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Civil Rights Act
An act signed by President Lyndon B. Johnson, that prohibited discrimination of ones' race, color, or national origin. This act has played an important role in protecting the educational rights, specifically, of language-minority students in the U.S. -
Title VII: The Bilingual Education Act
An act signed by President Lyndon B. Johnson, that served to assist students whom were "limited-English" speakers in the acquisition of English. This act did not require schools to create bilingual programs but the Congress put money aside to fund school districts that had large numbers of language-minoritized students, so that those specific school districts could create bilingual programs. -
Lau v. Nichols
A court case brought upon by Chinese American parents against the San Francisco school board that appealed up to the U.S. Supreme Court. The court unanimously stated that the lack of supplemental instructional didn't adequately teach students with limited English proficiency for it violated the Civil Rights Acts of 1964. -
Ron Unz and "English for the Children"
Ron Unz is a software millionaire that opposed bilingual education in California. Unz created the English for the Children Initiative, that prohibited the use of home language instruction in the teaching of emergent bilinguals and mandated that English-only instruction not to exceed a year once students were placed in a mainstream English classroom. The state of California voted 61% in favor of the proposition which made it a state law. -
No Child Left Behind Act
An act signed by President George W. Bush, that focused on closing the achievement gap the form of testing and prioritizing English Immersion programs. The act required schools to evaluate the English proficiency of all students attending school for the first time, this helps the school determine which programs and services are needed by emergent bilingual students. -
Every Student Succeeds Act
An act signed by President Barack Obama, which expands on NCLB where the primary goal is to prepare all students for success in college and in their future careers. The act does implement standardized statewide for entering and exiting procedures for emergent bilinguals but focuses on their academic achievement rather than solely on their English proficiency.
