Measure 58 puts English learners at center of word war

A ballot measure to limit how long English learners can be taught in their native language would add urgency to getting those students up to speed in English, proponents say, but would be a crude, one-size-fits-all approach that no educators endorse, opponents say.

Both arguments got a workout Friday during an energetic debate in front of the Portland City Club that pitted Rick Hickey, a Salem parent and backer of Measure 58, against Dana Hepper, a former teacher who lobbies for public school students.
The two debated the estimated $250 million yearly price tag that a state panel estimated Measure 58 would cost.

Hepper cited the "half billion dollars" biennial cost at least five times, saying it would drain schools of money needed for other services.

Hickey disputed that estimate. He said the state would save some of the $200 million a year it now sends to schools to teach students English as their second language because students would move out of special programs more quickly.

Measure 58, written by prolific ballot measure author Bill Sizemore, would prohibit schools from teaching English learners in their native language after one year in elementary school or two years in high school.

Currently, 85 percent of the state's nearly 70,000 students learning English as a second language are taught exclusively in English, an analysis by The Oregonian found. Their teachers use gestures, visual aids, simplified English, repetition and other techniques to teach them math, history and science while also teaching them to read, write and speak English.

The other 10,000 English learners are taught part of the day in their native Spanish or, less commonly, Russian or Mandarin. Research shows that students who are taught to read and write in their first language end up as stronger readers and writers in English in the long run.

State officials who estimated the costs of Measure 58 don't have much detail to support their claim that it would cost the state more than $20,000 per student to change the way those 10,000 or so students get taught.

Under Measure 58, the Legislature would have to decide how students would be taught English.

Brian Reeder, assistant state superintendent with expertise in school funding, is the primary expert behind the $200 million cost estimate. He said students who are put into English-only classes would learn less than when taught partly in their native language and would therefore need more costly instruction.

He calculated that every school would have to add one or two teachers, a teacher's aide, lots of new textbooks plus after-school tutoring and four weeks of summer school for students learning English. He did not discount the price estimate to account for schools that have no English language learners or for the majority of schools that already teach their English learners exclusively in English.

During Friday's debate, Hickey, a former PTA leader at his child's Salem elementary school, emphasized the need to up the ante on schools. After five years learning English in Oregon schools, most students who enter school with limited English skills still aren't proficient in English, something he called "a tragedy. .. They're being held down."

In 2007, the most recent year for which figures are available, 40 percent of the state's school districts got half their students up to par at reading and writing English after five years in ESL classes, the Oregon Department of Education reported.

Hepper, however, said teaching students to become fully proficient in academic English is a challenging assignment, and educators and parents should be given maximum flexibility to determine how to do it.

A strict time limit set by Sizemore, Hickey and millionaire Nevada inventor Loren Parks, who has bankrolled Measure 58 -- none of whom has expertise in language acquisition -- shouldn't substitute for educators' professional judgment, she said.

The Oregon Education Association has outspent Parks in fighting the measure. The teachers union has contributed more than $9 million to fighting Measure 58 and six other measures it says would hurt schools or teachers.

Hepper said the fact that the PTA, the League of Women Voters, many school boards and her own group, Stand For Children, are united against it should sway voters. She said Sizemore's measure is the most extreme proposed in the nation, because it does not allow exemptions for students with disabilities or other special situations who may need more than a year's help with native language support.

"Why would you support a measure that is guaranteed to leave behind students with disabilities or learning challenges?" she asked.

-- Betsy Hammond;