know that her father cares for what she is doing. i go over the work. you should see her attitute as i help and do things with her. i came from a poor family, but the attitute was one of to do.

i have friends who have killed others and are in jail. their parents repeatedly say, "nha fidju e bon minino". it is easier to blame others than to blame oneself. Cabrala, were your parents involved in your life, FAMILY maybe.

there has to be a desire to educate oneself. pride has to come into play. i spend my time in libraries doing research. i knew that at times i had to do and show more work than my "brancu counterpart", but guess what, i still had to do it to get to where i am now. the thinking that we cant do it because the school is poor is rubbish. i have a friend who went to college, he left Angola years ago. he was the only one in his engineering class who was black. they made off color jokes and remarks. the man graduated at the top of his class and holds a Job at IBM now as a manager three years out of school. his parents worked 24/7. the teachings that he received carried him when they were not around. there are many instances like that and i think you are aware of it. lets look at the study habits of those who succeed and see why they succeed.

throwing money at an issue will not solve the problem. the mentality that most of the kids tend to have is "i deserve it", or "ami e pretu". listen, no one will hand you anything if all that your excuse is that you are plain lazy. Malcom, King and all those who came before knew what the struggle was. with the little change the world. educate yourself first, dont expect handouts.

Whose gap in achievement?
From

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(Boston Globe)

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By Eileen McNamara, Globe Columnist | January 18, 2006

Mitt Romney thinks the academic achievement gap between black and white public school students is the ''civil rights issue of our time." He said so on Monday. Last January, he said the disparity was ''the civil rights issue of our generation." Next year, it is liable to be the civil rights issue of our epoch.

Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday brings out the egalitarian in politicians of all ideological stripes.

Not much happens between one MLK breakfast and the next to actually address the racial divide in test scores and graduation rates in Massachusetts, but holidays apparently are about rhetorical flourishes, not about real progress.

Changing the dynamic that has children of color trapped in inadequate urban schools will require the kind of far-reaching solutions neither Republicans nor Democrats on Beacon Hill have been willing to consider since passing the landmark Education Reform Act in 1993. Instead of an alarm bell, the widening gap between black and white students' scores on the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System test has become a footnote each year to self-congratulatory press conferences touting rising rates of academic proficiency in Weston and Lincoln.

The school proposals the Republican governor outlined to the Joint Committee on Education earlier this month move us no closer to closing that gap. They are the same ideas that have failed to win legislative approval for the last three years. Maybe they will sound fresh in Iowa or South Carolina as Romney mounts his campaign for the Republican presidential nomination, but in Massachusetts there is no mistaking them for anything but recycled goods.

Even if $5,000 bonuses for teachers who tackle advanced placement classes in math and science is a good idea, it is hard to see how that will help an underachieving minority student in a failing urban school pass remedial algebra.

Even if there are excellent teachers deserving of the more than $55 million in merit pay that Romney is championing, it is difficult to imagine how that will improve the performance of young classroom teachers who are struggling to make a connection with their students.

Even if training low-income mothers and fathers of kindergartners to be more encouraging of academic excellence is a worthy goal, it is delusional to think that a parental cheerleading squad can make up for local and state budget cuts that have eliminated writing labs, art classes, and MCAS tutoring and delayed the purchase of new textbooks.

The governor is certainly right that the answer to failing schools is not entirely about state aid to education. It is also about poverty and inadequate housing and healthcare. Instead, Romney gives us a scholarship program that promises free state college tuition to students who qualify based on their MCAS scores. This year, 85.4 percent of them are white.

One wonders what that statistic looks like from the vantage point of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court bench. Last February, the SJC rejected a lawsuit brought by poor school districts that accused the Commonwealth of failing to meet its constitutional obligation to provide all students with an equal education.

Writing for the majority, Chief Justice Margaret H. Marshall sympathized with the plaintiffs' frustration with the slow pace of reform, but she insisted the effort was not a matter for judicial interference. ''Each choice involves a value judgment; each carries a cost, in real, immediate tax dollars; and each choice is fundamentally political," she wrote. ''Courts are not well positioned to make such decisions."

Governors and legislators are so positioned, but they are not so inclined. ''We are reaching a point where there are two different school systems," Attorney General Thomas F. Reilly, who defended the state in that case, said after his victory last winter. ''There is an achievement gap between the haves and the have-nots."

There still is. It is the civil rights issue of our time.

Eileen McNamara is a Globe columnist. She can be reached at

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.

Honesty about these politicians are like a dime a dozen
They talk the talk but at the same time, local leaders are the ones that need to rise up and take a stand against this. Giving teachers more money so that they can train the students to pass an exam instead of learning the subject is a terrible idea. Giving them money to do what they should have been doing in the first place is not the remedy.

There is a widening gap, but I think the gap also has to do with culture and values that we place on education. Something that I truly think that we lack in our society. Every year, you hear the same crap on martin Luther king’s holiday or black history month. Just to go off the subject for a second, why delegate all of black history to one month. AMERICAN HISTORY IS BLACK HISTORY.

But anyways, I found your quote above more disturbing than helpful. I am glad you posted it, but it fails to say what is the plan that would improve the education of the children. It seems that reporters, like politicians think that by spending money or throwing money at the problem, it will solve the problems.

I graduated Brockton high in 1995, I was 16 going on 17 at the time. I knew people then that went through the whole school system on either bilingual or ESL programs. Not that they could not lear the language or the skills to pass. I took classes with broncos, but the guidance counselors at the time all wanted me to go to esl. They even contact my mother to force me to go into the program. There was a need at the time to keep more students in the ESL program for numbers. That is why a lot of the teachers, at least to me were not qualified to teach. i am not a genius, but I knew better English, both written and oral than most of the teachers in the ESL program. I have friends who graduated in the ESL program, they will tell you that they were not prepared to go to college. The fault, for the most part, was not the students, the material given to them was simplistic and on a 6th grade level. ESL was broken down into levels. By the time you left, high school was over.

One of my brothers graduated high school by going through ESL from elementary to high school only on bilingual programs. His skills or ability to articulate his thoughts is minimal at best. The fault, I blame most of the students because, they felt it was an easy grade. Why take the high road when you can take the straight and wide.

Everybody is pointing fingers at others. Those of you who are at this forum, who continue to struggle with life, work and yet, you think you see a better light, has not effort, pride, and dignity made you look forward to a better life.

When I came to the U.S, I took classes at Gilmore school. I had a wonderful teacher named Mrs. Ferro. God bless her. She challenged us, not to learn to pass a test but to understand what we were being taught and have the ability to dissect the information into bits and pieces and rework it back up again. She knew that we as a people (kriolus), we have a tendency to learn, adapt, make better our current situation. She also knew the danger of complacency. Mr. Leitao, also of Gilmore School, Mr. Varela, Mr. Pinheiro of East junior High, these are all teachers who did not want people in ESL. They taught and challenged their students to do one better than their mainstream classes. We competed with each other on who could spell better, who was smartest, who could finish a project right the first time through. Teachers challenged us. We challenged ourselves. Out of my class, a small group were deported back to the islands, some of us became doctors, lawyers, scientist, engineers and so forth. What got us through, we all faced issues such as drugs, crime, etc, was the bond between family, friends, and to some extent the teachers. Family was the number one supporter. No father or mother wanted their children to work as hard as they did. My mother worked three jobs, I have friends whose parents worked 4 jobs, three during the week and “LIMPEZA” on the weekends. But yet they took the time to talk to their kids.

There is a girl who is a biologist, cape verdean out in California. It was just her and her mother. Mother worked from 6 in the morning to about 10 at night. Asked her what got her through, she will tell you, support from family and friends. Education was the number one priority, not self pity. She came from Fogo, I think the places name was chada furna or a place called Villa. Her family was poor, but dedication and perseverance got her through.

There are public libraries, do cape verdean kids go there? Be honest?
There are programs for kids, who are actually in these programs?

The problem is not money people, I tried to give some examples. I am by no means a doctor, or lawyer, but it does not mean that we cannot produce lawyers, doctors and so forth from these poor schools. The mind does not need money to think, it needs motivation and challenge to move. Without exercising it, we loose it.

The civil rights issue of our time is not education, but what happened to the “WE CAN OVERCOME” to “WE NEED TO PAY OUR TEACHERS MORE”. Blacks in this country, have always struggled for equality, they would sneak into libraries to get information, work to buy a book, even if outdated so that he could learn. Today we have, “YO DOG, F THEM N@@@Z, I AINT STUDYING, ME BOOKS----N@@@@ you must THINK I’M A NERD”

Our mind today is one of give me, not one of I CAN DO IT ON MY OWN. I HAVE A FRIEND OUT IN LOUSSIANA, SHE CAME FROM A LINE OF WELFARE QUEENS, SHE REFUSED TO LET HERSELF BE THE SAME WAY. SHE WAS CRITISIZED FOR NOT STAYING PUT AND SELLING OUT TO WHITES BECAUSE OF THE WAY THAT SHE SPOKE. TODAY SHE IS A MANAGER AT BANK OF AMERICA. SHE WORE THE SAME CLOTHES TO SCHOOL (THIS IS IN THE 90’S). HER HAIR WAS ALL OVER THE PLACE, SHE DID NOT CARE, THE LONG TERM GOAL WAS THE MOST IMPORTANT.

Our problem is not money but effort, integrity to look in the mirror and say, I am putting 100% percent, am I putting my best foot forward. The answer, to most is a sadly but resounding yes.

I am pretty sure that we have heard of bill cosby’s speech when he criticized the black community, I agreed with him

Money will always play a role in America or it was not meant to do so.

Eihter as part of the budget to keep programs up or as an incentive to attract better professionals on any field.

For the above participant, let's be honest about it. Did you go to college? I think you did. By looking for a carrer for your future, wouldn't you be more inclined to take the ones that pay more than not, at least if that's what you want to do. On the contrary, you would be less demanding concerning pay if you know you don't have enpough education for a position, right?

It is not that money is everything, but it is part of the incentive that people need to be more willing to take the job. Employment wise, any companies or services know they will get better employees and retain them in place if the pay is good. On the other hand, if the pay is not so good then they know they have to face turnover more frquently.

Therefore, salary is considered a retainer if you want to keep good employees.

Yes, money is not everything but is part of the deal. Another important factor is how we place value on education. How parents deal with their kid's education is important but the neighborhood you're in plays an important role to model your child, even the school you're in.

We can contradict that tendency if we place this type of concern as a priority for our community.

One thing that I believe will be of great importance is to create and bring out positive role models in our community that outnumber the negative ones (criminals). Let the people with important roles in this community(Doctors, teachers, social workers, lawyers, successful business people, leaders of all kinds) be known, promote talk shows through the media (radio, tv, online etc.), promote cultural activities that expose the kids to positive environment to develop a sense of community responsability.

Let's discuss publicly in "CV creole" so that the parents get to know what the issue is, and what is necessary in a country like America to help his/ her child succeed. We know that language barrier is one of the problems for bilingual parents. At least, if they can't follow through, they know they are not doing it.
I think this will help minimize the negative effects of this society.


Cabrala

Money will always play a role in America or it was not meant to do so.

Eihter as part of the budget to keep programs up or as an incentive to attract better professionals on any field.

For the above participant, let's be honest about it. Did you go to college? I think you did. By looking for a carrer for your future, wouldn't you be more inclined to take the ones that pay more than not, at least if that's what you want to do. On the contrary, you would be less demanding concerning pay if you know you don't have enpough education for a position, right?

It is not that money is everything, but it is part of the incentive that people need to be more willing to take the job. Employment wise, any companies or services know they will get better employees and retain them in place if the pay is good. On the other hand, if the pay is not so good then they know they have to face turnover more frquently.

Therefore, salary is considered a retainer if you want to keep good employees.

Yes, money is not everything but is part of the deal. Another important factor is how we place value on education. How parents deal with their kid's education is important but the neighborhood you're in plays an important role to model your child, even the school you're in.

We can contradict that tendency if we place this type of concern as a priority for our community.

One thing that I believe will be of great importance is to create and bring out positive role models in our community that outnumber the negative ones (criminals). Let the people with important roles in this community(Doctors, teachers, social workers, lawyers, successful business people, leaders of all kinds) be known, promote talk shows through the media (radio, tv, online etc.), promote cultural activities that expose the kids to positive environment to develop a sense of community responsability.

Let's discuss publicly in "CV creole" so that the parents get to know what the issue is, and what is necessary in a country like America to help his/ her child succeed. We know that language barrier is one of the problems for bilingual parents. At least, if they can't follow through, they know they are not doing it.
I think this will help minimize the negative effects of this society.


Cabrala

I did go to college and I am currently pursuing my master degree. I am choosing the career because it will put me in a position to directly affect those of whom I want to help. I do work currently, but I don’t like the job. It pays well, I have told them to begin looking for a replacement. Money is not the answer to the problem of education. Most teachers don’t go into the field because they expect to get rich, on the contrary, the love is. Money is a piece of the solution, like getting materials, but does not diminish the fact that most of our inner city will not participate in educational training. What needs to be done is to change the way they view education. School is not about free lunch.

I have read and participated on many open forums regarding the issue of black youths/ cape verdean teens. What is the real reason as to why we are failing and in increasing numbers is due to our mentality. When the shackles came off our hands, it went into our minds, we need to empower those kids to influence the next generation to improve the lot of the black community. We know the history, we have seen the recent history such as King, Rosa Parks, Malcom. What we seem to have forgotten was to take the mantel from them and putting out the ideas of “WE CAN OVERCOME” into a way that people will know who we are and how we will continue to take our place.

Click here to see the statistics of the Boston Globe article mentioned above:

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How successful has the English Emersion program has been?

Not good so far.

We should hear from students who have seat in bilingual classrooms.

Good topic....
I want to say some...... I came from C.V in 2001. I arrived here on July 14th. Well, summer time. I thought I was going to spend the rest of the summer chilling. I was soon to find out that my mother had different plans for me. She went to Madison Park and asked the people there to let me seat in the classroom just to see how it would be. They told her that I would not get any credits for being there. It was a regular English class. well, fine, she said. I kept on trucking...

End of the summer my mother sent me to Burke High. I stayed there for couple of days. It was bilingual program.After being switched back and forth from different grades whenever they wanted I decided that it was enough. I then went to ACC(Another Course to College). They could not keep me for long because they could only take 11th and 12th graders and in the BPS system I was considered 9th Grade despite of my papers that I brought from CV saying that I should start in the 11th grade and the placement test that I had passed. The word was that if I started on the 9th I would learn english and be better prepared for college. Well, I figured that I would be 21-22 by the time I graduate from High School.This confusion led me to stay home for the rest of fall semester. Nobody was willing to change my grade in the system. Unlike many others I refused to go back. Needless to say, my mother took care of business (thank you mom). I started spring semester at English High. I had to take class with regular American kids. Well, I went there for a year and half and I graduated. Now, I am 21 and I a am a junior at UMass Amherst.

Now what do I think about bilingual program? I am not going to say that it is a wast of time because I understand that people learn at different pace. However I would not advise anynone to enroll their kids in the bilingual Program..

Now, how did I do it? I spent lots of hours in school doing work. I had super teachers. They knew that I was new to English language and they helped me. They gave me homework I would turn it in and they would give it back to me to fix the problems and turn it back in. It was bored but it worked. I managed to hang out with positive people.. I did not get the chance to speak creolo in school. Few Capeverdeans there. Thus I must say, the Headmaster was Capevean Mr. Jose Duarte. He was on top of all my moves.

I read Metro everyday while riding the T, watched lots of news, because they generally speak slower.. . I bought an English to English Dictionary, very important, because when I tried to look up the meaning of a world I was forced to learn multiple meanings at once. I remember one time a teacher sat on the table in front of me waiting for me to find words to that I needed to answer his questions. He did not allow anybody to help me.He made me speak in class and asked me lots of questions about the homework(readings).

Now, I Must say that I think the biggest problem with bilingual is the fact that teachers are speaking your language, at least for the few days that I was at Burke - this could have been due to the fact that it was during the first few days of class-, the students are speaking your language,at lunch you gather your friends and speak your language, on the bus, at home most likely you will get tired of speaking creolo. Ahhh,not to mention the chronic addiction of watching TV in spanish (Novela) that many capeverdeans have put on.. this could be good as well as bad.

You are probably looking for a story from somebody who attended bilingual program but I am not sure If I am that person. I only stayed there for couple of days. I think less then or about a month.
Well, I don't know what else to say.. If you want more details or you are not clear, do not hesitate:

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interestingly enough the city council is holding a hearing for English language learners on May 9th at city hall from 5pm - 8:30p - more details to follow.

There's nothing wrong with bi-lingual education. I'm a product of bi-lingual education. When I came to this country I didn't know a word of English, lo and behold, 6 years later, I became a ghost writer, writting papers for American college kids at $50 dollars a piece. Not a single one of my "clients" ever got a letter grade less than an A-. That's just to show you that like anything in life you only get what you put in. In order words, your bi-lingual teachers can only teach you so much because in the final analysis, your success in mastering the English language and subsequently other fields, will primarely depend on your own academic extracurricular activities, that is, read, read, and read some more on various topics from different sources and authors.

[quote="Kakau"]There's nothing wrong with bi-lingual education.[quote]

It depends to who you ask this question.

what is the problem with integration or immersion to learn a language? is there a moral issue here. i have been in the states for almost 20 years. no matter where i have been or where i am going, nothing has ever stopped me from being cape verdean and nothing will. those who sucumb to the issue of identity crisis are those who are weak of the mind, nothing more, nothing less. in 20 years...catchupa and ovu streladu taste teh same. nha cuscus that i make twice a week.....the fact that i have not been there in almost 20, has never changed who i am. ami e kriolu, i have adapted to the american life, but nothing can change who you are unless you let it change you. i speak kriolu as if as though i left only yesterday. i am 27, my parents at home always spoke english and kriolu.....its funny how after 40 years since my father left santiago, his kriolu is the same, he taught english and science in atlanta before retiring in Cabo Verde. Language is beautifull, retarding people because they are afraid of loosing their language is pure hypocracy. let the indivudual immerse themselves in the language.