Unz Credit Is Undeserved

I have been reading the various news articles about the results of California's Prop 227 and I am very disappointed in the gullibility of journalists giving Ron Unz the credibility that he has been and is getting in the media. The English-Immersion claims by Ron Unz are very unscientific.

In the various comparisons that are made between Bilingual Education and English-Only it is absolutely essential that the comparison be done in a valid scientific manner. The tools to do these kinds of comparisons have been known in the statistical
field for decades.

Unfortunately, most of the public and, I would say, most journalists have no or very little understanding of statistics and controlled scientific study methods. If they did, they would realize the kinds of unscientific games that Unz is playing with test scores.
Since about 1997, Ron Unz, the author of Proposition 227, has been claiming that the English-Only method is better than the Bilingual Education approach for teaching Limited English Proficient (LEP) students.

For some reason or other, many of the journalists listening to Unz have been "be-witched" by the flashy data portrayals distributed by Ron Unz. Many journalists seem to believe Ron Unz over and above the experts in the field of Second Language Acquisition.
It's all right for Ron Unz to have his own opinion. But with all due respect, since he is a non-expert and either uninformed or unwilling to use scientific comparison methodology, I really believe parents, journalists, educators, and voters should not be giving Ron Unz' opinion the weight that he has been getting from the media. Ron Unz is a bright person, but he refuses to approach the issue in a scientific manner. Ron is capable of learning and using scientific methods to draw conclusions about this issue. But, for whatever reason, he has chosen to take the political approach instead of the scientific approach.

The main point here is that, Ron Unz (and other non-experts) have been comparing Bilingual vs. English-Immersion test scores in improper ways -- in unscientific ways. Unz has been doing the comparisons based on intuitive observations and not by
controlled scientific studies. I am truly amazed that the issue of whether Bilingual Education works better than the English-Only approach has been taken out of the scientific arena and into the political arena.

Sincerely,
Dr. Michael O. Peralta,
Tucson, Arizona

NC Salaries $25,000

The North Carolina teacher salary you published in the May/June 2000 issue of American Language Review (News p. 11) is incorrect. The 2000-2001 salary is $25,000.

Sincerely,
Jane S. Cowan
English as a Second Language Consultant
North Carolina Department of Public Instruction
Raleigh, North Carolina

Alaskan Warmth

Kudos to you and your team for producing such a valuable resource! I always have a stack of issues of ALR in my office, which I use to advise my students who are new to teaching ESL. I appreciate the diversity of the topics you cover. Keep up the good work!

Sincerely
Anne Kellerman
Fairbanks, Alaska