Charting the Relationship of English Learners and the ESEA: One Step Forward, Two Steps Back

Abstract

The signing of the Bilingual Education Act in 1968 presumed that the federal government had a role to play in the equitable education of immigrant and English learner students, who had been largely invisible to most of the country. Initial language of the Act was intended to build on these students’ assets. Nonetheless, the language that survived in the BEA limited its effectiveness and created ongoing challenges for educators, including an ever-changing definition of the goals and purposes of funding; a deficit rather than an asset-based orientation that cast English learners as “remedial students”; unresolved tensions between the goals of desegregation and bilingual education; and fluctuating and inadequate attention to the capacity development needs of the field. The latest iteration of the ESEA removed the BEA from federal legislation altogether, failed to resolve any of the ongoing issues, and reinforced the remedial framing of ELs, arguably placing them at even greater educational risk.