Language and Education Policy in the State of Indiana: Implications for Language Minority Students

Abstract

In the U. S., education issues are considered the purview of the states, with the federal government maintaining an important leadership role. However, without a coherent federal language-in-education policy and with an increasing number of language minorities in schools, the states have enacted language policies and guidelines that they believe meet the educational needs of these students. Although language policies in states with large numbers of language minority students have received much-deserved attention, there has been no systematic study of language planning and policy in states with small, unevenly distributed, yet growing numbers of language minority students. This article reports on a study of Indiana's language and education policies for language minority students from 1976, when the state bilingual education law was passed, to 1995. The goal of the study was to determine how and why language policy decisions were made and what the effect of those decisions was on the delivery of educational services for language minority students attending public schools. Drawing on legal documents and interviews with legislators and advocates, we document the process and outcome of the state's language policy decisions.