That being said,

here is an interesting article from the most recent issue of University Affairs: “The rise of the monoglots: Fewer and fewer universities require students to master a second language. Some think that’s a shame,” by Léo Charbonneau, University Affairs (Aug.-Sept./08).

When Bad Research Leads to Bad Policy: The Case of New Brunswick

Shamelessly lifted from Matt and Diana: “This opinion piece was in response to EFI policy development in NB. It was written by Philip Oreopolous who is an Associate Professor of Economics, University of British Columbia and a University of Toronto Research Fellow, Canadian Institute For Advanced Research. It was written just before the decision was announced on August 5th.” Download PDF.

It’s … Alive??

Disappointing

is the only word I could think of that doesn’t have four letters. I am listening to the press conference from Fredericton. The mandatory intensive French programme is still in place, and early immersion will be less effective as it will only start in grade three. As far as I can tell that is the only bone thrown to the critics: the retention of some form of early(-ish) immersion. The rest of the original Lamrock plan remains, and the Minister is still trotting out much of the same disinformation: that poor and aboriginal children are clustered in core, without acknowledging that EFI is frequently not offered in the rural areas where those children often live (a situation that will continue with the new gr. 3 entry point as the Minister explicitly said that there are no plans to expand early immersion to rural schools); that students in K-2 need to develop language skills in their mother tongue; that intermediate French is bilingualism. Still fixated on testing, teacher “accountability” and “rewards”. There is to be a new “Ministerial Advisory Group” and more “stakeholder” meetings. Nothing about increased FSL resources. In a nutshell, lots of rhetoric but the result is a mishmash that will make few happy, neither the entrenched anti-EFI people in the DoE and elsewhere, nor those who blame immersion for streaming, nor those who want children to have the opportunity to develop advanced language skills. And significantly, our system in N.B. will still remain out of step with K-12 education in the rest of the country, making moving to and from the province difficult.

Lots of rhetoric, LOTS of self-congratulation, but no mention of the primary causes of the woes in N.B. education: our lowest per-capita spending, per student, in the country, followed closely by a centrally controlled, un-democratic DoE.

Unintentionally hilarious moments: both Graham and Lamrock repeatedly congratulating themselves on overseeing a province-wide debate on education.

So yes, disappointing. Very disappointing.

[Cross-posted to Living in interesting times.]

Details for Tuesday, August 5th

From CEC:

There will be a press briefing at 11, and at 12 a public announcement which will be open to the public.  The main event, with Graham and Lamrock, will be at the Centennial Bldg, with public overflow a block away at the Crowne Plaza (Lord Beaverbrook Hotel) being simulcast.

I expect there will be many interested parties in attendance, and I hope as many of you who can attend will.

Link to government media advisory.

The final countdown

has started to Minister Kelly Lamrock’s announcement on August 5 about the future of K-12 education — at least for the next 2-3 years — in New Brunswick.

I hope he is thinking of the history books while pondering his decision.

Those of us

who only read one of the three big papers would do well to look further afield; there are some worthwhile pieces today in the Miramichi Reader, The Northern Light, the Bugle-Observer, and the Kings County Record.

Another comment worth quoting,

because it raises some issues new to me, at least:

From the department enrolment data, over 70% of NB students have access to Early French Immersion. In fact there are 8 of our smaller cites that have over 50% of the student in EFI Only in New Brunswick is there not early French Immersion Kindergarten and no assistance for any child who experiences a learning challenge. Only in New Brunswick is there no teacher training institute for FSL education for Anglophones It is as if New Brunswick has worked hard to make sure the program was weaker here and students had to leave or were forced to leave the program to receive any help which created the streaming This streaming does not exist in Alberta, Manitoba or BC. This appears to have been a deliberate move on the part of ministerial officials over many years, It may indeed be a defensive reaction on the part of the Anglophone sector. I can’t help but wonder what will happen to the Canadian Heritage dollars poured into this province (almost 24,000,000 a year) for minority language education- most of which the New Brunswick government has directed to the francophone sector for the past 20 years which starved the EFI program. If the amounts remain stable with fewer students in FSL education (none form Grade 1-4) the francophone population who now receives over 80% of that funding will get even more of that 24,000,000.

With the current FSL plan, in 11 years no Anglophone graduate could meet the requirements of the largest majority of civil service jobs as the late immersion only delivers an intermediate level of linguistic competency. If parents are able to afford sending their children on a Quebec or France exchange there might be some advanced level students from that group. A very few strong academic and motivated students from late immersion may also achieve the level required. But 90 + percent will be unable to meet any acceptable standard, The current 42 % of early immersion students meeting that standard will look good.
In today’s world and to have the best opportunities for global participation, more than one language needs to be the standard, Kelly has misguidedly chosen an option that will not deliver what he espouses. There are many positive initiatives that are occurring in elementary education that will assist NB to achieve the improved international scores. I commend those. The decision to implement an intensive French component in the Core French program which will occur over the next three years will improve the Core French program and allow rural children access to a better program than they have had. This has been proven in Newfoundland where the program was developed and has been in place for over 5 years.

All the positive initiatives will not overcome the ultimate outcome of this single decision which is fewer bilingual Anglophones and disadvantaged graduates in the global and national community. The cognitive benefits of early bilingualism will be lost to New Brunswick children while a province like Alberta expands their number of early immersion programs to French, Spanish, Mandarin, Japanese in their attempts to become a participant on the international scene. BC’s immersion numbers increase by over 6% a year, many of the children from immigrant families whose children are learning a third or fourth language.

This decision will likely be overturned by another government as the data comes in over the next 5-12 years that shows fewer children in immersion in Grades 7-12, an even more streamed middle years and high school groupings than existed in early immersion. (p.6)

AEFNB urges delay to Lamrock plan

AEFNB, the Francophone teachers’ association, has issued a communique asking the provincial government to delay their educational plan for one year due to the magnitude of the changes (download PDF en français; download English translation PDF).

A Response to Minister Lamrock’s Justifications for His FSL Plan

[from CEC:]

In recent days, Minister Lamrock has been circulating the following text to justify his plans for French education in NB. A team of us from the Citizens for Educational Choice have taken on the task of annotating the Minister’s argument, pointing out errors in fact and argumentation. Although the details are to be found in the following pages, some general points arise repeatedly.

1. The Minister misuses French language learning scholarship. For example, his many misrepresentations of the ideas of Dr. Fred Genesee of McGill has resulted in a letter from Dr. Genesee explaining the problems. If the Minister wants the benefit of experts in FSL, he should assign them with the task of devising an FSL plan for the province or, at very least, heed their warnings regarding the Croll and Lee recommendations.
2. The Minister seems to persist in misunderstanding the nature of French immersion. In this text he presents it as a challenge that suits higher-achieving students; whereas we understand from the works of Dr. Dicks, Dr. Genesee and others, and from the experience of other provinces such as Nova Scotia, that EFI can be accessible to nearly all children.
3. The Minister erroneously argues that the many studies before Croll and Lee support his innovations: they simply do not, and we encourage all to read these reports and determine the truth for themselves. In fact, since the Scraba report of 2002, NB has been encouraged to improve participation and retention in EFI by increasing the resources required to support students within the EFI program.
4. The Minister argues weakly against this less disruptive and more standard solution: he claims that it cannot be done because it has not been done or because a fully detailed plan for this approach does not exist.
5. The Minister frequently suggests that any report or expert opinion which supports an entry point for French immersion later than the current grade one entry point also lends support to his plan for immersion to begin only in grade 6 because such opinions support a ‘later’ date. We believe that if he were to consult with the authors of these reports, he would find that they consider the grade 6 entry point which he proposes to be quite worse than the grade 2 or grade 3 entry points that some experts advise.
6. Finally, in the title of the piece and throughout, the Minister wishes to suggest that the past two months have been a time of ’study’, which should now conclude in a decision. We hope our comments will show that the Minister and Croll and Lee are very far from having studied the topic well, and that the decisions made in haste and ignorance thus far should be delayed so that a true and careful course can be plotted for this important aspect of our province’s public education system.

Below you will find the Minister’s original text in italics and our critique in plain text following each point he makes.

Read CEC’s

excellent, excellent commentary in the T-J, “The other side on education.” Very useful for countering Lamrock’s misinformation.

Okay here’s

a quick question: if in the last two years over 70% of enrollments in French immersion were in early French immersion, how on earth does Kelly Lamrock think only offering late immersion is going to get more students learning French? Does he expect that whole 70+% to take late immersion? Anyone with an adolescent can tell him it is a lot easier to convince a six-year of something, than an eleven-year old.

Dr. Fred Genesee, “Early Childhood Bilingualism: Perils and Possibilities”

Message from Jane Keith, Executive Director, Canadian Parents for French:

On May 14, 2008, Dr. Fred Genesee will be giving a free, public talk in Fredericton, New Brunswick. The title of his lecture is “Early childhood bilingualism: Perils and possibilities”. We believe this presentation will appeal to anyone interested in issues pertaining to bilingualism in education, second language learners, immersion, and the challenges associated with accommodating the varied needs of learners from varied cultural and linguistic backgrounds. Dr. Genesee is a world-renowned scholar of bilingualism, language development and language immersion programs, a Professor of Psychology at McGill University and the author of numerous scientific research books and reports on language learning in children.

We would be grateful for your assistance in circulating this message to your members, colleagues, and staff who might benefit from attending this event. Teachers, in particular, might be able to count this event toward mandated professional development requirements.

May 14, 7:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m. (in English)
Wu Conference Centre, UNB Fredericton
Kent Auditorium, 6 Duffie Drive, Fredericton, NB, E3B 5A3

Local Contact Info – Jane Keith, Executive Director
Tel.: 506.432.6584

For additional information on Dr. Genesee’s talk, please visit the Minerva Lecture Series page on the Canadian Council on Learning’s website.

Update (May 26/08): Here is the podcast of Dr. Genesee’s talk.

In a bizarre development,

Doug Willms has essentially distanced himself from the Lamrock plan. Very noble, too, given that his company stands to benefit substantially from contracts with the Dept. of Education. But how else to interpret this article, in which we are told,

The province’s decision to scrap early immersion and institute a universal French program beginning in Grade 5 is a step in the right direction, says education expert Doug Willms – but he would go even further….

He’d also start the program in Grade 4 instead of 5 and incorporate elements of French instruction in kindergarten and Grades 1-3, acknowledging that as with all subjects, the earlier a student begins learning, the better….

At this point, he said, it’s tough to judge the impact the new program will have on achievement rates.

“Is it the right plan?

“I don’t know,” Willms said.

“Certainly the plan we’ve got now isn’t working.”

Taken alone, he added, the elimination of early immersion will not solve the problem of New Brunswick’s high illiteracy rates and poor performance on international testing….

“It’s really fundamental in this system that the resources are in place so that we reduce the number of children who end up being struggling readers,” he said. “The move to universal immersion has to go hand-in-hand with more resources in Grades kindergarten through 3.”

So when the Lamrock plan crashes and burns, Willms, at least, is already on record. Oops, and just when the T-J ties their wagon to Lamrock.

Update (Apr 29/08): download a PDF of Willms’ The Case for Universal French Instruction.

More reading

Monique Bournot-Trites and Ulrike Tellowitz, Report of Current Research on the Effects of Second Language Learning on First Language Literacy Skills, commissioned by the Atlantic Provinces Educational Foundation, 2002 (download PDF).