This was endorsed by the Equal Educational Opportunity Act of 1974.
None of the implemented laws require a specific methodology for instruction in schools, but civil rights laws do require that all children receive equal opportunities. Specifically, this requirement is enforced by the further requirements of theoretically sound research-based programs, resources to implement the programs, and standards and procedures for evaluating the program as well as changes to ensure effectiveness. Current initiatives to eliminate bilingual education are thus unconstitutional by all definitions of the American ideal and civil rights.
Legislation Regarding Bilingual Education
As seen above, several legislative acts have been implemented in order to ensure the constitutional administration of bilingual education in the United States. The Bilingual Education Act of 1968 for example was the first major reformative Act of bilingual education since the World Wars. This Act promoted equal access to the curriculum, thereby fostering achievement among both students and the teachers who administered the program. The Act expired in 2002.
The reason for the elimination was the implementation of a larger piece of legislation, known as the No Child Left Behind measure, aimed at widespread school reform and implemented by the Bush administration.
According to this initiative, federal funds are provided to support English language learners (ELLs). The focus is thus entirely on teaching and learning English only. This is encouraged by "accountability" provisions, including the judgment of schools according to the number of ELLs reclassified as fluent English speakers. Furthermore the failure to show progress in English learning will be punished. This appears to be a return to the earlier and paranoid legislation regarding language instruction during the World War I years. It also appears to once again be unconstitutional; schools are practically being forced to abandon all attention to native language instruction in favor of English-only instruction.
In contrast to this, the 1994 Bilingual Education Act had as one of its goals developing English and native-language skills. Instead the English Language Acquisition Act focuses only on English.
In terms of funding, subsidies are no longer federally administered via competitive grants. Instead, formula grants are distributed by each state. These grants are based on the enrollments of ELLs and immigrant students. This gives state education greater control over funding and the decisions that go with it. Each state could therefore, should it choose to do so, impose their own set of pedagogical methodologies.
Funding for critical factors such as teacher training and research programs is also severely restricted by the Bush administration. All funding is thus aimed at limiting elementary education to English language only instruction. It is interesting to note that these political changes are occurring at a time when language minorities are becoming increasingly prominent on the political scene. There is thus no more reason to fear bilingualism or those representing foreign languages. Nonetheless, it appears that the political power of the Bush administration is simply too strong to be overthrown by the many unhappy educators and parents of language minority children. Thus, while bilingual education laws changed for the better after World War II, it appears that legislation has once again become unconstitutional, focusing only on one privileged sector of American society.
Proposition 227
This proposition is a further extension of the ideals voiced by the No Child Left Behind initiative. By approving the initiative in 1998, California has perpetuated the nation-wide attempt to eradicate bilingualism from school curricula.
There seems to be an extreme dichotomy between two sides of American culture: those who are saturated with anti-immigrant sentiment, and others who feel that the American ideal of equality is still important regardless of any political upheavals or wars. It appears however that the former group is in the majority, as the vote for Proposition 227 appears overwhelmingly more than the votes against it.
The effect of the act on education is disastrous. It has been seen above that submersion is generally ineffective in school instruction. Language minority children find it very difficult to cope with being instructed in a language medium that they are not wholly familiar with. Legislation such as Proposition 227 will thus have a disastrous effect not only on these children personally, but also on education as a whole. History has taught that dropout rates will rise dramatically, while the number of qualified, university-ready students produced by such schools will fall. Eventually both manpower and the economy in the country...
According to Malfaro, just a single year of English is not essentially sufficient to effectively make the initiative to reading and writing. (Tozzi, 1998) Supporters give an instance of a study undertaken in the year 1991 approved by the National Academy of Sciences mentioning that the children who have are able to speak a foreign language are able to comprehend English more quickly and perform better educational development on the
The factors affecting cost are numerous and not always easily identifiable; in addition to the purchasing of bilingual textbooks and other instructional supplies, there is often a perception that bilingual instruction leads to a greatly increased workload and number of class hours, and therefore a greater overall strain on the often-tight budgets of public education institutions and districts (Mora 2006). It is primarily the transitional costs, however, that many
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