Compliance with Lau v. Nichols

1
Compliance with Lau v. Nichols

• Why is this an issue?
• What has been done?
• What needs to be done?
• Where do we go from here?

2
THE ISSUE US V. THEM
Language can thus emerge as an important
rallying point in boundary maintenance, as a way
of defining us in comparison to
them. (Valdes)
3
Numbers

• Increasing enrollment of limited English
  proficient students. (1990-95 17 states
  reported ELL enrollment jumps of 10, 7 states
  reported increases of more than 25.)
• Retention and dropout rates for LEP students
  higher than for English speakers. (1992, 42 of
  students aged 16-24 who reported difficulty with
  English had dropped out of high school.)

4
Add to the mix accountability through testing

• One size fits all testing and accountability
• Accreditation of schools based on number of
  children passing high stakes tests.
• Standards rising. New York English Regents Exam.
  Virginia SOL requirements for graduation.

5
Hey! But they dont speak English!

• Cant we just let them sit and forget about them?

6
Legal guarantees and guidelines

• Civil Rights legislation
• Bilingual Education Act (1968)
• Equal Educational Opportunity Act (1974)
• Supreme Court Decisions
• Lau v. Nichols (1974)
• Castaneda v. Pickard (1981)

7
Programs

• Bilingual education
• Transitional
• Dual language, immersion
• ESL alone
• ESL in combination with bilingual education

8
What needs to be done?
The legislation is in place but the commitment is
not there on the part of states, school
districts and schools.
9
WHY???

• Economics
• Logistics
• POLITICS

10
Political Issue

• Majority v. minority language power play
• Misunderstanding of the goals of bilingual
  education
• Allocation of resources within schools and school
  districts
• Silent constituency

11
Research agenda

• Education
• Of the public
• Of educators
• Of parents of language minority students
• Educational practices
• For changing demographics
• For non-literate students
• For U.S. born non-language dominant students

12
Conclusion

• Vision Keyword
• As instructional leaders we need to have a vision
  of how we see the student immigrant population in
  our society.
• Research
• Action