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14 Amendment to the Constitution:
Simply put, no citizen can be denied privileges of a state which include life, liberty, and property without due process of the law, or deny anyone equal protection under the laws. This amendment has stood for equal protection of all citizens seeking freedoms no matter their native language.
http://www.colorincolorado.org/article/49704/ -
Immigration Act of 1917
Beginning in 1917 our nation underwent a wave of Nationalism that sought to Americanize and stamp out other cultural influences within the U.S. In fact, in 1910 14.7% of the population was foreign born which is the largest proportionately still today (Colorin Colorado). Thus in 1917 restrictive immigration was enacted by congress as WWI came to an end. This legislation required basic reading skills of individuals in any laguage. http://www.colorincolorado.org/article/49682/ -
Immigration Act of 1924
This legislation builds upon the 1917 law in that it sought to set limits on the actual number of immigrants that could enter the U.S. The limit was set at 2% per ethnic group as of the 1890 population. This was a drastic cut in the number of immigrants entering the U.S. It also excluded any immigration of Asian nations. The idea behind this was to preserve American homogeneity. https://history.state.gov/milestones/1921-1936/immigration-act -
Brown v. The Board of Educaion
In this landmark case, schools were desegrated and the Civial Rights Movement was born. This court case did not focus on the unequal tangible items such as facilities and supplies, but instead, the actual concept of separation. The Supreme Court ruled unanimously that “separation itself was inherently unequal and a violation of the equal protection clause of the 14th amendment.” (http://www.civilrights.org/educatioclause of the 14th amendment. (http://www.civilrights.org/education/brown/) -
National Defense Education Act of 1958
As Russia put Sputnik into space in 1957, congress quickly pushes through legislation and funding to schools as a means to combat what is perceived as a lack of science, math and engineering. Funding for bilingual education is also attached to this law marking the change from English only mentality into a changing global society.
http://www.archives.nysed.gov/edpolicy/research/res_essay_eisenhower_sputnik.shtml -
Title VI The Civil Rights Act
This law prohibits discrimination based on race, color, age, creed, or national origin in any federally funded activity or program. This came at the time of Martin Luther King's march on Washington. This law further desegragated our schools and a nation as a whole. -
Immigration Act of 1965 (The Hart-Celler Act)
With forty years of limited immigration to the U.S., the quota is now lifted and one of the greatest waves of immigration in the nation's history began. In the era of Civil Rights Movement, this was another step against racism. This law for the first time, gave higher preference to family members wanting to immigrate and those in professions for which the U.S. needed labor. http://cis.org/1965ImmigrationAct-MassImmigration -
Title VII Bilingual Education Act
This legislation was the first and strongest form of bilingual education in which the Federal Government provided financial assistance for the education of ELL students through their native language and English. As the federal Immigration and Nationality act of 1965 ended national origin quotas, many new immigrants flooded to the U.S. This bill sought to increase English skills, support native language, and promote individual cultural heritage. (Ovando & Combs, 2012) Aid was however limite -
Lua v Nichols
This case has significant impact on the definition of bilingual education still today. In this case 3,000 Chinese American students were placed in mainstream English classrooms despite their lack of English skills. They won their case and set a precedent for schools. This law states that providing equal facilities and textbooks does not provide an equal education and ELL student should be provided classes in their native tongue. http://www.colorincolorado.org/article/49704/ -
Equal Education Opportunity Act
In 1972 President Nixon began discussing the need to provide equal educational services to all students,
regardless of their origin, race, color, or cultural background. Nixon further stated that this act
would help establish better education for all children as well as support the role of education in
maintaining a prosperous nation (Loos, Gonzalez, Cuartas, Miller, Abdo, Bogart; 2014) Then in 1974 when the Lau v. Nichols case became final, he pushed the Equal Education
Act through. -
Lau Remedies
These remedies followed the Lau v Nichols case. They put into affect a specified procedure for identifying language minority students, determined appropriate bilingual instruction based on a child's needs, incorporated bilingual and bicultural approaches, and set standards for teachers of bilingual education. (Ovando, Combs; 2012) -
Senator Hayakawa Proposal
In 1981 Hayakawa proposed a constitutional amendment for English as our official language. His bill did fail ultimately, but it did lead to him founding the U.S. English organization. Ultimately by 1986 California declares English as its official language and their bilingual education laws had expired. In 1994 this sentiment continues with the proposed Proposition 187 which would deny schooling to undocumented children. This bill failed. Crawford, 1996) http://www.languagepolicy.net/articles -
Castañeda v. Pickard
Mr. Castaneda argued in this case that there was no way to evaluate a school efficency at providing a ELL education. He believed Raymond Independent School District was not providing his children with the skills they needed to over come a language barrier. His case was upheld. This set into motion the Castaneda standard that says: a program muct be based on a sound theory; implemented with adequate resources and personnel; and must be effective through the whole curriculm.http://www.color -
Plyler v. Doe
This Supreme Court case set the precedent that no school can deny an education based on a child's legal status. A school can not ask for a child's documentation that proves citizenship. It also establishes laws when schools deal with Immigration and Naturalization Services. http://www.americanpatrol.com/REFERENCE/PlylerVDoeSummary.html -
Y.S. v School District of Philadelphia
In Philadelphia there was inadequate programs and teachers to educate the growing Asian culture. Asian students who were put into English classes and made no gains were then classified as "mentally retarded" and put into special ed. classes. This case ended this practice and aimed at establishing more qualified teachers and a review of ELL learners education plan each year.http://www.maec.org/Old/lyons/8.html -
Reauthorization of The Bilingual Education Act
This marks the first time Federal Funding is used in the development of bilingual proficiency both in English and other languages. Once again the development of bilingual students is seen as a benefit to ones esteem and an asset to our nations global economy. There is a explosion of two way bilingual education with this passage. (Ovando & Combs, 2012) -
Proposition 227 Ron Unz
In this case bilingual education is basically ended in California. Instead they opt for an English only approach and students are forced into a one year immersion program. Teachers are also threatened with fines if they violate the English only policy. A study in 2006 reports that this concept had shown no benefit over bilingual education (MoraModels). Yet it continues today. In March of 2014 there was a bill introduced to eliminate Prop. 227. http://moramodules.com/Pages/HistoryBE.htm -
No Child Left Behind Act
Only a few short years later, bilingual education takes a devastating turn. Under Bush's new No Child Left Behind, the Bilingual Education Act is ended and the functions of ESL development becomes each states responsibility. English acquisition is the main focus of this program. The requirements for bilingual students under this program are unrealistic as they are required to preform at 100% proficiency in Eglish language arts. (Ovando & Combs, 2012)
