Its About the Law

Introduction

Legislation has played a large role in the advancement of ESL. Over the course of history there have been many laws passed and implemented to ensure students who need ESL services are able to receive quality instruction. This paper will explore three of the many laws and compare in addition to discussing the challenges and benefits that may have been faced. There have been initiative ballots in many states the three I have chosen to examine are California, Nebraska and Massachusetts

States and Stance

In 1923 one of the first Supreme Court case involving ELL was brought before the courts Meyer v. Nebraska. Nebraska did not allow classroom instruction in languages other that were not English. This was deemed to be a violation of constitutional rights and was struck down. Justice James C. McReynolds a Supreme Court judge said "the protection of the [U.S.] Constitution extends to all, to those who speak other languages as well as to those born with English on the tongue>” It was determined that parents have the right to impact their child education by law this was set in place. The challenges presented at this time would be what methods educator, administrators, and other staff would use to meet the needs of ESL students. The benefit of this decision would be that all students no matter what language they spoke would be entitled to be educated as native English speaker and receive a quality education.

California is not only one of the larger states they also have a large population of ELL learners in that state. According to the California Language Census in 2011 there is total of 2,325,748 students speaking languages other than English in their homes. This means that about 37.4 percent of the state’s public school enrollment speaks a language other than English. ESL has been a major point of concern due to the large number of students who are non-English speakers. The No Child Left Behind Act monitors ELL students in California. If...