EDFD 221 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Chicano Movement, Bilingual Education Act, California State Legislature
Document Summary
Brief history of bilingual education in the united states. 1839: ohio first state to adopt a bilingual education law (german-english) 1847: louisiana had a similar law for french-english bilingual education. 1850: new mexico territory did so for spanish-english end of 1890s: about 12 states had similar laws in languages like norwegian, italian, polish, czech, and. 1900s: 4% of all american children were in german-english bilingual education (this is larger than the percentage of students in spanish-english programs today. Many states enacted english-only instruction laws to americanize all immigrant groups. Some even banned study foreign languages in early grades (determined to be unconstitutional in 1923) Mid-1920s: bilingual schooling barely existed in the united states english-only classrooms became the norm until the impact on lep students could no longer be ignored. California state legislature votes to prohibit classroom instruction in language other than english. Part of cold war effort to stamp out foreign influences.
