II.

U.S. Laws on Bilingual Education

Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Equal Educational Opportunity Act of 1974 (EEOA) established minimum standards for the education of LEP students in public schools. Title VI prohibited discrimination by schools on the basis of race, color, sex, or national origin. The EEOA declared that no state could deny educational opportunities to any student because of language barriers.

In 1968 the U.S. Congress passed the Bilingual Education Act. This law defined bilingual education as instruction in a child’s native language that facilitates progress through the educational system. Congress has reauthorized the act five times, most recently in 1994.

The U.S. Supreme Court decision in Lau v. Nichols (1974) mandated language support for students lacking proficiency in English. The decision stated that providing instruction only in English does not constitute equal treatment for such students. In order to learn, students must have the ability to engage in meaningful discourse with other students and teachers. Therefore, requiring mastery of basic English skills prior to participating in the educational process unfairly handicaps LEP students.

Although federal law requires schools to help LEP students understand classroom instruction, it does not specify the techniques schools may use to meet this mandate. Schools generally offer two basic kinds of educational programs to meet the needs of LEP students: bilingual education and English as a Second Language (ESL). Schools with ESL programs provide instruction by teachers trained to teach students whose native language is not English. ESL teachers conduct instruction in English in a way that is understandable for non-native English speakers. Schools often provide ESL programs when they have too few students who share the same native language to offer bilingual instruction. Some schools offer both ESL and bilingual educational programs. In 1994, 76 percent of public schools in the United States with LEP student enrollments provided ESL programs and 36 percent had bilingual education programs.