At the core of contemporary U.S. language education policy is the dichotomous dividing of bilingual students into English Learners (ELs) who are entitled to extra support and non-ELs who are not entitled to this support. In this article, we genealogically trace the normative assumptions that go into this framing of the issue. We begin by examining…

The focus of this paper is on US language policy statements that govern the priorities for teaching languages other than English in public schools and the language ideologies implied by specific management moves by the federal government to regulate language education, starting with the Bilingual Education Act (BEA) of 1968. Following introductory…

Latinos now live and work in areas of the United States where they have not been before. These changes impact schools in a variety ways. This article reviews recent research on how communities have responded in the South, New England and the West with a primarily assimilationist approach including English-only policies. The article then provides a…

Traces the United States Bilingual Education Act (BEA) from its inception in 1968 through its most recent reauthorization in 1994 as the primary federal legislative effort to provide equal educational opportunity to language minority students in the United States. (Author/VWL)

The United States experience with bilingual schools falls into two periods: from 1840-1920 and from 1963 to the present. Bilingual schooling may be said to have originated in Cincinnati in 1840, where a large minority of the population was German-speaking. During this first period, perhaps a million American children received a part of their…

The report presents data and discussion on U.S. education across sectors, as well as the work of the Office of Education. Among topics covered are a progress report by the Commissioner of Education; Office of Education management; the career education in educational reform; higher education, including student financial aid and the Talent Search…