ERIC Number: EJ1155587
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2017-Apr
Pages: 4
Abstractor: ERIC
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0002-8312
EISSN: N/A
Commentary: AERA and the Study of Non-English Languages in American Education
Valdés, Guadalupe
American Educational Research Journal, v54 n1 suppl p307S-310S Apr 2017
Controversy surrounding the role of non-English languages in American education has a long history. In the 100 years in which the American Educational Research Association (AERA) has been in existence, two Supreme Court decisions have addressed this issue ("Meyer v. Nebraska," 1923, and "Lau v. Nichols," 1974); federal legislation has authorized and reauthorized compensatory bilingual education over 3 decades; and state legislation has first authorized and then prohibited or strongly limited the use of the primary languages of Indigenous and immigrant-origin students in education (e.g., Proposition 227 in California and Proposition 203 in Arizona). As AERA begins its second hundred years of existence, the inclusion of the article, "Effects of Dual-Language Immersion Programs on Student Achievement: Evidence from Lottery Data," by Steele et al. in the Centennial Issue of "American Educational Research Journal" ("AERJ") is significant in that it brings into focus the central position of language in American education. It is important to stress that, until the last decade or so, research on bilingual education had been published primarily in specialized language-oriented journals ("Bilingual Research Journal," "TESOL Quarterly," "International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism") and, except for members of the Bilingual Education special interest group, was not well known to the general AERA membership. Inclusion of language issues as part of the larger focus on diversity and equity is a welcome direction. In this brief commentary, Guadalupe Valdés situates this article within established and more recent work in bilingual education for "AERJ" readers who may be new to this area of study. [This article offers a commentary on "Effects of Dual-Language Immersion Programs on Student Achievement: Evidence from Lottery Data" (EJ1155308).]
Descriptors: College Second Language Programs, Bilingual Education, Immersion Programs, Academic Achievement, Educational Research, Professional Associations, Court Litigation
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Opinion Papers; Reports - Descriptive
Education Level: Higher Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Laws, Policies, & Programs: Lau v Nichols
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A