# data[].attributes.body
Lau v. Nichols was a case brought before the supreme court on January 21, 1974. The ruling of the case stated that under the Civil Rights Act of 1964, a California school district which received federal funding must provide non-English-speaking students with English language instruction. This was to ensure that these students receive an equal education. The case thus established that language programs are a necessity to provide equal educational opportunities.

# data[].attributes.body
In 1997, the first English Language Proficiency standards were determined by the TESOL International Association in the U.S. These standards were for students Pre-K-12 students on a national level. The standards are important because they were the first to promote a vision of effective education for the growing U.S. English Language Learner (ELL) population.

# data[].attributes.body
The goal of No Child Left Behind (NCLB), which was enacted under George Bush, was to provide every child in the U.S. with a good education so that "no child is left behind". However, the laws definition of a "good education" was reduced to a high score on standardized tests in English and math. If children were to fail the exams, they were deemed to not have been given a good education.

Our education system was lacking in accountability. NCLB changed that by implementing ultra-high stakes testing of students, included EBs. This mean EBs were to be tested in English before they knew English. Increased accountability is one of the remaining positive effects of NCLB.

Some argue that NCLB testing only replicated the same inequalities in the place of eradicating them. Negative effects of NCLB included dismantling of bilingual education programs, narrowing of curriculum to only content areas, declining graduation rates, higher rate of special education classification of EBs, undermining the goals of Dual Language Bilingual Education programs, and creating situations where bilingualism is a "problem".

# data[].attributes.body
No Child Left Behind (NCLB) was in turn replaced by the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) under President Obama. One of the main changes under ESSA was to give control back to states and school districts in the place of the federal government.

ESSA still states that the EB subgroup should exist due to its unique linguistic and cultural needs, but states are given more flexibility than under NCLB. Under ESSA, yearly English Language Proficiency (ELP) standards and assessments are used to track student progress. Schools are still held accountable for Emergent Bilinguals (EB) underachievement.

However, ESSA has its shortcomings. It still highly focuses on accountability testing in the place of classroom assessment in terms of school improvement. ESSA is further assimilationist in character and while it was designed to support EBs more, it continues to reinforce anti-bilingual education or English-only policies in education.

While accountability is important in the education of EBs, classroom assessments versus testing might more accurately evaluate a student's ELP and progress.

# data[].attributes.headline
WIDA (2002), English Language Proficiency for the 21st Century (ELPA21)(2016) & State Assessments

# data[].attributes.subject
WIDA (2002), English Language Proficiency for the 21st Century (ELPA21)(2016) & State Assessments

# data[].attributes.body
ELPA21 is comprised of group of states which are committed to supporting educators, school administration, and communities as they implement new ELP standards, in addition to college- and career-ready standards. ELPA21 is currently made up of 10 states (Washington, Oregon, Nebraska, Kansas, Iowa, Arkansas, Ohio, West Virginia & North Carolina).

WIDA is an acronym developed from (W) Wisconsin, (D) Delaware, and (A) Arkansas. The three states who an enhanced assessment grant funded and would later develop the Wida Consortium, a group of state departments of education who focus on the advancement of academic language development and achievement of children who are culturally and linguistically diverse.

Some states have chosen to develop their own ELP assessments. These states include California, Arizona, Texas, Georgia, South Carolina, New York, and Connecticut.

All these assessments are to measure students' progression toward English fluency or ELP.  Although, it is widely recognized the difficulty of measuring language with precision and much less in a non-authentic way like that of a standardized test.