ESL Legislation

Michelle SamorayELS Language Center

Msamoray@gmail.com

1964 : Civil Rights Act – Title VI

• This act prohibited discrimination on the basis of race, color, or national origin in the operation of all federally assisted programs.

• This act stated, “ No person shall, on the grounds of race, color or national origin, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any federal program or activity receiving Federal Financial assistance.”

A step in the right direction !

• Under the civil rights act, the Office for Civil Rights in Education has worked to resolve the following problems:

• The failure of some school districts to provide equal educational opportunity for national origin minority students who have a limited proficiency in English.

• The maintenance by some state systems of higher education of separate college facilities for students based on their race, color or national origin.

• This was one of the first important steps in providing all children an equal opportunity for education.

1968 - The Bilingual Education Act, Title VII

• Now that discrimination was no longer allowed, the policy continued to take a step in the right direction and allocated funds for innovative programs.

• The Bilingual Education Act, Title VII, recognized the unique educational disadvantages faced by non-English speaking students.

• This act encouraged schools to provide bilingual education programs.

Many states started to implement bilingual education programs, however, there was not a specific strategy outlined for teaching these students.

Policy makers soon realized they had more work ahead.

Following the Bilingual Education Act ……….1974 : Lau v. Nichols

• This court decision, along with the Bilingual Act required schools to implement educational programs that offer equal opportunities for ESL students. The courts applied a three- step assessment to ensure schools provide the following:– Research based programs that are viewed as theoretically

sound by experts in the field;  – Adequate resources-such as staff, training, and materials-

to implement the program; and  Standards and – procedures to evaluate the program and a continuing

obligation to modify a program that fails to produce results (Castañeda v. Pickard, 648 F.2d 989 (5th Cir. 1981)).

Next Up …1981: Federal Court Case:

Castaneda v. Pickard

The Fifth Circuit Court Case established a three – part test to determine if school districts are complying with the EEOA ( equal education opportunity act) of 1974.

The requirements include:

Theory – The school must implement a program based on sound educational theory, or at a minimum, a legitimate experimental program design.

Practice – The school district must put into practice the educational program they have designed.

Results – The school must stop programs that fail to produce results.

The Great Debate

• After the court decision of Lau v. Nichols, many people started debating the two strategies used in ESL education:

• Bilingual Education vs. Total English Immersion.

• At the time, those that supported bilingual education thought that any anti-bilingual program should not pass the assessment provided under the Lau court decision.

• This would be the beginning of many debates on this topic which would greatly influence the school system.

2001: No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB)

This act makes federal funding for states dependnet on student progress.

According to this act : “States that do not meet their performance objectives for ESL students could lose up to ten percent of the administrative portion of their funding.

Has this act made a difference in the public school system?

NCLB Impact on the school system….Positive & Negative :

• PROS :• Standards are set for teacher

qualifications and accountability standards.

• Standards are reported annually and reported to parents.

• NCLB requires schools to focus on providing quality education to non-English speaking students.

• Emphasizes reading, writing, and math.

• CONS:• NCLB ignores subjects such as

science, history, and foreign languages.

• Testing requirements for limited English proficient students are unfair and unworkable.

• States can compensate for low student performance by setting very low standards and making test easier.

Tennessee and ESL Legislation :

• Tennessee Rules and Regulations require that students whose first language is other than English and who are limited in their English language proficiency be provided with a specially designed alternative language program. [Rule 0520-1-3-.056. a. 1 and 2 ii.]

• In Tennessee, this specially designed language program is English as a Second Language (ESL). ESL programs must be delivered by an endorsed ESL teacher using the ESL curriculum. The ESL curriculum is a general set of English language acquisition standards that should be used in conjunction with content standards. These standards address the language support necessary to enable the ELL to access the grade level content curriculum by providing a bridge for ELL students to the academic content curriculum.

(http://www.tntesol.org/forms/ESLProgramGuide.pdf )

A Good Start : 1974Equal Educational Opportunity Act

• This act required school districts to take action to overcome students’ language barriers that might impede equal participation in educational programs.

• Impact on Tennessee:• No segregation is allowed.

• No students can be assigned to a school other than the one closest to place of residence

• Transfer of a student to another school is prohibited if the purpose is to increase segregation.

Court Case : Plyer v. Doe1982

• This court case stated that undocumented children and young adults have the same rights to attend public schools as do US students.

• Undocumented students are required by law to attend school until they reach a legal mandated age.

This means that schools may NOT : deny admission to a student on the basis of undocumented status Require students or parents to disclose or document their immigration

status This continued to work for the anti-segregation and discrimination

movement and impacted the Tennessee Education system as well.

Y.S. v. School District of Philadelphia

• This suit was on behalf of the districts Asian students, some of whom had been placed in special education classes.

• After this incident, the court then ruled that the district must:

• Review the educational program of each ELL student individually

• Establish a district coordinator for the education of ELL students

• Develop a remedial plan to meet the needs of ELL students and revise the district’s ESL programs.

Impact of this court case on Tennessee Education:

• As reported in the March 9, 1988 edition of Education Week, the negotiated settlement in the Y.S. case covers a wide range of educational practices. In addition to obligating itself to recruit and train more school personnel who can communicate in the native languages of the Asian students and parents, the Philadelphia Y.S. settlement reportedly includes:

• . . .A requirement that both oral and written communications to parents be in a language they understand.(This is addressed in the TN ESL Program guide)

Title VI – Enforcement in Tennessee

• In 1993, TN enacted T.C.A. 4-21-901 regarding all state agencies to be compliance with Title VI of the civil rights act of 1964.

• Tennessee is the first state to enact this title as state legislation.

The compliances under Title VI include:

• Immigrants have the right to free education regardless of immigrant status.

• Identification and assessment of students with non-English backgrounds.

• Implementation of an effective alternative program for limited English proficient students.

2001: No Child Left Behind

• This decision gave parents more choices for the children by:

• Giving parents the option for helping their children if they’re enrolled in schools identified as “needing improvement”

• Requiring schools to implement supplemental material if adequate progress has not been identified after three years.

NCLB in today’s world..

• The no child left behind act was initially legislated for five years, and has been since temporarily extended, but not officially reauthorized.

• In early 2010, President Obama stated that he will seek to reauthorize NCLB, but requires five major education reforms.

• These reforms will serve as a model for his planned reform of NCLB.

Additional On-Line Resources:

Obama’s education reforms:

http://usliberals.about.com/od/education/a/RaceToTheTop.htm

Pros and Cons of Reforms:

http://usliberals.about.com/u/ua/education/RaceToTheTopQuestion.htm

Federal Law and ESL :

http://www.iron.k12.ut.us/esl/ESL/Coordinators_files/Federal%20Law %20&%20ESL.pdf

No Child Left Behind Hisory:

http://www.pearsonassessments.com/NR/rdonlyres/D8E33AAE-BED1- 4743-98A1-BDF4D49D7274/0/HistoryofNCLB.pdf

Public Schools and ESL Programs:

http://www.publicschoolreview.com/articles/95

References: Kohlepp, B. ( 1999). Bilingual Education v.

English Only Education. Retrieved from : http://ematusov.soe.udel.edu/final.paper.pub/_pwfsfp/00000157.htm

Seivers, L. ( n.d.). Tennessee English as a Second Language Program Guide. Retrieved from :http://www.tntesol.org/forms/ESLProgramGuide.pdf

U.S. Department of Education ( 2005). Education and Title VI. Retrieved from: http://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/docs/hq43e4.html

White, D. ( 2010). Pros and Cons of the No Child Left Behind Act. Retrieved from : http://usliberals.about.com/od/education/i/NCLBProsCons.htm

This assignment/assessment was solely written by me. In no way have I plagiarized (represented the work of another as my own) or otherwise violated the copyright laws and academic conventions of fair use. I know that violations of this policy may result in my being dismissed from Middle Tennessee State University and / or appropriate legal action being taken against me.

 

Michelle Samoray

5-19-10