This article presents the keynote address given by Dr. Monty Roessel, Superintendent of the Rough Rock (Navajo) Community School, at the Center for Indian Education Relaunch Celebration held on the ASU Tempe campus May 6, 2011. Here, the author reflects on the legacy of the Center, co-founded by his father, Dr. Robert A. (Bob) Roessel, Jr., who…

This brief provides an overview of three federal laws that address native-language education and illustrates how these federal laws produce different results when coupled with state laws and other regional circumstances. For the purposes of this brief, native-language education refers to American Indians, Alaska Natives, and Native Hawaiians and…

This paper describes the historical and social foundations of the Navajo Headstart Immersion program. The researchers have worked as teachers, teacher educators, and parents in these programs. They reflect on the need for new partnerships among tribes, tribal colleges and universities to prepare teachers and to develop curriculum materials for…

Using a student's native language, either as a medium of instruction or as a scaffolding technique, has been used effectively in many classrooms throughout the U.S. In the past, many schools provided native language instruction to meet the needs of English Language Learners (ELLs). However, with the advent of antibilingual education proposals such…

Rising immigration in the United States has been accompanied by growth in the number of children from homes where a language other than English is spoken. Of utmost national concern is to provide the best possible program models and educational opportunities to address the diverse needs of this growing group of students. This article provides an…

Between 1979 and 2008, the number of school-age children (ages 5-17) in the United States who spoke a language other than English at home increased from 3.8 to 10.9 million, or from 9 to 21 percent of the population in this age range, according to the latest figures from the National Center on Education Statistics (NCES). The NCES also reveals…

This article focuses on the influence that Arizona's mandated Structured English Immersion endorsement policy has on preservice teachers' beliefs and attitudes toward English language learners. By utilizing both quantitative and qualitative methods of inquiry, our preliminary analysis showed "the campfire effect," which is to say that…

Whether through movies, stories of immigration, or a myriad of other out-of-the-box ideas, teachers are finding ways to help immigrant students create new futures in a new country. This article looks at schools around the country to find truly creative strategies for teaching immigrant students that work for ESL specialists and regular classroom…

Across Indian Country, people can hear voices speaking ancient words, in a Cochiti extended family in New Mexico, a Navajo community school on the Arizona desert, a Native Hawaiian kindergarten, a Salish/Kootenai summertime ceremony, on the North Dakota plains, and in a Blackfeet math classroom in Montana. Unlike other language instruction…

Arizona's Proposition 203 places restrictions on bilingual and English-as-a-second-language programs and essentiality mandates English-only education for English language learners (ELLs). This article provides an analysis of this initiative and the wide variations in its interpretation and implementation. Data sources include official policy and…

In November 2000, Arizona voters passed Proposition 203, a law that replaced bilingual education with a 1-year program known as Structured English Immersion (SEI). Although SEI has little support in the educational or applied linguistics research literature, all English-language learners (ELLs) in Arizona are automatically placed in SEI…

This report reveals the problems with claims made by Arizona state public education officials that English Language Learners (ELLs) are thriving under English-only instruction. The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB) and the state's accountability system, Arizona LEARNS, require all students, including ELLs, to participate in statewide…