Deregulation of Public Education for Language Minority Students in California

The Transformation of Accountability

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to consider the problem of deregulation in public education for language minority students in California by focusing on what is called results-oriented accountability.
The education of language minorities is a very controversial topic in the United States, especially in California, because so many people have immigrated into the United States in this state from all over the world. The number of LEP (Limited English Proficiency) students has increased rapidly along with the wide range of languages they have brought with them. Another reason why the education for language minorities, especially bilingual education, has been controversial is the context of the conflict between English-Only and English-Plus. English-Only means the opinions and movements supporting the unification of the nation state of the United States through the common language of English. English-Plus, on the other hand, means those opinions and movements to make the United States a multilingual society by preserving minority languages. As the public school is the most important system for a democratic American society, the decision of the language to be used as the media for learning (or to be taught in) reflects the conflict between English-Only and English-Plus. It is thus very important, even essential, to consider the problem of education for language minorities (LEP) in, the United States.
In California, the Bilingual Bicultural Education Act of 1976 was abolished in 1987. By the abolition of the Act of 1976, the regulations of bilingual programs and the assignment of bilingual teachers were deregulated and the discretionary power of the school districts was extended. This meant that local school districts were given the responsibility to overcome English language barriers confronting LEP students and to develop their academic achievement as well. This change was accompanied by the transformation of accountability to school districts. Though the Act of 1976 required school districts to implement bilingual programs and assign bilingual teachers, they were required to show the results of their programs for LEP after the abolition. The nature of accountability for school districts was thus transformed from process-oriented to result-oriented. Result-oriented accountability, which includes, for example, performance accountability and program accountability, has to clear the objectives of policy in the evaluation of the results of the program. Therefore this change of the educational accountability for language minorities by deregulation has emphasized English as an objective to educate language minorities.
The expansion of the discretionary power of school districts with resultsoriented accountability also influenced the reform of teacher credentialing for LEP students. As it was not necessary for the school districts to implement bilingual programs or to assign bilingual teachers, the demand for teachers who were English speakers increased. In order to increase the supply of teachers who were English speakers the LEP teacher's certificate system was reformed. The expansion of the discretionary power of the school districts and the reform of the LEP teacher's certificate system brought about an increase of educational opportunities in English for anguage minorities.
The findings of this study are as follows: First, by deregulation of the implementation of bilingual programs local school districts had a limited responsibility to develop English abilities and academic achievement. This did not necessarily include teacher training and assignments. Furthermore, there was the possibility that local school districts were not willing to meet various and individual needs because of the increase of English-speaking LEP teachers resulting from the reform of the LEP teacher's certificate system.