With the introduction of the new bilingual education program, Tucson's Hispanic bilingual-education students did better. The annual dropout rate in recent years has been only 6 percent, compared with 17 percent for Hispanic students statewide, including those not in bilingual education. But the results of bilingual education programs elsewhere have been mixed. Three-quarters of the nation's three million bilingual education students speak Spanish. Educators have defined no single best method for teaching English to non-native speakers, and studies looking into the issue conflict.
Many states employ bilingual education methods.
It also saves taxpayers money by not dragging out the teaching process, they say. Five to seven percent of the state's limited-English students are enrolled in bilingual education. The long cycle of bilingual education holds children back, immersion backers say, sometimes graduating high school seniors unable to communicate well in English. To move students through the process more quickly, Connecticut recently placed a 30-month cap on bilingual education, requiring annual assessments of students' progress. Opponents of immersion counter that by focusing on learning English during that year, children fall behind their classmates in academic studies.