English Learner Population Across California And L.a

More young americans nowadays are being raised in homes speaking non-English, but these students are falling behind in schools where there is not a bilingual program available. According to the U.S. Department of Education, in schools without a bilingual education program, 71% of English speakers are at or above the basic requirements for fourth grade reading while merely 30% of non-English speakers reach this level. 35% of English and 8% of non-English speakers reach proficient reading levels while only 9% of English and 1% of non-English speakers perform at advanced levels. It’s evident that the availability of a bilingual program is crucial to the success of an individual who needs the resources that can be given to them through the use of bilingual education. The percentages of the non-English speaking students previously mentioned could undoubtedly be comparable to those percentages of the English speaking students if the education they were being provided with was cohesive to their comfortability, and the material being taught was in a language they could better understand.

Bilingual education has been a debatable subject since its conception during the case of Lau vs. Nichols, in the early 1970’s. However, in that case, the court only ruling was that the children’s

Movements for bilingual education rose in 1974 with the Equal Education Opportunity Act and Bingual Education Act, which ordered federally funded schools to meet special educational needs for students not proficient in English. Unfortunately, dropout rates and lack of English-language proficiency alarmed the states that these bilingual programs were not efficent. Because of this, arguments between English-only advocates and supporters of bilingual educations emerged. Articles such as the New York Times have proclaimed the failures of bilingual education. One cause could be the resistance of immigrants from English language acquisition, who hold tight onto their first language and culture. Despite this, studies show that generations

Around 1959, bilingual education took flight in the United States. Starting in Miami and quickly making its way San Francisco, bilingual education soon led to the Bilingual Education Act, which promoted “No Child Left Behind”. Only twenty years later, the act acquired the attention of high schools around the country. Nonetheless, bilingual education is not always taken to be the cure-all for acclimating immigrants to the United States. In his article “Aria: A Memoir of Bilingual Childhood”, Richard Rodriguez argues that students should not take part in bilingual education by explaining how it takes away individuality and a sense of family through the use of ethos, diction, and imagery; Rodriguez also uses parallelism and ethos to point out how a bilingual childhood can help students feel connected to society.

According to the No Child Left Behind Act of (NCLB) of 2001, one of the Titles III’s purposes was “to develop high-quality language instruction education programs designed to assist states, district and schools in teaching limited English proficient children and serving immigrant children and youth” ( ESEA Section 3102 (3) as stated in Language Instruction Educational Programs ( LIEPs), 2012 p. viii). As such, Article 14-C of the Illinois School Code recognizes two models to serve ELL students: a transitional bilingual education (TBE) program or transitional program of instruction

Utah’s population of ELLs is diverse and while many of these students are in the process of acquiring English, they are entering Utah classrooms at different ages and grades along with varying degrees of educational

School principals will find in the following lawsuits the legal framework to provide educational services to ELLs in public schools. Baker (1997) points out that a landmark case in favor of bilingual education in the United States was a lawsuit in 1970. The case was a class-action suit brought by the parents of nearly 3000 Chinese students against the San Francisco School District (Lyons, 1990). This case originated that in 1974 the Unites States Supreme Court handed down its only substantive decision regarding the responsibilities of school districts serving ELLs (Lyons, 1990). The court indicated that under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, the Chinese students were entitled to receive specific support to allow them full participation in the school program (Crawford, 1989). This case was known as Lau v. Nichols and its verdict outlawed English submersion programs for language minority students, and resulted in nationwide ‘Lau Remedies’ (Baker, 1997). Lyons (1990) writes that the ‘Lau Remedies’ specified how to identify and evaluate language minority students, determine appropriate instruction, decide when ELLs were ready for mainstream, and determine the professional standards expected of teachers serving language minority students. Under the Lau Remedies school districts were encouraged to provide

The greatest concern of mandating “English only” schools in California for example is that 80 percent of the population of students is Latino. Miner further explains, “Good bilingual programs are about more than learning a language, it should be about respect for diversity and multiculturalism (Bilingual Education, 1999).”

1. Reportedly, 38 percent of Hispanic fourth-grade pupils identified themselves as English learners, additionally 20 percent of Hispanic eighth-grade students, according to the 2013 National

Around 1959, bilingual education took flight in the United States. Starting in Miami and quickly making its way San Francisco, bilingual education soon led to the Bilingual Education Act which promoted “No Child Left Behind”. Only twenty years later, the act acquired the attention of high schools around the country. Nonetheless, bilingual education is not always taken to be the cure-all for acclimating immigrants to the United States. In his article “Aria: A Memoir of Bilingual Childhood”, Richard Rodriguez argues that students should not take part in bilingual education by explaining how it takes away individuality and a sense of family through use of ethos, diction, and imagery; Rodriguez also uses

It is no secret that the debate over what is the best course of action to educate our non-native English language students across the country is a highly charged topic that runs from the classroom to Capitol Hill. There have been many shifts in direction and focus of educational programs for English Language Learning (ELL) students during the past century in our nation's history. In 1968, with the passage of the Bilingual Education Act (Title VII of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act) legislation was

This legislation undermined the English-only legislation still official in some states (Baker, 1997). The original Bilingual Education Act of 1968 had the following main purposes: “(1) increase English-language skills. (2) maintain and perhaps increase mother-tongue skills, and (3) support the cultural heritage of the student” (Leibowitz, 1980, p. 24). According to Crawford (1989), the White House exerted pressure on Congress to approve no funding for Title VII during the first year. In 1969, a scanty appropriation of $7.5 million was sufficient to just fund projects that served 27,000 ELLs (Crawford, 1989). Crawford (1989) states that about 112,000 ELLs were served in 1972 out of the estimated 5 million school age

Particularly, it has been thought to be the beginning of a revolutionary time when historically marginalized populations demanded for equitable treatment. Although the Civil Rights Act of 1964, did not directly refer to ELLs, it did allow for there to be a focus on the treatment of minority populations all across America. As language minority students, ( children who reside in homes where the main language is not English), are a minority population, the Civil Rights Act did allow for conversations concerning what to for these students to enter the discussion. With pressure from Shortly thereafter, the Bilingual Education Act of 1968 was established. The Bilingual Education Act did enhance the learning abilities for ELLs, however there were several issues with its’ first implementation. For example, the act gave competitive grants to school districts to use toward the creation of their own programs. This act was based on a voluntary basis, not a federal requirement. To be considered for the grant, the districts could only use the money toward resources for educational programs, training for teachers and teacher aides, development and dissemination of materials, and parent involvement projects. Provisions as to how each district used and distributed the money was foreseen on a local level, and extremely

Bilingual education has been a part of our education system since the 1920’s when the nation’s first bilingual program was established. In the 21st century, California has the most diverse student population in the world, with more than 100 languages spoken in homes of these student (Maggie Beddow) (pg VI). Since many California students came from another country with no background knowledge of the English language, they faced the real struggle when they are put into school. Many view that the more diverse the student population in a school, the “bigger” the issue when it comes to learning English. It is a challenge to teach a classroom where the students are not on the same

“According to the National Clearinghouse for English Language Acquisition, from the 1997-98 school year to the 2008-09 school year, the amount of ESL learners enrolled in U.S. public schools increased from 3.5 million to 5.3 million, a 51% increase” (WeAreTeachers Staff). The number of international students is very hide in that country “the percentage of students ages 5-12 who speak a language other than English at home has doubled since 1980” (Shi, Steen 64). In our days, around 200 dialect are be spoken in America (WeAreTeachers). “According to the 2013 American Community Survey (ACS), Spanish was the most common home or first language, spoken by 71 % of ELL students, Chinese was second with 4%, followed by Vietnamese 3%, and French/Haitian Creole 2% ” ( Top Language 1).