The 1800s were the first time that the government was noted to mandate English-only instruction as California's 1855 legislature and the Bureau of Indian Affairs suppressed the practices of other cultures (Baker & Wright, 2021, p. 6).

This is important because these xenophobic and racism-based attitudes have decimated not just learning, but entire generations. This was the beginning of multiple generations fighting for what cultures should survive. It is crucial to understand the shortcomings of the past to help prevent their repetition.

The beginning of WWI saw nationalist movements that promoted assimilation, monoculturalism, and the superiority of English for America (Baker & Wright, 2021, p. 6). These attitudes decimated the balance of diverse communities, as mother tongues were now viewed with distrust and symbolized the nation's enemies.

This shift in mindset is crucial in the history of Bilingual education. The deeply engrained ideals of American patriotism and corresponding assimilation still resonate today. The ideas are the foundation of movements against Bilingual Education that still need to be dismantled today.

This law banned exclusions due to color, race, or nationality (Baker & Wright, 2021, p. 105).

This is crucial because it began fighting the attitudes against minorities developed during the World Wars. It laid the groundwork to overturn state legislation banning Bilingual Education.

George W. Bush signed this education overhaul into effect in 2002 (Baker & Wright, 2021, p. 111). Schools would now have to use standardized testing to prove their methods of instruction were effective at creating high-achieving students. It brought back deficit models of education and limited bilingual education, effectively silencing it in favor of teaching the English these students had not yet acquired.

This is a huge moment in the history of bilingual education. It was the beginning of a regression toward the English-only instruction of the 1920s. Schools that underperformed on testing (which was inequitable to emerging multilingual students) lost funding rather than receiving increased support and interventions. While there have since been improvements made in legislature like the Every Student Succeeds Act and Race to the Top grants, the emphasis on high-stakes testing and propaganda against Bilingual Education persists in limiting student achievement (Baker & Wright, 2021, p. 112).