Trivia is awesome.
And you never know when you may actually need to give someone this information or respond to an administrator, parent or layperson. I always feel that the more that we as teachers understand the larger picture in which we operate and realize that every decision and action that takes place in our schools and classrooms involves a political (and other) stance of some sort, the more effective advocates we become for our English Learners.
D'oh! I've managed to deluge you with a mouthful again.
Let's just skip to the info...
Lau v. Nichols
This seminal court case was brought by Chinese-American parents on behalf of their English Learner children against the San Francisco Unified School District. They argued that they were not receiving the help they needed in school due to their inability to speak English. They based their they claim to the rights they felt they were entitled to under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 because of its ban on educational discrimination on the basis of national origin.
In 1974, the U.S. Supreme Court sided with the students and this case greatly expanded the rights of language minority students, and paved the way for policy, services and funding sources for "Limited English Proficient (LEP) students." Of course, now we know them as English Language Learners.
And yet, 35 years later, in some places, we are still having conversations about serving these students their basic needs: adequate ELD instruction; fair, valid measures of assessing progress in English proficiency; culturally responsive, relevant ELD curriculum and respect for ELD as a content area as essential as language arts and math. Not to mention a little more respect for those of us who teach and support ELD teachers!
Anyway, thanks for taking a stroll down the annals of history. Can't understand where we should be heading if we don't know what has taken place!
Here's a link to the Office of Civil Right's reference to this case if you feel like taking a peek! http://www.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/ell/lau.html
- W
About Me
- Weezy
- I am an extrovert by nature and an introspect when necessary. I enjoy life and do not take it for granted. My passion is to help educators become more effective at what they do, not only through changing practices, but changing assumptions about the students they teach- particularly, students of color, Standard English Leaners, English Language learners and all others who have been systematically denied access to core curriculum and subjugated to low expectations.
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