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The Nationality Act was in 1906, passed which required immigrants to the United States to speak English if they wanted to become American citizens. This legislature came after many public schools were being filled with immigrants and a fear of foreigners was on the rise. Many Americans wanted immigrants to assimilate, and their lack of English was a concern for social, political, and economic concern. English was also associated with loyalty to the United States, and therefore the Nationality Act of 1906 was passed. This then lead to a belief that schools should have English-only instruction in order to solidify child literacy in English.

This act is important to bilingual education today because it is one of the first examples where the United States government puts bilingualism and using another language in a negative light, rather than it being something positive. The Nationality Act led to many other resolutions and legislation to be passed in favor of English monolingualism.

Reference

Baker. C., and Wright, W.E. (2021). Historical introduction to bilingual education in the United States. Foundations of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism (7th Edition) . Multilingual Matters.
doi.org/10.21832/BAKER9899

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In 1963, Coral Way Elementary School was established by Cuban exiles as the first modern dual language school. Because they thought they would only be in exile for a short period, these Cubans set up a bilingual school in order to maintain their mother tongue of Spanish. The school received both political support and funding, and gained a lot of attention around the country. This led to the National Education Association calling for legislation supporting bilingual education after meeting about the dire educational needs to Mexican-American students.

Coral Way Elementary School is important to bilingual education today because it paved a way for the establishment of other bilingual schools in the United States, and started the conversation for legislation to be passed in favor of these schools.

Reference

Baker. C., and Wright, W.E. (2021). Historical introduction to bilingual education in the United States. Foundations of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism (7th Edition) . Multilingual Matters.

doi.org/10.21832/BAKER9899

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In 1970, a landmark court case for bilingual education, Law vs. Nichols, was brought to the US Supreme Court on behalf of Chinese-speaking students against the San Francisco School District. The case argued that non-English speaking students were not receiving equal educational opportunities because they were being instructed in a language they could not understand, allegedly violating the equal protection clause of the 14th amendment and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Eventually being accepted by the Supreme Court in 1974, submersion programs for students who were not yet proficient in English were outlawed.

This Supreme Court case is extremely important to bilingual education because it set a precedent for the equitable education of non-English speaking students. It created remedies, like ESL classes, in schools in order to help students become proficient in English. Many of these remedies are still in effect today and affect modern education.

Reference

Baker. C., and Wright, W.E. (2021). Historical introduction to bilingual education in the United States. Foundations of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism (7th Edition) . Multilingual Matters.

doi.org/10.21832/BAKER9899

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In 1998, California’s Proposition 227, known as the ‘English for the Children’ initiative, was presented as an effort to improve English language instruction for students who needed to learn the language for economic and employment opportunities. The Proposition stated that all children in California Publix schools would be taught English as fast and effectively as possible. The goal of the initiative was to outlaw bilingual education, and therefore greatly restricted bilingual programs.

Even though this is not a big national case, I believe this event is important to bilingual education today because it created a written document that severely limited bilingual education in one state. This Proposition made bilingual education virtually illegal, and therefore students were not getting an equitable education. Because of this, and because this legislation was only passed in 1998, there are adults still living who are most likely affected by this. These adults may not be proficient in English, or may not have learned as much as they could have, due to the fact that the state of California did not allow them to learn in their native language.

Reference

Baker. C., and Wright, W.E. (2021). Historical introduction to bilingual education in the United States. Foundations of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism (7th Edition) . Multilingual Matters.

doi.org/10.21832/BAKER9899

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On January 8, 2002, President George W. Bush signed No Child Left Behind (NCLB) into law. The term ‘limited English proficient’ (LEP) was brought back, and with it, brought back a deficit view towards students, rather than calling them emergent bilinguals. NCLB focused heavily on English language development and eliminated specific funding for bilingual education. This legislation requires “LEP” students to make adequate yearly progress in order to pass the state standards-based tests. This was extremely inequitable due to the fact that the tests were given in English, and schools that did not meet annual targets were labeled ‘failing schools’.

NCLB is important to bilingual education today because it eliminated federal funding for bilingual programs, causing schools to focus on English-only instruction. Additionally, teachers were preparing their students for high-stakes testing rather than improving the quality of the teaching and learning, which caused increased drop-out rates, along with other negative outcomes. These effects are still felt today as schools try to turn around their bilingual education policies, as well as gain more fluent bilingual teachers.

Reference

Baker. C., and Wright, W.E. (2021). Historical introduction to bilingual education in the United States. Foundations of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism (7th Edition) . Multilingual Matters.

doi.org/10.21832/BAKER9899