In 2016, California voters overturned a 1998 law that curtailed bilingual instruction throughout the state. After nearly 20 years of "English only" programs, what will it take to restore the schools' capacity to provide a broader range of services to English Learners, including dual language immersion and other forms of bilingual…

This article examines the Spanish proverb, "quien habla dos idiomas vale por dos," which literally translates to mean he who speaks two languages is worth two people and applies its meaning to immigrant children who are language brokers for their families. Historically, the United States has not promoted multilingualism and even frowned…

Ideologies regarding what is "good" teaching undergird common teaching practices and pedagogical decisions, which may support and/or run counter to the broader policy environment in which they occur (Gibson, 1998). Drawing from a six-month ethnography of 10th-grade newcomer students from Mexico and their teachers in a Central Texas…

On November 8, 2016, California voters decided to end an 18-year period of restrictive language policy. Reflecting a dramatic shift in the statewide consensus around bilingual education, a supermajority of the state's voters (78%) approved Proposition 58, the "Multilingual Education" initiative, which repealed key sections of a 1998 law…

In this discussion, I explore the unfolding effects of Arizona's anti-bilingual education law (Proposition 203) on schools with predominant language-minority student populations. Instead of facilitating academic progress, policies like Proposition 203 impede teachers from "scaffolding" (Long & Adamson, 2012, p. 39) their students'…

California's Proposition 227 requires that all children be taught English by being taught in English. This proposition, which basically outlaws bilingual education, is the newest chapter in the history of how non-English speaking and limited English proficient (LEP) students should be educated. After presenting the historical, social, political,…