An end to ‘English only’

Beacon Hill quietly undid the will of the voters last week. Probably because the English immersion requirement in Massachusetts public schools has not been executed particularly well, there hasn’t been a huge outcry. But the legislative reversal should certainly be acknowledged, and school officials ought to be warned against a return to the bad old days, when too many kids were allowed to graduate from Massachusetts high schools without the ability to speak English.

The measure passed by the Legislature and signed by Gov. Charlie Baker still requires schools to move as quickly as possible to teaching new students in English and maintains the “sheltered immersion” approach. But it permits districts to introduce other methods — research-based methods — for teaching English language learners. Supporters insist it won’t mean teaching students in their native tongues forever. The new methods would require approval of the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.

This approach was on the table back in 2002 but voters — 68 percent of them in fact — decided instead to pass Question 2, which mandated sheltered immersion (aka “English-only”). Since then English language learners have not made the strides that advocates of the immersion approach had hoped.

But the reality is that public school students in Massachusetts will have to speak and work in English after graduation, and that demands a rigorous approach to their in English. The days of “transitional” bilingual education — that never actually transitioned anywhere — can’t be allowed to return.