PROPOSITION 227 AND SKYROCKETING TEST SCORES: AN URBAN LEGEND FROM CALIFORNIA
Educational Leadership December 2004/January 2005
Vol 62(4): 37-39
Stephen Krashen
University of Southern California
"An Urban Legend is usually a good/captivating titillating / engrossing / incredible / worrying) story that has had a wide audience, is circulated spontaneously, has been told in several forms, and which many have chosen to believe (whether actively or passively) despite the lack of actual evidence to substantiate the story." (Urban Legends Research Centre, www. urla.com)
I wish to add another Urban Legend to those that already exist, a legend that in my opinion ranks with the legend of alligators in the sewers of New York City.1 It is the "Skyrocket Legend": As a result of dropping bilingual education, test scores in California "skyrocketed."
This legend has had serious consequences. The Skyrocket Legend was interpreted by many as a demonstration of the superiority of immersion over bilingual education, and encouraged anti-bilingual education advocates to eliminate bilingual education in other states. I will argue here that dropping bilingual education did not contribute to the increase in test scores, that there are more reasonable explanations for the test score increase and I will review evidence showing that bilingual education is a very helpful idea.
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