Diana Hamilton, and Matthew Litvak, both who have taught statistics at the university level, have several criticisms of the recent Croll and Lee Review of French Second Language Programs and Services New Brunswick’s schools. They have set up a blog, as well as a detailed analysis of the flaws:
To summarize, EFI [early French immersion] produces better French speakers, costs less on a per-student basis, and has essentially the same attrition rate as LFI [late French immersion]. The logical choice is to retain EFI. Core French certainly needs to be fixed, but we have found no justification in this document for eliminating EFI in the process. We strongly suggest that the central recommendation of this report not be adopted; it will lead to a reduction in French competence of hundreds of graduates per year, and result in a general lowering of standards. Numerous education experts have stated that EFI is the best program, and based on our analysis, we fully agree.
We feel that many of the legitimate shortcomings in New Brunswick FSL [French as a Second Language] programs that the Commissioners have identified can be addressed more effectively as follows:
- by providing adequate resources to support a wider range of French-language course options and flexibility in Grades 10-12 in order to reduce early drop-out;
- by providing adequate support for exceptional children in EFI and LFI classes so that FSL training becomes available to these children;
- by actively promoting the benefits of learning French and encouraging all students equally.
