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Naturalization Act of 1906
The act established that to become naturalized US citizens, immigrants must be able to speak English. This meant that if a child did not know english, they wouldn't be able to understand what is being taught making it hard and almost impossilbe to have ELLs in the classroom. http://www-rohan.sdsu.edu/dept/polsciwb/brianl/docs/1906naturalizationact.pdf -
Meyer v. Nebraska
"The supreme court declared that forbidding, under any penalty, the teaching in any school, of any modern language, other than English, to any child who has not successfully passed the eigth grade invades the liberty of the fourteenth amendment." They were not allowed to teach foreign langauges in the elementary classroom. This meant that ELLs wouldn't be able to unerstand what is being taugh since it would be in a language they don't know. https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/262/390 -
National Defense Education Act of 1958
"The goal of this act was to enable the country's education system to meet the demands posed by national security needs." It was aiming to raise the level of foreign-language education in the United States. This would help the ELLs. They would be able to understand what is being taught in the classroom since the teacher could speak that specific langauge and better help them to learn English. http://www.britannica.com/topic/National-Defense-Education-Act -
1964 Civil Rights Act
The Civil Right Act fostered linguistic diversity. This act was huge for our country and especially for our schools. This meant that you were protected from discrimination. The ELLs would be able to be in the classroom and be a normal student like everyone else. This makes learning easier for the student. -
Immigration Act
As a result of the immigration act, many Asians and Latin Americans started to enter the country. With this change, the schools started to see more language-minority students from those regions of the world in the classrooms. Bilingual instruction was much needed here with these groups now in the classrooms. https://www.boundless.com/u-s-history/textbooks/boundless-u-s-history-textbook/the-sixties-1960-1969-29/the-johnson-administration-223/the-immigration-act-of-1965-1251-8799/ -
Bilingual Education Act
"This act was noted to be the first official recognition of the needs of students with limited English speaking ability." Many of the elementary schools and some secondary Bilingual Education Programs and ESL programs were initiated, especially in the southwest. They created this act to aid and monitor the education of English Language-Learners through mother-tongue and English Education. The act strove to help language minority students. http://www.ncela.us/files/rcd/BE021037/Fall88_6.pdf -
Equal Education Opportunities Act
This act expanded bilingual practices to all public schools. The act gave the rights of all children to have equal educational opportunities. This helps the ELL students in the classroom to have the same opportunities as a native. This helps them to be successful. http://lawhighereducation.org/52-equal-educational-opportunities-act-eeoa.html -
Lau Remedies
This was said that Bilingual Education should be recommended for all school districs with at least 20 ELLs of the same language. It redirected school districts to provide strong versions of bilingual education for language minority students. "This was a mjor effort to help school districts understand their responsibilites to national origin minority students." http://www.maec.org/Old/lyons/4.html -
Castañeda v. Pickard
This court case is the second most important court decision influencing bilingual education. This case dealt with the violation of civil rights under the Equal Education Opportunities Act of 1974. The fifth circuit of appeals established a three step test for assessing language-minority students. One was sound educational theory anchoring school plan, Second was adequate resources and personnel. Third was program reflecting sound practices and language and academic results. web.stanford.edu -
No Child Left Behind Act
"The major focus of No Child Left Behind is to close student achievement gaps by providing all children with a fair, equal, and significant opportunity to obtain a high-quality education." This was a big deal and replaced the Bilingual Education Act. This insured that ELL students would not get left behind just because they aren't understanding or speak a different language. http://www.k12.wa.us/esea/NCLB.aspx
