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Latino student protest leaders discussing discrimination with Senator Ralph Yarborough. 

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The Bilingual Education Act of 1968 was introduced by Senator Ralph Yarborough in 1967. It was the first piece of federal legislation that recognized the needs of MLs, who at the time were called Limited English Proficient (LEP) students. It provided federal funding for the establishment of educational programs for MLs, marking a significant shift toward recognizing and supporting linguistic diversity.

Prior to this legislation, MLs were often assessed in the same manner as native English speakers, without accommodations for their language needs. With its enactment, the importance of supporting MLs in their native language while acquiring English was recognized. Schools started to develop and implement assessments that were more reflective of MLs' educational needs, and a precedent was set for future policies and practices that focused on more equitable assessment strategies.

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In this federal court case, a three-part test was established to evaluate whether school districts were adequately supporting ELL students. It became known as the Castañeda Standard and required school districts to base their programs for MLs on educationally sound theories, implement the programs with enough funding, resources, and personnel to put the theories into practice, and to prove that their programs were effective after a certain amount of time.

In order for schools to demonstrate the efficacy of their programs, they needed appropriate assessments and evaluations that genuinely reflected the educational progress of MLs. This decision highlighted the importance of using assessments as tools to diagnose educational needs and determine how instruction should be adapted, rather than seeing assessments merely as government requirements. It paved the way for more fair and effective approaches to ML assessments in the United States.

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The TESOL International Association published the first ever national ELP standards in the United States, called "ESL Standards for Pre-K - 12 Students". The framework for these standards consisted of three goals: to use English to communicate in social settings, to achieve academically in all content areas, and to use English in socially and culturally appropriate ways. These were meant to guide educators of MLs and had a significant impact on their assessment.

These standards encouraged the development of comprehensive assessment practices that aligned with content area standards. They also underscored the need for differentiated assessment strategies, leading to more holistic practices and an overall awareness that assessments for MLs need to be more equitable and reflective of their unique needs.

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Title III of the NCLB Act, "Language Instruction for Limited English Proficient and Immigrant Students," was designed to ensure that MLs attain English proficiency and meet the same academic content achievement standards as all children. Funding was provided for the development of ELP standards, annual ELP assessments, and the establishment of annual measurable achievement objectives.

Title III represented a significant federal effort to the improvement of ML instruction and assessment, bringing attention to the special needs of MLs. Holding schools accountable for MLs' progress led to better resources, support, and more attention to the special needs of MLs. However, the reliance on standardized testing as a measure of success had many negative effects. The results didn't accurately reflect the knowledge and skills of MLs, pressure on teachers led to a narrow focus of instruction as they focused on testing benchmarks, and pressure on students to adapt to a one-size-fits-all approach, which did not account for their diverse backgrounds and educational histories.

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The ESSA replaced the NCLB Act, reduced federal involvement, and gave states more flexibility in the establishment of standards for MLs. Now, a student's level of English proficiency would be taken into account when goals were being set, and different measures of learning in addition to the high-stakes testing could be considered. Instead of being an indistinct part of a large pool of "at-risk" students, MLs were looked at as a separate subgroup with their own unique needs.

States were given two options for using test data for accountability. They could either wait until a student had been in the country for one year before scores counted toward a school's rating or publicly report test scores without counting toward a school's rating. Though ESSA made several positive changes, the focus has remained on high-stakes tests that misrepresent the full knowledge and skills of MLs.