New York City's bilingual system has a less than stellar record.
The proposal was rejected by advocates for the bilingual system, who saw it as a ploy to undercut bilingual programs.
Even staunch advocates of the city's bilingual system conceded yesterday that it was riddled with problems, as evidenced by the fact that one of every two students enrolled in such classes is still enrolled after three years, and often after eight years, even though such programs are intended to be transitional.
Juan Figueroa, the president and general counsel of the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund, an organization that helped craft the current bilingual system three decades ago, said he regretted that Mr. Mastro had voiced his recommendations, however tentatively, before the hearing had taken place.
Phrases like "instructional coherence," "language allocation policy" and "instructional alignment" dominated on Tuesday at the mayoral news conference on bilingual instruction, almost obscuring the underlying, if unspoken, message -- that despite his pledge to overhaul the bilingual system, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg has not.
When taken together, all of the statements made yesterday suggest that New York City, at least in the short term, is unlikely to follow the lead of Californians, who voted to eliminate bilingual education in 1998, and Arizonans, who, according to statewide polls, are expected to vote overwhelmingly next month to dismantle the state's bilingual system.
Video: An example of a bilingual conversational system.
Voters also overwhelmingly rejected the state's bilingual education system, replacing it with a program requiring children not fluent in English to be placed in regular classes after one year of English immersion.
Educators who work with immigrant students are cautioning that the New York City Board of Education may have a hard time teaching parents about the choices they have to make now that the bilingual education system is being overhauled.
The documentary, guided by Dr. Pantoja's life history, sheds light on the positive contributions of the Puerto Rican community to New York and their work to shape the country's bilingual education system.
