Bilingual Education in the US
1967-1998
Ciana DeBellis
Dr. Manko
Ed 513

1. English Immersion- instruction entirely in English for complete
immersion into the language.

2. English as a Second Language (ESL, EFL, ELL)- programs that
incorporate LEP students into the regular classroom, but typically
require one period each day for them to work strictly on English
skills.

3. Transitional Bilingual Education-provides instruction for some
subjects in the student’s native language, but a certain amount
in each day is spent on developing English skills.

4. Two-way bilingual education- programs that allow instruction
to be given in two languages to students, usually in the same
classroom, who may be dominant in one language or the other,
with the goal of the students becoming proficient in both
languages.
“Congress first endorsed funding for bilingual
education in 1968, at a time when
ethnocentrism had become a powerful political current” (Ravitch 124).
Bilingual Education Act 1967
“The 1968 bilingual education bill was unveiled in 1967 by Sen. Ralph
Yarborough of Texas, a Democrat. He faced an uphill reelection battle in
1970, hoped to win support among Mexican Americans in his home state,
and avowedly viewed the bill in the context of that strategy. Less cynically,
it was an attempt to do something about the poor performance of
Spanish-speaking schoolchildren. In Yarborough's own state, 80 percent of
Spanish-speaking children had to repeat first grade, and there were twelve
times as many Mexican Americans in first as in twelfth grade (the overall
ratio for Texas was three to one). The senator believed that the Elementary
and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA) had done little to remedy
this problem. His bill, which became Title VII of ESEA, was intended to meet
the "special educational needs of . . . children of limited English-speaking
ability" by funding local experiments in bilingual schooling. The text of the
act yields few clues regarding what its architects meant by bilingual
education: troubled by "a unique and perplexing educational situation,"
they relied on local educational agencies to "develop forward-looking
approaches." In essence, they proposed that non-English speakers be
taught in their own languages until they were fluent in English. Children
who understood their lessons would feel less alienated from school and
society, learn more, and stay in school till graduation” (Davies 1407).
TITLE VII OF ESEA CONT.
“In 1968 [while Johnson was still president] the federal
government started-in a very subdued fashion-to
encourage local school districts to instruct
underperforming non-English-speaking children in
their own languages. It was a tiny program, and its
survival prospects must have seemed bleak when
Richard M. Nixon entered the White House the
following January. Yet federal interest in bilingual
schooling not only survived, but burgeoned, during
the Nixon-Ford years: by the mid-1970s the
Department of Health, Education, and Welfare
(HEW) was requiring school districts with large
numbers of "language minorities" to institute
bilingual remedies” (Davies 1405).
“The Bilingual Education Act of 1968 -- passed during
an era of growing immigration and an energized civil
rights movement -- provided federal funding to
encourage local school districts to try approaches
incorporating native-language instruction. Most
states followed the lead of the federal government,
enacting bilingual education laws of their own or at
least decriminalizing the use of other languages in
the classroom” (rethinkingschools.org).
Great Society
Social reforms to help eliminate poverty
and racial injustice
 “in lieu of the civil rights act”
 Programs such as:

◦
◦
◦
◦
Head Start
Bilingual Education Act
Higher Education Act
Elementary and Secondary Education Act





In 1974, the Supreme Court's Lau v. Nichols decision reinforced demands
for bilingual education. The Court ruled against the San Francisco public
schools for their failure to provide English language instruction to
eighteen hundred non-English-speaking Chinese students.
Despite the Court's prudent refusal to endorse any particular method of
instruction, the bilingual educators interpreted the Lau decision as a
mandate for bilingual programs.
The districts were directed to identify the student's primary language,
not by his proficiency in English, but by determining which language was
most often spoken in the student's home, which language he had learned
first, and which language he used most often
Directed that non-English-speaking students should receive bilingual
education that emphasized instruction in their native language and
culture.
Districts were discouraged from using the "English as a Second Language"
approach, which consists of intensive, supplemental English-only instruction, or immersion techniques, in which students are instructed in
English within an English-only context (Ravitch 125).
Criticism
“The term bilingual generates different reactions... For
some it may mean learning subject matter in two
languages, or the ability of a person to speak or use two
languages equally well; for others, it means a threat to
the supremacy of the English language, and is
therefore, anti-American” (Caso 56).
(Ew, I know, right?)
Prop 227
THE SITUATION




About 25 percent of enrolled students in California had limited English skills
California's Bilingual Education Act, which required primary language instruction for non-English
speakers, expired in 1986.
In February 1998 a superior court judge ruled that primary language instruction is not required.
Local school districts may now design their own programs for LEP students.
THE PROPOSAL




The goal of Proposition 227 is to teach English to children in public schools as rapidly and
effectively as possible.
Most instruction would be in English.
English learners would be placed temporarily in a program called sheltered English immersion.
The Legislature would appropriate $50 million annually for ten years to subsidize English classes
for adults who agree to tutor English learners.
ca.lwv.org

Arguments against:
Proposition 227 mandates a single, untested program for
all school districts.
 Under Proposition 227, local school districts do not have
the right to design their own programs for LEP students.


Arguments for:
Research shows that sheltered English immersion is the
most effective method of teaching English to LEP
children.
 Younger children learn a second language more easily, so
English instruction should begin as soon as possible.

ca.lwv.org
Burke, Fred. "Bilingualism/Biculturalism in American Education: An Adventure in Wonderland." Annals of the American Academy of
Political and Social Science 454 (1981): 164-77.
Collier, Virginia. "Acquiring a Second Language for School." Directions in Language and Education 1.4 (1995): 1-10.
Davies, Gareth. "The Great Society after Johnson: The Case of Bilingual Education." The Journal of American History 88.4 (2002): 1405429.
Hornberger, Nancy. "Bilingual Education and English-Only: A Language-Planning Framework." Annals of American Academy of
Political and Social Science 508 (1990): 12-26.
"LWVC Position on Proposition 227." LWVC: Home of the League of Women Voters of California. 2 June 1998. Web. 13 Aug. 2010.
<http://ca.lwv.org/action/prop0698/actgd227.html>.
Lyons, James J. "The Past and Future Directions of Federal Bilingual-Education Policy." The Annals of the American Academy of
Political and Social Science 508 (1990): 66-80.
"NATION IN BRIEF." ProQuest Archiver. 19 Aug. 1998. Web. 10 Aug. 2010.
<http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/washingtonpost/access/33226201.html?dids=33226201:33226201&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&type
=current&date=Aug 19, 1998&author=&pub=The Washington Post&desc=NATION IN BRIEF&pqatl=google>.
Ovando, Carlos. "Bilingual Education in the United States: Historical Development and Current Issues." Bilingual Research Journal 21.1
(2003): 1-24.
Pyeior, Julie L. "From Hope to Frustration: Mexican Americans and Lyndon Johnson in 1967." The Western Historical Quarterly 24.4
(1993): 469-94.
Ravitch, Diane. "Politicization and the Schools: The Case of Bilingual Education." Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society
129.2 (1985): 121-28.
"Rethinking Schools Online." Rethinking Schools Online. Web. 18 Aug. 2010.
<http://www.rethinkingschools.org/archive/12_03/langmn.shtml>.
Secada, Walter G. "Research, Politics, and Bilingual Education." Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 508
(1990): 81-106.