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History of

Bilingual/ESL Education in Texas

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•Resentment between Anglo-Texans and Mexican-Texans had existed in the state since the earliest settlements;

•Turn of the century: Tension is exacerbated by the nationwide xenophobia and nativism;

•1920-1960:•Segregation of Mexican schools•Mexican parents are welcome but language and customs unacceptable•“melting pot” strategies•Poor educational facilities, untrained teachers, shorter school terms and large classes

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•1964•Teaching of vocabulary and English language skills is promoted;•Texas has the largest number of Mexican-American students in ESL programs in the south;•The Title VI of the Civil Rights Act is created under the Johnson Administration:

•provides equal educational opportunities,•causes a major changed in the perception of minorities,•institutionally segregated schooling ends,•open racism becomes unpopular

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•1964 cont…•First bilingual district is created (Laredo United Consolidated School District)

•1967•TEA creates accreditation measures allowing schools to offer instructional programs in two languages

•1968:•Bilingual Education Act, Title VII of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (1965)

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• 1970:•Texas Office for Civil Rights: districts with more than 5% national-origin LEP’s are obliged to provide equal educational opportunities (under the 1964 Civil Rights Act):

•LEP children can not be assigned to classes for the mentally retarded or excluded from college-level courses; •parents have to be informed of non-English activities;•temporary grouping of special language students is allowed.

•1973:•243,185 LEP students reported in Texas; 19 school districts seeking funding for bilingual/ESL education

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• 1973:•Texas enacts the Bilingual Education Act:

•public schools enrolling 20 or more LEP children in a given grade level must provide bilingual education;•use of the native language for initial instruction to facilitate transfer to the mainstream classroom;•ESL teaching is required for development of English literacy skills

•1974:•Lau v. Nichols assuring the survival of bilingual programs

•1975:•Lau Remedies, guidelines for planning appropriate bilingual/ESL education

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• 1981:•US v. Texas reinforcing bilingual support for bilingual education:

•lack of equal education opportunities produces “a deep sense of inferiority, cultural isolation, and acceptance of failure”

•1981:•Castañeda v. Pickard

•Bilingual programs must be based on sound educational theory, reflect sound practices and language and academic results•adequate resources and personnel,

•2001:•No Child Left Behind

•with its goal of rapid acquisition of English, act opened the path for English-only instruction

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•2004:•U.S. public schools serve about 5.1 million English language learners (ELL’s);•145 different languages are spoken among our ELL population;•Spanish is spoken by 80% of the ELL population

U.S. Demographics

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1,894,108 Hispanic (44%) 1,676,987 White (39%) 616,050 African American (14%) 127,092 Asian (2.9%) 13,791 Native American (0.3%)

Texas Student Profile Grades PK-12

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Spanish 603,299Vietnamese 10,649 Urdu 3,425 Korean 2,841Arabic 2,689

Texas PK-12 English language learners (ELLs)

2004-2005

684,583Total Identified

ELLs)

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Number of Limited English Proficient (LEP) Students in Texas

500,000

520,000

540,000

560,000

580,000

600,000

620,000

640,000

660,000

680,000

700,000

2000-01 2001-02 2002-03 2003-04 2004-05

School Year

Nu

mb

er

of

LE

P

Stu

de

nts

Number of LEP Students

Data presented by the U.S. Dept. of Education – Title III Biennial Evaluation Report, FY 2002-2004 in González, Georgina, Director of BE, TEA, 2005

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Number of LEP Students in Bilingual and ESL Programs from 1996 to 2004 School Years

0

50,000

100,000

150,000

200,000

250,000

300,000

350,000

400,000

1996-97 1997-98 1998-99 1999-00 2000-01 2001-02 2002-03 2003-04 2004-05

School Years

Nu

mb

er o

f L

EP

Stu

den

ts

Bil.Prog. ESL.Prog.

Data presented by the U.S. Dept. of Education – Title III Biennial Evaluation Report, FY 2002-2004 in González, Georgina, Director of BE, TEA, 2005

2004-2005 Academic Excellence Indicator System for Region 8

Link contains information about number of bilingual and ESL students in the Region,

compared to the rest of the state;TAKS reports per academic subject, ethnic

group, minority, etc:http://www.tea.state.tx.us/perfreport/aeis/2005/region.srch.html