Running head: Bechara-Week1 Paper 1

Samantha Bechara

UC San Diego Extension CLAD through CTEL

Language and Language Development

Week 1- Paper 1
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Throughout history legal decisions made in the U.S. have had an impact on education

laws, trends in approaches used to teach our children, and language ideology. Prior to

colonization, the U.S. was diverse with approximately 250 to 1,000 American Indian languages

... spoken(Ovando, 2003,p.1). After colonization, various groups who established homestead

were able to utilize their language for social, educational, and religion. However, the United

States of America founders envisioned a country with a unified history, with unified traditions,

and with a unified language(Hechinger, 1978,p.130 as cited in Ovando,2003,p.2). Since, the

ideology of language has been continuously changing and inconsistent due to historical events,

political view points, social reform and, the economic contexts.

Throughout history, the stands on language ideology has swayed between the paradigm

for and against bilingualism for the American people and students. In the 1890s laws were

developed to require immigrants wishing to settle in the United States to have the ability to read

40 words in any language promoting literacy development in many mother-tounges (Ovando,

2003, p. 5). However, this belief and ideology quickly evolved due to concerns and about impact

foreign ideologies would have on the United States education system resulting in a shift to obtain

the power to control how children were educated. Based on the Naturalization Act of

1906 immigrants were forced to learn and speak English immigrants must be able to speak

English (Ovando, 2003, p. 5). The view of the policy makers was that it was up to the language

minority students, not that schools, to make the linguistic, cultural, and cognitive adjustments

necessary to achieve assimilation into American society (Ovando, 2003, p. 6). As a result,

teachers did not attend to the cultural or linguistic needs of their students.

Since the 1900s historical events such as the Civil Rights Movement, Cuban Revolution,

and other events have continued to recognize the importance to attend to cultural and linguistic
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needs of students providing bilingual educational learning. Laws have been passed such as the

Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, providing federal funding to schools to cover

the cost of educating disadvantaged students. Through the push for bilingual education was

successful due to the supportive roles of families, well-trained teachers, government assistance,

and cultural acceptance within the community. Bilingual education was provided in a variety of

programs including structured immersion, partial immersion, transitional bilingual programs,

maintenance for the development of bilingual education, and two-way immersion programs

(Ovando, 2003). The push following Lau vs. Nichols 1974, found English to be the basic

language of instruction, requiring schools to provide instruction in developing English

competencies.

Following, in 1976 fourteen states mandated Bilingual Education explicitly identifying

bilingual education as a right as seen in California AB 1329 Chacon-Moscone Bilingual

Bicultural Education Act. This shift mirrored that of the past where the childs mother-tongue

and culture were highlighted as a part of their educational process. The shift in focus became to

have bilingual education for language-minority students to enable them to become bilingual,

bi-literate, and bicultural (Ovando, 2003, p. 10)

As stated by Ovando & Collier, (1998) research suggests that young children may not

reach full proficiency in their second language if cognitive development is discontinued in their

primary language (as cited in Ovando, 2003, p.15). Thus this shift in a paradigm changed once

again in 1998 when California passed of Prop 227, requiring California public education and

government funding to instruct all children in English through intensive immersion classes

promoting English language development in the classroom.

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The No Child Left Behind law of 2002, continued to influence the way students are

taught required school districts to prove where the federal funding was going to support bilingual

language learners development. Programs for students were required to address academic,

linguistic, sociocultural, and emotional needs of students from culturally and linguistically

diverse backgrounds (Ovando, 2003, p. 8). In addition, NCLB required highly qualified

teachers and provided federal mandates about the progress students must make related to their

education, threating schools if their students did not make progress their funding could be

jeopardized.

A change has been implemented once again with the Every Student Succeeds Act signed

in 2015 provided states more control over education policy replacing the NCLB Act and removes

the strict federal mandates on education related to funding (Editorial Projects in Education

Research Center, 2016). The ESSA is now in full effect for the 2017-2018 school year and

requires states to pick their own accountability goals addressing proficiency on tests, English-

language proficiency, and graduation rates. It specifically discusses and provides guidelines for a

variety of subcategories such as low-performing schools, school interventions, testing,

curriculum standards, transitions from NCLB, English Language Learners, students in special

education, funding, and teacher qualifications.

The history of legal decision making continues to influence education policy. The state of

California continues to strive to meet the diverse linguistic and cultural needs of its students

requiring all teachers have knowledge in providing instruction to English Language Learners

with the requirement of Cross-Cultural Language and Academic Development (CLAD)

Certification for its educators. This requirement aims to ensure that California students receive
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educators that are aware of their diverse needs, maximize their learning potential and provide

them the tools to understand the content taught using the Common Core Curriculum.
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Reference:

Editorial Projects in Education Research Center. (2015, April 10). Issues A-Z: No Child Left

Behind: An Overview. Education Week. Retrieved Month Day, Year from

http://www.edweek.org/ew/section/multimedia/no-child-left-behind-overview-definition-

summary.html/

Editorial Projects in Education Research Center. (2016, March 31). Issues A-Z: The Every

Student Succeeds Act: An ESSA Overview. Education Week. Retrieved Month Day,

Year from http://www.edweek.org/ew/issues/every-student-succeeds-act/

Ovando, C. J. (2003). Bilingual education in the united states:Historical development and current

issues'. Bilingual Research Journal , 27 (1), 1-24.