Legal Precedents
Civil Rights Act of 1964
May 25th Memorandum (1970)
Lau vs. Nichols (1974)
Civil Rights Act of 1964
"No person in the United States shall, on the ground of race, color, or national origin, be excluded from partiicpation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to distrimination under any program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance."
May 25 Memorandum
"Where inability to speak and understand the English language excludes national origin-minority group children from effective participation in the educational program offered by a school district, the district must take affirmative steps to rectify the language deficiency in order to open its instructional program to these students.
"School districts must not assign national origin-minority group students to classes for the mentally retarded on the basis of criteria which essentially measure or evaluate English language skills....."
".....nor may school districts deny national origin-minority group children access to college preparatory courses on basis directly related to the failure of the school system to inculcate (teach) English language skills."
"School districts have the responsibility to adequately notify origin-minority group parents of school activities which are called to the attention of other parents. Such notice in order to be adequate may have to be provided in a language other than English."
Lau v. Nichols
Equitable v. Equal-Equality of educational opportunity is not achieved by merely providing all students with "the same facilities, textbooks, teachers, and curriculum; for students who do not understand English are effectively foreclosed from any meaningful education.
Lau Plan
Provides a legal basis for programming
Form/convene a Language Assessment Committee
Outline staff responsibilities and credentials for instruction
Identify assessment/evaluative tools for on-going assessment
Set program criteria (entrance/exit)
Set parameters for ELL student transition and monitoring
Determine program effectiveness
Castaneda v. Pickard
A program for English language learners is based on educational theory that is recognized by experts in the field-research based, pedagogically sound
Relationship between theory and practices
Program produces reults that indicate the language barrier is being overcome
Links
Closing the Achievement Gap
Kentucky Department of Education Division of Federal Program Resources
Language Instruction for Limited English Proficient Students