I have no idea what point you are trying to support with this link. It says nothing about immersion programs and just notes the dropout rates without much regard for the variables involved.
A couple years ago, My wife an I went looking for a suitable school for our nearly five year old grandson. The closest preschool was the Head Start in town, so that was the first on the list we checked. The parking lot had several signs in Spanish but oddly enough nothing in English, but undeterred I went in. A person came over and spoke to me in Spannish. I have never been mistaken for an Hispanic person before, but I let is slide. I explained ( in English) about the grandson and I ask to see a class in action. She explained that I could not be allow to disrupt a class but she offered me a broacher explaining the goals of the school. It was in both Spanish and English, Published some where back east. I went on down to the next on the list, a Montessori school which dd indeed meet the need. I had the feeling the Head Start school was a total waste of the tax payers dime, but worse yet a hell of a waste of a kids time if you screwed up and sent him there.
The dropout rates are something like 5x more for Hispanics than for white kids. Am I off by an order of magnitude even? 50x. Tinker around the edges and pretend it will have a significant enough effect. Or realize these kids can become brain surgeons and rocket scientists if taught in Spanish. Immersion works for those who stick around, obviously. The success rate is hardly something to be proud of.
The statistics are about 45% of spanish speaking kids drop out (age 16-24) - there are near a million of these hispanic dropouts. Compared to about 6% for white kids and about 1.5M aged 16-24. The white population is ~2/3 of all people in the US. There are about 5x more white people than hispanic. 45% is a GREAT dropout rate! /sarcasm
Naw, it doesn't work. I lived where they tried it, Morgan Hill, CA. about 25 years ago The High School had most courses taught in English and Spanish. The Hispanics where about 40% of the total in the 8th and 9th grades at that time. The Spanish classes had zero students enrolled in the 11 and 12th grade classes. While 40% Hispanics started high school , less than 10% were left to graduate with zero of them taking the Spanish speaking classes. The vast majority of them, at the time I am speaking of simply dropped out of school after completing 9 or 10 years. Teaching them in Spanish seemed to have no impact. But I have to say that most were long time residents, very few were new illegals, at that time, in that town.
The link you provided Denny says that high school completers to dropouts was 5:1 for Hispanics and 12:1 for Whites. Among blacks it was 4:1. All of those numbers were in improvement from 2000 to 2012 with the exception of the black graduation numbers staying the same. It mentions nothing about the variables involved, like whether immersion programs were offered or not.
Just to clarify, I am not arguing for or against having middle and high school in an alternate language. What I am against is trying to teach a kid a new language after elementary with one hour a day instruction.
I would say the Head Start program might be inefficient, as were many of the preschool options we looked at, but not a waste of money. The military is inefficient too, but definitely would not get rid of it.
Having served in the military, I see almost no correlation to Head Start. Given the sort of crap we had to do, we the military did it remarkable well. On the other hand the Head start program from the perspective they allowed me to see is a crude attempt to providing education for some hapless kids that no doubt need the function. It could be done, perhaps even well if done at the local level with local control, if given adequate funding. But that sure was not what I encountered. however it is about what I expect from a Federally run program.
You see a clue right off in the way a Federal program is run. They would not let me see a class functioning because they see no need to cater to an individual nor do they fear any consequences in rejecting my request. The local school did not reject the request, The Montessori school did not either, to the contrary, they were happy to accommodated me and show me what ever I wished. They wanted the business.
The data for 1st generation Hispanics is 1/2 drop out (45%). Just shy of 1M of them between ages 16-24. Compared to 1.5M for white students between 16-24, and a dropout rate of ~5%. Success! /sarcasm The kids are immersed in society that speaks English. If the parents think like maxiep, they should send their kids to a school that specializes, somehow, in graduating English speaking immigrants. Otherwise the schools should focus on teaching the kids and giving them a track for advanced education or a trade skill. In Mountain View, two thirds of the kids were Spanish speaking. There were 3 grade schools and 3 high schools. 2 of the 3 should have been Spanish speaking. IMO.
The correlation I was making was inefficiency and need. Look at how much money is spent wisely. I look at things like providing overpriced meals in Iraq, which Haliburton was paid handsomely for, when the soldiers did not have body armour. I believe it is the show American Greed showed where a pair of sisters that got a contract for a critical war part (washers, bolts, nuts, etc that could probably have been found at a hardware store) and found they could charge anything to deliver them. It was not till millions later that it was found.
Who is to say what changes could be made to fix this problem? I did not see anywhere in that report that put the blame solely on language. There are many other factors that result in dropouts. I am betting the graduation rates of every race fall directly in line with income. I like that this shows the difference between first and second generation graduation rates. Nice that the second generation can see the value of graduating.
