Setting a research and policy agenda for the education of secondary students with limited English proficiency: Results of an invitational conference

Abstract

The California Legislature commissioned a study in 1988 of school programs for immigrant and bilingual students with limited English Proficiency (BW Associates, 1992). One portion of the study was an exploration of programs and services for limited English proficient (LEP) students in grades 7 through 12. The Legislature's research questions were as follows: (a) What programs exist in grades 7 through 12 for LEP students?, (b) how are the programs staffed?, and (c) how are the programs structured within departmentalized secondary schools? The focus of state law and policy efforts in serving language minority students had previously been at the elementary level (see Faltis & Arias, this issue). The growth and diversity of the secondary LEP population created an urgent need to better understand the challenge at the secondary level. The BW Associates study, Meeting the Challenge of Language Diversity: An Evaluation of Programs for Pupils with Limited Proficiency in English (BW Associates, 1992) identified several critical issues in the education of LEP students at the secondary level, including the lack of access to core content classes in math, science, and social studies. Results of the study pertaining to secondary education in California were also published as an occasional paper by the National Clearinghouse on Bilingual Education (Minicucci & Olsen, 1992) Following the release of the report, I, along with my co-author and