"Lau" transformed schooling for millions of students, but we should examine what its "equal protection" and assimilationist logic did not entail and thereby illuminate prospective academic and social good that it did not generate. This paper does just that by examining Nebraska's well-resourced second-largest district and how…

Born in Xiamen, China in 1938, Dr. Ling-Chi Wang was the founder of Chinese for Affirmative Action, an organization focused on affirmative action in employment, representation of the Chinese in politics, voting, and language rights. He is also a Professor Emeritus of Asian American Studies at the University of California Berkeley. Ling-Chi…

The "IDRA Newsletter" serves as a vehicle for communication with educators, school board members, decision-makers, parents, and the general public concerning the educational needs of all children across the United States. The focus of this issue is "Language Rights." Contents include: (1) Navigating Policy Landscapes for…

Using the theoretical framework of interest convergence, this document analysis explores the legacy of Lau v. Nichols as a gateway to instructional programs for classified English learners in the state of Massachusetts that maintain the hegemony of English as the primary goal of schooling. Findings reveal that interest convergence is an organizing…

As the American Psychological Association and Division 15 committed to addressing systemic racism after the 2020 summer of racial reckoning, orchestrated political attacks that vilify pedagogical approaches aimed at addressing racial injustice have thwarted schools' efforts across the nation. Against this context, the overarching aim of this…

Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits federally funded programs, activities, and institutions from discriminating based on race, color, or national origin. In its current form, Title VI remains largely unchanged since its adoption. Unlike the Civil Rights Act's better known and more heavily litigated provisions, Title VI is concerned…

Culturally and linguistically diverse families present schools with unique challenges related to eligibility and programming for special education. There has been a dearth in the literature for this population, especially from a legal standpoint. Existing literature has offered scarce information to address the legal rights and responsibilities of…

Two-way dual language immersion programs (TWDL) aim to integrate English speakers and speakers of a partner language in the same classroom to receive content instruction in both languages. Stated goals include bilingualism and biliteracy, high academic achievement, and sociocultural competence. In school districts aiming to reduce segregation,…

The Chinese of Chinatown, San Francisco largely opposed the city-wide racial integration plan that would bus their children across the city beginning in 1971. Claiming that it was a violation of their language rights, a need for cultural preservation and continued autonomy from the San Francisco that had long excluded them, Chinatown instituted…

As the 1968 Bilingual Education Act (BEA) reaches its 50th anniversary, we provide a critical historical review of its contradictory origins and legacy. By distilling the BEA's history into three periods that we label "power to the people," "pride for the people," and "profit from the people," we demonstrate that the…

The article is a commentary on "Evaluating English Learner Reclassification Policy Effects across Districts," by Joseph R. Cimpian, Karen D. Thompson, and Martha B. Makowski, which is a wonderful display of the power of combining current analytic methods, present-day educational data sets, practitioner-researcher collaborative…

In 1974, the Supreme Court drew on the 1954 Brown decision in "Lau v Nichols," placing English learner (EL) students' right to a meaningful education at the forefront of educational policy. Subsequent federal decisions and legislation (i.e., Castañeda; Equal Educational Opportunities Act [EEOA], No Child Left Behind [NCLB], and Every…

Simply put, charter schools have not lived up to their advocates' promise of equity. Using examples of tangible civil rights gains of the twentieth century (e.g. "Brown v. Board," "Lau v. Nichols") and extending feminist theories of invisible labor to include the labor of democracy, the authors argue that the charter movement…

This article reviews the impacts of the civil rights policies framed in the 1960s and the anti-civil rights political and legal movements that reversed them. It documents rising segregation by race and poverty. The policy reversals and transformation of U.S. demography require a new civil rights strategy. Vast immigrations, the sinking White…

Language and cultural preservation efforts among different communities of language speakers in the United States have received increasing attention as interest in linguistic rights and globalization continues to deepen. In addition to mounting evidence of the cognitive, psychological, and academic benefits of heritage language/community language…