Dr. Lucinda Lee Katz was born and raised in North Beach, San Francisco, CA adjacent to Chinatown proper, where she spent her K-12 years attending San Francisco's public schools. Throughout her K-12 education, her peers were primarily Chinese, but she never had a Chinese teacher. She attended Chinese school every day after school and on Saturdays…

Judicial discourse can grant or deprive liberty to litigants. It is, therefore, important to ensure fair hearing during trials and even more as courtrooms have become multilingual settings. In the Court of First Instance of Bafoussam, French (one of the official languages of Cameroon) often come into contact with more than 250 national languages.…

This study reports achievement and growth from kindergarten to fourth grade for three groups of English Learners (ELs): (a) ever-ELs; (b) ELs consistently eligible for service; and (c) EL and Special Education dually-identified students. All three EL groups had lower test scores than never-ELs throughout K-4. In math, ELs grew more than never-ELs…

The "Lau v. Nichols" Supreme Court case specifies two core responsibilities of schools -- and rights for students -- with regard to students classified as English learners (ELs): 1) opportunities to learn English; and 2) equitable access to grade-level content. Yet 50 years since Lau's passage, students' right to content may not be being…

The authors evaluate the success of Arizona's program for English Learners (ELs) twelve years after the implementation of Proposition 203 to determine whether it meets the "third prong" test of Castañeda v. Pickard (1981), which requires a demonstration of the effectiveness of a program after its implementation. This study is a follow-up…

The Minnesota Department of Education (MDE) ensures educational equity for multilingual learners through supporting school districts and charter schools to develop, implement and evaluate research-based language instruction education programs so that multilingual learners, including students with English learner status, attain academic language…

The term "newcomers" is commonly used to describe students who have recently arrived in U.S. schools. Depending on usage, newcomers may mean students in their first 6 months in U.S. schools, in their first 4 years, or anywhere in between. A majority arrive speaking little to no English, most are from socioeconomically disadvantaged…

In 1974, the Supreme Court drew on the 1954 Brown decision in "Lau v Nichols," placing English learner (EL) students' right to a meaningful education at the forefront of educational policy. Subsequent federal decisions and legislation (i.e., Castañeda; Equal Educational Opportunities Act [EEOA], No Child Left Behind [NCLB], and Every…

The abilities to communicate in multiple languages and navigate distinct cultural settings are significant assets that need to be understood and supported in schools. Minnesota values schools that strive to recognize and build on the linguistic and cultural resources of students and families. Recognizing and building on the strengths and resources…

English Language Learners (ELLs) are one of the fastest-growing K-12 populations across the nation. Educating secondary ELLs poses a unique challenge to U.S. schools. For instance, ELLs tend to experience high rates of poverty and attend segregated, underfunded, and unsafe schools. With the "League of United Latin American Citizens vs.…

The ability to communicate in multiple languages and navigate distinct cultural settings are significant assets that need to be understood and supported in schools. Minnesota values schools that strive to recognize and build on the linguistic and cultural resources of students and families. Recognizing and building on the strengths and resources…

This article presents the findings of a study of English-Spanish mediation in hospital and court settings in the USA. The study is based on two main issues: the linguistic and cultural diversity of Hispanics, and the specialized nature of the health and judicial systems. When encountering new or different health care and judicial systems in the…

How to address the educational needs of students with limited English proficiency (LEP) is a particularly challenging and often controversial endeavor. Failure to address the needs of students with LEP often results in denial of meaningful educational opportunities and leads to disproportionate representation in special education programs. This…

The study focuses on the background of Social Science and Humanities students (specifically in the course General Psychology) on their English education and competence. This research aims to identify the common factors of these students in terms of their English Proficiency. The students will answer survey questions that will give us information…

There is a sizable number of English Language Learners (ELL) that are not succeeding in schools and are academically "falling through the cracks." The purpose of this thesis is to gather information that identifies reasons why students are not succeeding academically and which strategies individual teachers can implement to help these…