Aspira

Events that Impacted English Language Learners in Education

  • Meyer vs. Nebraska

    Meyer vs. Nebraska
    The Supreme Court declared Nebraska’s prohibition against teaching foreign languages in elementary schools to be unconstitutional on the basis of the 14th Amendment.
  • TITLE VI OF THE CIVIL RIGHTS ACT OF 1964

     TITLE VI OF THE CIVIL RIGHTS ACT OF 1964
    A Federal passed in order to protect people from being discriminated based on their race, color, or national origin inin programs and activities receiving federal financial assistance.
  • ASPIRA v. New York

    A suit filed against the State of New York in which ASPIRA asks the court to order the Board of Education to integrate programs in public schools to help the Puerto Rican non-English speaking students in order for them to be able to understand and be successful in school.
  • Lau vs. Nichols

    This suit was brought by non-English-speaking Chinese families against officials responsible for the operation of the San Francisco Unified School District. This case was filed because The San Francisco School Distric had 2,856 students who only spoke Chinese and out of these 2,856 only 1000 of them were receiving some kind of help and the other were left on their own. In 1974, the Supreme Court ruled that identical education does not constitute equal education under the Civil Rights Act of 1974
  • Serna v. Portales

    The Municipal schools in Portales, New Mexico were sued because they failed to provide students with a bilingual and bicultural education. The 10th circuit court ruled that the Portales school distric "reassess and enlarge its program directed to the specialized needs of its Spanish surnamed students at Lindsey and also to establish and operate in adequate manner programs at the other elementary schools where no bilingual-bicultural" program now exists.
  • Equal Educational Opportunity Act

    A law that prohibits states from denying equal educational opportunity to a person based of their race, color, sex, or national origin. "The failure by an educational agency to take appropriate action to overcome language barriers that impede equal participation by its students in its instructional programs."
  • Ríos v. Read

    A case filed by Puerto Rican families that argued that Patchogue-Medford School District in Suffolk County, New York did not have programs that provided adequate Education to help their children to improve their English deficiencies.The court found that
    inadequate bilingual program violated Title VI and EEOA.
  • Castaneda v Pickard

    Castaneda v Pickard
    Case filed by the parents of Mexican American children v. Raymondville, TX . They sued the distric because they felt their children were being discriminated because the disctrict was using an ability grouping in the classroom in which students were being segregated by placing Spanish speaking students into "low" groups and the "high" level or English proficient were placed in a different group. Due to this case a process was established to ensure the programs accuracy for ELL students.
  • United States v. State of Texas

    The case required State Educational Agencies to set guidelines regarding services provided to limited-Englishproficient
    students and ensure that those guidelines are monitored and enforced.
  • Plyers v. Doe

    Plyers v. Doe
    A law that declares that students cannot be denied a free public education because of their immigration status. The basis for the court rulings was that the states were violating the 14th ammendment which states that “No State shall … deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”