Bilingual Education in the US 1967-1998

1. Bilingual Education in the US1967-1998 Ciana DeBellis Dr. Manko Ed 513

3. What is bilingual Education? • 1. English Immersion- instruction entirely in English for complete immersion into the language. • 2. English as a Second Language (ESL, EFL, ELL)- programs that incorporate LEP students into the regular classroom, but typically require one period each day for them to work strictly on English skills. • 3. Transitional Bilingual Education-provides instruction for some subjects in the student’s native language, but a certain amount in each day is spent on developing English skills. • 4. Two-way bilingual education- programs that allow instruction to be given in two languages to students, usually in the same classroom, who may be dominant in one language or the other, with the goal of the students becoming proficient in both languages.

4. “Congress first endorsed funding for bilingual education in 1968, at a time when ethnocentrism had become a powerful po-liticalcurrent” (Ravitch 124).

5. Bilingual Education Act 1967 “The 1968 bilingual education bill was unveiled in 1967 by Sen. Ralph Yarborough of Texas, a Democrat. He faced an uphill reelection battle in 1970, hoped to win support among Mexican Americans in his home state, and avowedly viewed the bill in the context of that strategy. Less cynically, it was an attempt to do something about the poor performance of Spanish-speaking schoolchildren. In Yarborough's own state, 80 percent of Spanish-speaking children had to repeat first grade, and there were twelve times as many Mexican Americans in first as in twelfth grade (the overall ratio for Texas was three to one). The senator believed that the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA) had done little to remedy this problem. His bill, which became Title VII of ESEA, was intended to meet the "special educational needs of . . . children of limited English-speaking ability" by funding local experiments in bilingual schooling. The text of the act yields few clues regarding what its architects meant by bilingual education: troubled by "a unique and perplexing educational situation," they relied on local educational agencies to "develop forward-looking approaches." In essence, they proposed that non-English speakers be taught in their own languages until they were fluent in English. Children who understood their lessons would feel less alienated from school and society, learn more, and stay in school till graduation” (Davies 1407).

6. Title VII of ESEA cont. “In 1968 [while Johnson was still president] the federal government started-in a very subdued fashion-to encourage local school districts to instruct underperforming non-English-speaking children in their own languages. It was a tiny program, and its survival prospects must have seemed bleak when Richard M. Nixon entered the White House the following January. Yet federal interest in bilingual schooling not only survived, but burgeoned, during the Nixon-Ford years: by the mid-1970s the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (HEW) was requiring school districts with large numbers of "language minorities" to institute bilingual remedies” (Davies 1405).

7. “The Bilingual Education Act of 1968 -- passed during an era of growing immigration and an energized civil rights movement -- provided federal funding to encourage local school districts to try approaches incorporating native-language instruction. Most states followed the lead of the federal government, enacting bilingual education laws of their own or at least decriminalizing the use of other languages in the classroom” (rethinkingschools.org).

8. Great Society • Social reforms to help eliminate poverty and racial injustice • “in lieu of the civil rights act” • Programs such as: • Head Start • Bilingual Education Act • Higher Education Act • Elementary and Secondary Education Act

9. Lau v. Nichols 1974 • In 1974, the Supreme Court's Lau v. Nichols decision reinforced demands for bilingual education. The Court ruled against the San Francisco public schools for their failure to provide English language instruction to eighteen hundred non-English-speaking Chinese students. • Despite the Court's prudent refusal to endorse any particular method of instruction, the bilingual educators interpreted the Lau decision as a mandate for bilingual programs. • The districts were directed to identify the student's primary language, not by his proficiency in English, but by determining which language was most often spoken in the student's home, which language he had learned first, and which language he used most often • Directed that non-English-speaking students should receive bilingual education that emphasized instruction in their native language and culture. • Districts were discouraged from using the "English as a Second Language" approach, which consists of intensive, supplemental English-only in-struction, or immersion techniques, in which students are instructed in English within an English-only context (Ravitch 125).

10. Criticism “The term bilingual generates different reactions... For some it may mean learning subject matter in two languages, or the ability of a person to speak or use two languages equally well; for others, it means a threat to the supremacy of the English language, and is therefore, anti-American” (Caso 56). (Ew, I know, right?)

12. Prop 227 THE SITUATION • About 25 percent of enrolled students in California had limited English skills • California's Bilingual Education Act, which required primary language instruction for non-English speakers, expired in 1986. • In February 1998 a superior court judge ruled that primary language instruction is not required. • Local school districts may now design their own programs for LEP students. THE PROPOSAL • The goal of Proposition 227 is to teach English to children in public schools as rapidly and effectively as possible. • Most instruction would be in English. • English learners would be placed temporarily in a program called sheltered English immersion. • The Legislature would appropriate $50 million annually for ten years to subsidize English classes for adults who agree to tutor English learners. ca.lwv.org

13. Pros and Cons • Arguments against: • Proposition 227 mandates a single, untested program for all school districts. • Under Proposition 227, local school districts do not have the right to design their own programs for LEP students. • Arguments for: • Research shows that sheltered English immersion is the most effective method of teaching English to LEP children. • Younger children learn a second language more easily, so English instruction should begin as soon as possible. ca.lwv.org

14. Works Cited Burke, Fred. "Bilingualism/Biculturalism in American Education: An Adventure in Wonderland." Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 454 (1981): 164-77. Collier, Virginia. "Acquiring a Second Language for School." Directions in Language and Education 1.4 (1995): 1-10. Davies, Gareth. "The Great Society after Johnson: The Case of Bilingual Education." The Journal of American History 88.4 (2002): 1405-429. Hornberger, Nancy. "Bilingual Education and English-Only: A Language-Planning Framework." Annals of American Academy of Political and Social Science 508 (1990): 12-26. "LWVC Position on Proposition 227." LWVC: Home of the League of Women Voters of California. 2 June 1998. Web. 13 Aug. 2010. <http://ca.lwv.org/action/prop0698/actgd227.html>. Lyons, James J. "The Past and Future Directions of Federal Bilingual-Education Policy." The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 508 (1990): 66-80. "NATION IN BRIEF." ProQuestArchiver. 19 Aug. 1998. Web. 10 Aug. 2010. <http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/washingtonpost/access/33226201.html?dids=33226201:33226201&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&type=current&date=Aug 19, 1998&author=&pub=The Washington Post&desc=NATION IN BRIEF&pqatl=google>. Ovando, Carlos. "Bilingual Education in the United States: Historical Development and Current Issues." Bilingual Research Journal 21.1 (2003): 1-24. Pyeior, Julie L. "From Hope to Frustration: Mexican Americans and Lyndon Johnson in 1967." The Western Historical Quarterly 24.4 (1993): 469-94. Ravitch, Diane. "Politicization and the Schools: The Case of Bilingual Education." Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 129.2 (1985): 121-28. "Rethinking Schools Online." Rethinking Schools Online. Web. 18 Aug. 2010. <http://www.rethinkingschools.org/archive/12_03/langmn.shtml>. Secada, Walter G. "Research, Politics, and Bilingual Education." Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 508 (1990): 81-106.