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The 1964 Civil Rights Act

In 1964, the Civil Right Act outlawed discrimination in the United states based on one's color, race, or nationality. In addition, this act led to the foundation of the Office of Civil Rights (Baker & Wright, 2021).

I believe this event is important to bilingual education because it sparked the importance of equality for minorities within the United States. Being that this act laid the foundation for protecting the educational rights of ELL students, it will later be used in court cases to continue protecting students across the country.

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The Bilingual Education Act (BEA - Title VII)

In 1967, Ralph Yarborough created an amendment known as the Bilingual Education Act as a part of the 1965 Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA). The original idea for the act was to support native Spanish speaking students who were struggling in education. However, the act expanded to support any student that spoke another language other than English. In 1968, Title VII was created to indicate that bilingual education programs were to be implemented as part of the federal educational policy. Title VII was the first federal legislation to support bilingual education in the United States (Baker & Wright, 2021).

I believe this event is important to bilingual education because it promoted equal educational opportunities by providing federal funding to support bilingual programs for students whose first language was not English. Without this act, we may not have bilingual education or federal support and funding in today's education.

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Lau v. Nichols

In 1970, Chinese-speaking students with limited English proficiency were not receiving language support in their schools. These students were placed in regular classes, with no additional instruction or accommodations to help them learn English. This sparked the court case against the San Francisco School District. Being that these students did not receive the appropriate education, the school district violated the equal protection clause of the 14th amendment and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. In response to this case, Lau Remedies were created, which provided guidelines for school districts to comply with the ruling. These guidelines required schools to develop bilingual programs, ESL instruction, or other supports to ensure that ELL students could succeed academically. (Baker & Wright, 2021).

I believe this is important to bilingual education because it requires language accommodations to ensure ELL students can access the curriculum and become academically successful.

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No Child Left Behind (NCLB)

On December 13, 2001, the NCLB was approved by the House of Representatives. It was signed into law by President George W. Bush in January of 2002. NCLB introduced significant changes to U.S. education policy, including how schools support English language learners (ELLs). While the act aimed to improve educational outcomes for all students by focusing on accountability and standardized testing, it shifted the national approach to bilingual education by prioritizing English language acquisition over bilingualism. States, school districts and teachers were held accountable for the academic performance of ELLs (Baker & Wright, 2021).

NCLB is important to bilingual education today because it laid the foundation for bilingual education policies by establishing accountability frameworks, English proficiency standards, and funding mechanisms that still remain for today’s dual-language and ESL programs.

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Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA)

On December 10, 2015, President Barack Obama signed the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) into law. The ESSA replaced the NCLB. ESSA revamped the failures of the NCLB, which included changing the academic expectations for ELLS on standardized tests. Although states and schools were still held accountable for testing ELLS, they were given more flexibility to set more realistic goals and were able to use various types of assessments to check for ELL student achievement (Baker & Wright, 2021).

ESSA is important for bilingual education today because it provides flexibility, funding, and support for programs that promote bilingualism. ESSA encourages schools to view students' native languages as assets and supports dual language models that benefit both ELLs and native English speakers.