History of ESL Programs in Texas Flashcards
1964: Title VI of the Civil Rights Act is created,
providing equal educational opportunities and causing a major change in the perceptions of minorities. At this time, institutionally segregated schooling ends.
1967: The Texas Education Agency (TEA) creates
accreditation measures allowing schools to offer instructional programs in two languages
1968:
The Bilingual Education Act, Title VII of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (1965) passes.
1970: The Office for Civil Rights issued a memorandum to all schools to offer
adequate support in the instruction of English minority students. Districts with more than 5% ELLs are obliged to provide equal educational opportunities, although temporary grouping of special language students is allowed
1973: Texas enacts the Bilingual Education and Training Act stating that
public schools enrolling 20 or more ELLs in a given grade level must provide native language instruction to facilitate transfer to the mainstream classrooms; ESL teaching is required to develop English literacy skills.
1974: Lau vs. Nichols
assures the survival of bilingual programs
1975: Lau Remedies,
guidelines for planning appropriate bilingual/ESL education, are introduced
1981: Castaneda vs. Pickard
establishes a three-part assessment for bilingual programs. The criteria being that the bilingual education program must be based on sound educational theory, be implemented effectively with appropriate resources, and must be proven effective.
2001; No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) requires
That all ELLs receive quality instruction for learning both English and grade-level academic content, paving the way for English-only education.
BIlingual schools and native language supplemental saturday schools have exited
throughout time
Wartime caused
alienation and resistance to groups of people who used their native languages.
In 1968, the BIlingual Education act was passed under LBJ, yet
not all states have welcomed this manner of education students, preferring to use English as a Second Language approaches.
There are different types of subgroups declared for reporting at the state level and at the federal level. The ELL group is in
the federal accountability system under the No Child Left Behind Act. Yearly progress in English proficiency is expected along with achievement in the subject areas of reading and mathematics.
Advocacy is part of the bilingual teacher’s
reality. The law does allow parents to deny placement of their children in bilingual program.
Why might a parent deny placement in bilingual program
because of a negative exprience in school, perhaps when using the native language. Now they do not wan their child to go through the same experience.
Teachers have an obligation to inform parents of
current practices in school that do not penalize students for speaking their first language and the benefits of the program, and ensure that they are making a sound decision regarding the education and future of the children based on facts rather than impressions or current politics.
The short-term gain in
Conversational English does not suffice for success in academic settings in English.
Lau vs. Nichols (1974)
cornerstone for providing equitable access to education (not equal treatment) to ELLs whose home language is something other than English. Terminology has moved form “Limited English Proficient” to English Language Learners (ELLs) however, this latter designation is still considered insufficient by many bilingual educators since it does not place value on bilingualism as a goal or asset.
Casteneda vs Pickard (1981)
set in place more specific guidelines by which to determine whether a particular school district was meeting requirements for ELLs. The school district of Raymondville, Texas, was charged with violating the civil rights of ELLs under the Equal Education Opportunities Act (1974)
In response to Casteneda vs pickard
a three-step test was established for determining whether school districts were taking “appropriate action” for assessing programs serving language minority students
- program must be anchored in sound theory
- adequate resources and personnel must be evident in the school program
- the school program must reflect sound practices and results, not only in language but also in content areas such as math, science, social studies, and language arts.
Plyler vs Doe (1982)
denying funding or charging for undocumented immigrant children’s education is illegal.
Serna v. Portales (1974)
schools must provide a bilingual curriculum to accommodate ELLs
Rios vs. Reed (1978)
bilingual program needs to actually be bilingual, not essentially English-only.
Bilingual education is mandated
only for the elementary grades in Texas. Middle school and high schools have bilingual education, but all that is required by law is ESL. Few districts offer dual language in middle schools and even fewer that have dual language in high school grades.
Texas state law calls for bilingual education to be offered in a district when ther are
20 or more speakers of a language at a grade level.
ESL program is
subtractive since it does not use the L1 at all.
Early exit bilingual programs are
less effective than late-transition ones and are also considered subtractive since the children will most likely lose the use of their native language by grade 2.
In the US preference for
assimilation and one national official language has been a barrier to valuing bilingualism.
a child’s first buidling block
bringing what he knows from home. Teacher must accelerate learning at all costs, preferably through tapping into the student’s knowledge and areas of interest.
Teacher needs to appeal to emotions to
help keep their guard dows so that they can learn. This is referred to as the affective filter.
Teachers can form small groups for instruction and may use the materials in both languages to discuss
Transfer of knowledge from the first language to the second.
Dual language by content area
langauge of instrucition separated by subject ares. Fidelity to the program calls for the teacher to use only the designated language of instruction for the specified content.
Benefit of dual lanugage program model
students from different language backgrounds interact and learn from one another.
When instruction is given in English, the teacher rmust
have materials that scaffold the leanring fo the students so that the language is comprehensible to students, or the teacher will have to use strategies that provide multiple points of access.
By having state adopted and supplmental materials in two languages,
bilingual teachers can collaboratively plan with their grade level teams for units of instruction.
