Transcript Slide 1
History of
Bilingual/ESL Education
in Texas
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•Resentment between Anglo-Texans and Mexican-Texans
had existed in the state since the earliest settlements;
•Turn of the century: Tension is exacerbated by the
nationwide xenophobia and nativism;
•1920-1960:
•Segregation of Mexican schools
•Mexican parents are welcome but language and
customs unacceptable
•“melting pot” strategies
•Poor educational facilities, untrained teachers, shorter
school terms and large classes
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•1964
•Teaching of vocabulary and English language skills is
promoted;
•Texas has the largest number of Mexican-American
students in ESL programs in the south;
•The Title VI of the Civil Rights Act is created under the
Johnson Administration:
•provides equal educational opportunities,
•causes a major changed in the perception of minorities,
•institutionally segregated schooling ends,
•open racism becomes unpopular
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•1964 cont…
•First bilingual district is created (Laredo United
Consolidated School District)
•1967
•TEA creates accreditation measures allowing schools to
offer instructional programs in two languages
•1968:
•Bilingual Education Act, Title VII of the Elementary and
Secondary Education Act (1965)
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• 1970:
•Texas Office for Civil Rights: districts with more than 5%
national-origin LEP’s are obliged to provide equal
educational opportunities (under the 1964 Civil Rights
Act):
•LEP children can not be assigned to classes for the
mentally retarded or excluded from college-level courses;
•parents have to be informed of non-English activities;
•temporary grouping of special language students is
allowed.
•1973:
•243,185 LEP students reported in Texas; 19 school
districts seeking funding for bilingual/ESL education
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• 1973:
•Texas enacts the Bilingual Education Act:
•public schools enrolling 20 or more LEP children in a
given grade level must provide bilingual education;
•use of the native language for initial instruction to
facilitate transfer to the mainstream classroom;
•ESL teaching is required for development of English
literacy skills
•1974:
•Lau v. Nichols assuring the survival of bilingual
programs
•1975:
•Lau Remedies, guidelines for planning appropriate
bilingual/ESL education
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• 1981:
•US v. Texas reinforcing bilingual support for bilingual
education:
•lack of equal education opportunities produces “a deep
sense of inferiority, cultural isolation, and acceptance of
failure”
•1981:
•Castañeda v. Pickard
•Bilingual programs must be based on sound educational
theory, reflect sound practices and language and academic
results
•adequate resources and personnel,
•2001:
•No Child Left Behind
•with its goal of rapid acquisition of English, act opened the path
for English-only instruction
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U.S. Demographics
•2004:
•U.S. public schools serve about 5.1 million English
language learners (ELL’s);
•145 different languages are spoken among our ELL
population;
•Spanish is spoken by 80% of the ELL population
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Texas Student Profile
Grades PK-12
1,894,108
1,676,987
616,050
127,092
13,791
Hispanic (44%)
White (39%)
African American (14%)
Asian (2.9%)
Native American (0.3%)
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Texas PK-12 English
language learners (ELLs)
2004-2005
Spanish
Vietnamese
Urdu
Korean
Arabic
603,299
10,649
3,425
2,841
2,689
684,583
Total Identified
ELLs)
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Number of Limited English Proficient (LEP)
Students in Texas
700,000
Number of LEP
Students
680,000
660,000
640,000
620,000
600,000
Number of LEP Students
580,000
560,000
540,000
520,000
500,000
2000-01
2001-02
2002-03
2003-04
2004-05
School Year
Data presented by the U.S. Dept. of Education – Title III Biennial Evaluation Report,
FY 2002-2004 in González, Georgina, Director of BE, TEA, 2005
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Number of LEP Students in Bilingual and ESL Programs from
1996 to 2004 School Years
Bil.Prog.
ESL.Prog.
400,000
Number of LEP Students
350,000
300,000
250,000
200,000
150,000
100,000
50,000
0
1996-97
1997-98
1998-99
1999-00
2000-01
2001-02
2002-03
2003-04
2004-05
School Years
Data presented by the U.S. Dept. of Education – Title III Biennial Evaluation Report,
FY 2002-2004 in González, Georgina, Director of BE, TEA, 2005
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2004-2005 Academic Excellence
Indicator System for Region 8
Link contains information about number of
bilingual and ESL students in the Region,
compared to the rest of the state;
TAKS reports per academic subject, ethnic
group, minority, etc:
http://www.tea.state.tx.us/perfreport/aeis/2
005/region.srch.html