Legal and Ethical

Legal and Ethical Issue Confronting the ELL

There was a study done in Arizona by students about English language learners that states about one-tenth of U.S. students are ELL students in Arizona. June 2009, the Supreme Court ruled with a vote of 5-4 which supports Arizona’s claim that they should not have to give more help to students who are not doing well in the state’s schools. The student’s are already put into a different class for four hours a day away from the other students. Having the student’s segregated for this amount of time on a daily basis has been questioned by scholars and practitioners in this field.

The Supreme Court has sent this case back to the Federal District Court. It is now up to the Federal District Court to make key decisions about the application of the Supreme Court’s decision. There are even deepening racial issues arising from the District Court’s ruling. These racial issues are what inspired the scholars to donate their time to this issue. The study is to see how the ELL students are doing under the state’s currents policies on education. Hoping they can produce the best possible solutions so that the state and federal district courts can consider their findings when making a ruling.

It is unfair to say that ELL students do not need any extra help in school. Some students do not have an English speaking parent at home and if the schools do not help them, then how will they ever learn the English language and be able to function on a daily basis where English is spoken the most. There are other alternatives to the schools having to devote more of their time to the ELL students. One way would be to hire more bilingual teachers. Not all teachers need to be able to speak more than one language but it does not hurt to have more than one or two of them. This way more of the students who need help can get it without feeling like they are a problem for their teachers. Student’s should not feel like they are the minority in the...