State Board Of Education Case Study

Case #2: Board of Education, Island Trees Union Free School District No. 26, et al. v. Pico, by his next friend Pico, et al.

English language learners enrollment in the Council member districts has remained relatively stable over the past several years. In 2007-08, 1.1 million ELLs were enrolled in urban schools, accounting for 16.5 percent of total district enrollment. In 2009–10, 1.2 million ELLs were enrolled, accounting for 17.5 percent of total district enrollment (Uro & Barrio, p. 26, 2013). The No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act of 2001 required students in grades three through eight to be tested every year in reading and math. While NCLB now holds educators more accountable with student learning, it now also tests English language learners (ELLs) in content areas (Coltrane, 2002, p.1). This denotes a question of validity and reliability with assessment. The

In the Emerson v. Board of Education Case New Jersey passed a law authorizing local school boards to provide transportation of children to and from school. The Board of Education of Ewing Township, following this law, authorized reimbursement to parents of money spent by their children on public buses. However, Arch Everson, a resident and taxpayer in the Ewing Township school district, learned that a reimbursement was going to parents who sent their children to Catholic schools as well. He then claimed that this money supported religion and violated the establishment clause of the first amendment. Ultimately, the court ruled that the new law was not in violation of the establishment clause.

Four federal laws that influence current approaches to ELL instruction are: The Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Equal Educational Opportunity Act of 1974, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, and the Title III of the No Child Left Behind Act. These laws are described

In 1982, the Supreme Court decided Board of Education of the Hendrick Hudson Central School District v. Rowley. A deaf student, named Amy Rowley enrolled in kindergarten in public school in Peekskill, New York. Amy’s parents met with school administrators to plan for her attendance and to determine what supplemental services would be necessary for her education. Amy was assigned a sign language interpreter for a short portion of her kindergarten year. After two weeks, the sign language interpreter reported that Amy did not need the services inside of the classroom. Once Amy fished her kindergarten year and started first grade, an IEP was prepared for Amy’s assistances. The IEP was provided to Amy and her parents that she would be kept in the

Guardians of six African American elementary school children, in San Francisco filed a suit against the California Department of Education in 1971. The offended party represented a class of African American children who had been placed – or later in the future be placed in a special education class called EMR “educable mentally retarded.” The EMR classed was designed for children who were found to be incapable of learning in a regular class. Keeping them from developing the necessary skills for them to return to a regular school environment. The offended parties challenged the process of the standardized individual intelligence tests. Expressing that it was one-sided against African American children, which can cause an increased socioeconomic

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

The first case of choice involved a nurse (M.M.) who was originally notified by the Missouri state board of nursing for not paying her dues and letting her license expire on a disciplinary act. Also, she was practicing out of the state that she is licensed in. She has a Missouri license and she was practicing nursing in Arkansas. Upon investigating it became apparent that M.M. did not pass her urine sample and was tested positive for morphine. M.M. was in a car accident and now, due to the car accident has back pain along with a prescription of hydrocodone. Her body built up an immunity to the hydrocodone and she felt it was no longer helping her so she began taking morphine. The morphine that she was taking was not

Florida is a state composed of diverse cultures and languages. Prior to 1990 there were not any modifications or accommodations in the classroom for English Language Learners (ELL), which had become an increasing issue. During this decade Florida was the third largest state with residents that were not native-born. Historically, Florida has become the home for many individuals who migrated from Central and Latin America (MacDonald, 2004). According to the Consent Decree (n.d.), the Florida English speakers of other languages (ESOL) Consent Decree was a result of the case, LULAC et. al v. State Board of Education, August 14, 1990. This case addresses the civil rights of English Language Learners (ELLs). The plaintiffs in this case were LULAC and Multicultural Education, Training and Advocacy (META) and the defendant were Florida Board of Education. LULAC and META came together to bring justice to students whose native language was not English. The plaintiffs’ sought to implement policies to protect students whose native language was not English in order to create an equal learning environment. For example, English was the only means of communication in the classrooms and students who did not speak or understand the language would find themselves at a disadvantage. Due to the lack of modifications in place, students would eventually fall through the cracks of the school system. This case brought

The Supreme Court case Lau v. Nichols is truly a landmark case when it comes to public education, the rights of language learners and, in a bigger picture, the treatment of immigrants. Chinese American students residing in San Francisco and attending public schools there were responsible for this truly momentous case. These students, native Chinese speakers, and knowing very little English, were placed in standard classrooms where English proficiency/fluency was required and left to struggle for their own survival (Wright, 2010). The public school district of San Francisco defended their actions, arguing that these students were receiving the exact same treatment as other students (Wright, 2010). This was of course true aside from the grotesque inequality that all the native English speakers in the classroom could understand everything that was presented, and to the Chinese American students, it was largely unfathomable.

I would like to study the politics of education in the New Britain Board of Education. I will research how they divide its power and its impact on public schools. On the Board of Education web page it states, “The mission of the Consolidated School District of New Britain is to create an educational system which will facilitate the development of students so that they may reach their fullest potential as productive human beings and be prepared to function effectively in a changing society.” In my research, I will analyze the BOE’s mission to understand its power structure. I will do this by using the interpretivist /constructivist philosophy to gather qualitative research. Additionally, I will use political party affiliation and

Supreme Court decided in Plyler v. Doe that the equal protection provision of the Constitution's 14th Amendment requires public schools to admit illegal alien children, on the presumption that denial of public education to children whose parents brought them illegally to the United States is not a rational response to states' concerns about illegal immigration. 1 The opinion, however, was based on specific circumstances that could change and it did not apply to education beyond mandatory public schooling (qtd. in Stewart, par. 8).

Rachel is an outstanding student that loves to learn. Up to this point in her life she has successfully challenged herself to excel in her academic career. I believe the Governor's School could help her advance her education and continue to motivate as a scholar. Also, while she is very motivated to learn, an additional source of encouragement and challenge will keep her enthusiastically on the path of higher education. The end goal for me is that she be well prepared for college and life afterwards so that she can succeed in becoming a productive

Public education is under funded, especially in the state of Alabama. I attended public school in the state of Alabama so I experienced it first hand. Low funds for the arts department and many of the science experiments are just some of the areas that are affected by the low funding. In the 2012-2013 school years, Alabama had over 744,637 students enrolled in a total of 1,637 schools. Alabama’s school funding has gone down 14% since 2008. Many school systems have to spend additional money from local revenue on top of what the state provides because it is not enough. Low funding in Alabama is a problem that could be fixed through a lottery system and a weighted school system.

These cases helped to shape multicultural education during the 70’s. In 1974, the Lau vs. Nichols case was brought about by Chinese students in California who claimed that they were not achieving in school because of their limited proficiency in the English Language. The students argued that not enough was being done in school to help overcome this challenge and felt it was because of their culture. The judge ruled in favor of the students and the case established the right of language minority students to educational accommodations. This verdict helped to make way for the 1979 case of Martin Luther King Elementary School vs. Ann Arbor School District. The suit was brought about by Black students who believed that the district did not seriously take their speaking of non-standard English seriously and this inadvertently caused them to obtain low reading scores. The judge ruled that the school district was responsible for identifying Black English speakers in the schools and must use that knowledge in teaching such students how to read Standard English. One key case that helped to prove the change that multicultural education had in the classroom was the 1970 case of Diana V. California State Board of Education. Mexican students felt that the school system did not take into account their Mexican culture and language into testing. The judge ruled in their favor and when the students were tested in their native language the