Historical Perspectives of Bilingual Education Powerpoint Response

Language and Language Development

Nina Godette

Lau versus Nichols was a case in 1974 that was heard by the Supreme Court.
This case examined the educational rights of students who were mostly Chinese
speaking students. Out of 2,900 Chinese speaking students only 1,000 were receiving
supplemental English classes. These students felt they were not being granted a
chance to have an equal education to those who were English speaking students.
These students decided to file suit against the San Francisco school district. When the
case was first heard by the District Court and again by the Ninth Circuit Court of
Appeals the students lost the case because it was argued that the school district did
provide an equal education as the rest of the students and the school district did not
directly or indirectly cause the language deficiencies that were present in the chinese
speaking students. It was also ruled that the school district did not have to provide
remedial classes to these students. This case was then heard by the Supreme Court,
began reviewing the case and pointed out that Califonia’s education code claimed as a
key state goal that all students would master english. The Supreme Court also noted
that just because you provide all students with the same curriculum does not mean that
they have the same educational opportunities. The Supreme Court explained the state's
responsibility to provide all students including those who speak another language with
equitable access to the instruction. The school district was responsible for providing
second language learners opportunities to master english and be able to access the
curriculum as the native english speakers do. Because the initial verdict was reversed,
the San Francisco school district had to create and implement a plan to meet the
instructional needs of bilingual learners.
After reading more about this case I was impressed with the students who
brought forth this case. These students noticed that they were not being given the same
educational opportunities as their peers. The San Francisco school district knew there
were almost 3,000 students attending schools in their school district and did very little to
help these students be successful. Not only did these students bring forth this case of
inequality, but they did not give up when two court decisions ruled in favor of the school
district. Their perseverance is impressive. I was also surprised that I had never heard of
this case prior to this class. Seeing that this case and ruling took place in the 70s
shocked me to see that we still have such a hard time in many places providing
adequate instruction to second language learners. Fifty years later there still are
questions educators have with no clear answers or direction to go when providing
instruction to English language learners. Curriculums, programs, and educational
teaching strategies should be readily available to all educators and taught in
undergraduate programs. Fifteen years ago while completing my undergraduate degree
I was not provided with any strategies or tools to use to help my second language
learners succeed. I believe that if we are going to do this case justice then our
University teacher prep programs should adequately train teachers to provide
instruction to all students, including our second language learners.