jan 1, 1968 - Bilingual education act of 1968

Description:

There were two goals of the Bilingual education act of 1968:
1- To encourage the recognition of the special needs of ELLs
2- To provide funding for schools to create programs which supported the learning of ELLS.

Before this law was implemented, there was no requirement for schools to have bilingual education programs. Additionally, the funds that were available were meant for those who were both learning English and in low income families. In other words, just being a bilingual student would not qualify you to receive support. Once this act was authorized, however, there was very little funding provided for school programs, and schools were still not required to offer support programs for ELs.

When the Bilingual education act was re-authorized in 1978, it brought division with it. Under the 1975 Lau Remedies, certain bilingual programs were funded to hire bilingual support personnel. This caused backlash because there were simultaneous budget cut backs in regular programs. This caused some to question the Federal funding of maintaining native language. The second reason the re-authorization of the act brought division was a study done by the American Institutes for research, which revealed that:
-Bilingual students performed worse on reading tests than students not instructed bilingually
-Bilingual education brought segregation
Essentially, the study correlated with the US views of the time, which was assimilation over maintinence of home language.

-LIZ COLLEGE

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