What Is the Meta Consent Decree and How Has It Affected Teaching and Learning?

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.

Many people still debate the benefits of bilingual education. Even if the program were supported, there would be no way to insure that it has successfully achieved its goal. “The problem with this method (bilingual education) is that there is no objective way to measure whether a child has learned enough English to be placed in class where academic instruction is entirely in English. As a result, some children have been kept in native language classes for six years” (Hayakawa 577). Not only is there no way to measure if a student is ready to be out of the program, those students who were stuck in the program for several years infers the feeling of being out-casted. Children complain of systematically being segregated from their English-speaking peers being put in to the bilingual

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

Rodriguez builds a formidable case against bilingual education with his bilingual childhood experiences. Rodriguez grew up speaking Spanish, but then learned how to speak English later in life so he knows what effects bilingual education has on bilingual kids who grew up speaking a private language at homes. When Rodriguez first came to the United States in Sacramento, California he understood “about fifty stray English words” (Richard Rodriguez “Aria: A Memoir of a Bilingual Childhood”). He was a Mexican immigrant whose family only knew how to speak Spanish. The neighbors of Rodriguez’s family didn’t like them, so when they were out walking they would tell Rodriguez’s parents “Keep your brats away from my sidewalk!” (Rodriguez 571). Rodriguez loses the “special feeling of closeness at home” when he learned English (Rodriguez 577). Personal experiences are what makes him a credible author. Rodriguez used strong ethos and pathos appeals, but he didn’t use strong logos appeals. He didn’t use facts or reasoning in his memoir to prove his points against bilingual education.

The NCLB Act has become the largest intervention by the federal government. This act promises to improve student learning and to close the achievement gap between the white students and students of color. The law is aimed at having standardized test to measure student performance and quality of teacher. The Standardized exams are fully focused on reading and mathematics. This law characterizes an unequalled extension of the federal role into the realm of local educational accountability. High school graduation rates are also a requirement as an indicator of performance at secondary level. In low performing schools they get punished by receiving less funds and students have the choice to move to high performing school. The quality of our

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

Ms. Jelin asked for the Boards support to develop equitable solutions and protocals to move the district to be in compliance with the law and the Board policies. Board President Mavel asked Ms. Jelin to contact Assistant Superintendent Rogenski regarding the forms she was unable to locate.

Bilingualism has shown to strengthen cognitive ability. Bilingualism maintain cultures and self-esteem and build strong communities of families that can effectively contribute back to society. Unfortunately, the No Child Left Behind Act of 2002 states that it was established to “help ensure that English language learners and immigrant students attain English proficiency and achieve academically” which has a tendency to be interpreted as programs that look more like English Immersion or assimilation which is something that has been proven not to be academically successful. The goal of our current educational policies toward education do not utilize such terms or seem to support cultural maintenance or

According to Section 1001 of Public Law 107, ‘‘The purpose of this title is to ensure that all children have a fair, equal, and significant opportunity to obtain a high-quality education and reach, at a minimum, proficiency on challenging State academic achievement standards and state academic assessments.” The NCLB act sought to create a structure that all States could base their public education system off of. This structure included the confirmation that all the public schools teaching materials, including teachers, were challenging students in a way that could be measured. Also, calling for an evaluation of the achievement gap between high and low performing children, especially between the disadvantaged students and their more advantaged peers, would be necessary so that schools could use the acts resources to eventually close the gap. This act allows States to set a standard based on obligations given and requires them to accomplish those standards. NCLB holds schools, local education agencies, and States accountable for academic achievement for all public schools, this also means that they will be responsible for improving schools that do not meet the educational standards set by that State. The act requires there be a flexible budget set aside for the needed improvements, specifically to aid the needs of

law that protects the privacy of student education records. The impact on a school leader for not

Bilingual education policies in the Unites States have been influenced by many factors. These factors range from the different attitudes towards languages in general and the controversy that bilingual education creates among interested parties, to the relation between state and federal level language policies. All of these factors together, along with a number of historical events, have contributed, in one way or another, in shaping the country’s policies of teaching language-minority students (Crawford, 2004; Johnson & Johnson, 2015; Ruiz, 1988).

The history of bilingual education is not simply in the past. It is still affecting the ways that policies are being created. Many of the proactive things that are taking place regarding bilingual education, are simply things to reverse the damage that has been done in the past. It is necessary to start looking towards the future and what can be done to right the wrongs. Bilingual education is important to many people, and many people can benefit from it without even realizing it. Researchers Yoon Kyong Kim et al, points out that there is a significant lack of communication between the researchers and the policy makers (2015). This is cause for concern because while there are many facts that support bilingual education and the best program models to use, the people

Beginning in the 1960’s Dade County Public Schools became one of the first school districts in the country to have a fully bilingual education program due to influx of Spanish students. In1990, The Florida Consent Decree (META) was established in order for English Language Learners to receive free and appropriate public education. The Decree includes Identification and Assessment of ELLs, Equal Access to Appropriate Programming, Equal Access to Other Programming, Personnel, Monitoring, and Outcome Measures. More recently, the Florida State School Board has established six steps to identify and assess English Language Learners (ELL) before they can receive benefits.

Bilingual education was first initiated in 1968. It was a new means to educate the children who spoke a minority language. thirty-one years later the same problems exist for those children who speak a language other then English. The experiment of Bilingual education has been a failure and now it’s time to move on. The first English only initiatives were brought forth in 1981 by newly elected president Reagan. Since then the conflict over Bilingual education has drove on. Currently twenty-three states have “English Only” laws with 4 states having laws that are pending. The issue of bilingual education and the conflict that surrounds it is primarily focused between whites and Hispanics, although since the mid 70’s it’s also been involved

On this Earth, we speak many languages. People are able to communicate, learn, and express themselves through language. Bilinguals earn an even bigger opportunity to communicate and learn through others; however, in the United States, there are many differing opinions about bilingualism and the treatment of bilinguals. Two writers, Martin Espada and Richard Rodriguez, show a couple of the many opinions at hand. Martin Espada is an English professor at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, and his essay illustrates his experience being a bilingual rights activist in the United States. Richard Rodriguez is an award-winning author who retells the difficulties he had as a child forced to speak English. Both writers show the struggles of being bilingual, but have different stand points on how it should be handled.