5 million public school students don't know English well enough to succeed in a regular classroom. Some school districts must accommodate children from 60 or more language groups----many who are five or six years old and entering school for the first time, others who are older and may or may not have attended school in their homeland." Most of these children in years past would have been expected to learn the English on their own, "sinking or swimming." Many children did not learn this way. Bilingual programs did not devote enough time to English, so most students spent years in the programs, never really progressing. However, Christian Dominguez, a seven year old boy went from not speaking a word of English to being able to read whole books in English. In 1998, Californians voted against bilingual education and adopted "English immersion" programs. Most bilingual educators were opposed to the program at first, but two years later test scores had risen from the 19 percentile to the 40 percentile for limited-English-proficient students. And not just in one district, it occurred in the districts that had implemented the English immersion program in place of the bilingual education. In districts that refused to implement the program, scores did not change. Opposer of the change, Kenji Hakuta told reporters that "the scores were meaningless because the tests themselves were designed for native English speakers". That makes the argument point even stronger for English immersion. Eventually, people started to catch on that the best way to teach any language is to teach in that language. Washington has not been so ready to pick up on California's experience, and is still increasing funding to programs that do not work. However, "thousands of California students like Dominquez will be making steady progress toward realizing their American Dream thanks to their newfound command of English.
