Voter Initiatives Affecting Ell - 1184 Words

State Voter Initiatives Affecting the Education of English Language Learners Jennifer Milam Grand Canyon University: ESL-523N January 30, 2013 State Voter Initiatives Affecting the Education of English Language Learners It is no secret that the debate over what is the best course of action to educate our non-native English language students across the country is a highly charged topic that runs from the classroom to Capitol Hill. There have been many shifts in direction and focus of educational programs for English Language Learning (ELL) students during the past century in our nations history. In 1968, with the passage of the Bilingual Education Act (Title VII of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act) legislation was†¦show more content†¦To many opponents of the bilingual education program that existed prior to these laws, encouraging bilingualism and biculturalism threatened the very definition of the American culture, which, they believed, promoted the values and language of a common group (Weisman and Hanson,2002). ). These proponents of the initiatives believed that new immigrants must abandon their na tive languages and cultural practices to fully assimilate into U.S. society. They feared that Spanish-speaking immigrants in particular had been clinging to their language and resisting learning English (Mora,2009). It remains to be seen the impact that this legislation has had on the academic outcomes of ELL students. In Arizona, research has suggested that the immersion program has been ineffective with only 11% of students entering the one year program actually obtaining English proficiency within a one year period (English for children, 2013). In California, due to the dramatic changes in the education policy of the state since the passage of Prop 227, it is difficult to measure the impact that Proposition 227 specifically has had on the outcome of these students (American Institutes for Research and WestEd, 2006). One thing is clear, the improvement in the outcomes for ELL students since the adoption of these state initiatives has not been noteworthy. While there has been a slight decrease in