Office of Bilingual Education and Minority Languages Affairs
U.S. Department of Education

Director
Delia Pompa

Deputy Director
Dang T. Pham


DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

The mission of the U.S. Department of Education is to ensure equal access to education and to promote educational excellence throughout the Nation.

In the United States, states and local governments have the primary responsibility for the education of learners of all ages. The U.S. Department of Education supports these efforts through effective partnerships with other levels of government, teachers, parents, business, and the general public.
 
 

OFFICE OF BILINGUAL EDUCATION AND MINORITY LANGUAGES AFFAIRS

Congress passed the Bilingual Education Act in 1968 in recognition of the growing number of linguistically and culturally diverse children enrolled in schools who, because of their limited English proficiency, were not receiving an education equal to their English-proficient peers. The purpose of this Act was, and continues to be, aligned with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 which the Department interprets as follows:
    Where inability to speak and understand the English language excludes national origin minority group children from effective participation in the educational program offered by a school district, the district must take affirmative steps to rectify the language deficiency in order to open its instructional program to these students.
Established in 1974 by Congress, the Office of Bilingual Education and Minority Languages Affairs helps school districts meet their responsibility to provide equal education opportunity to limited English proficient children.
 
 

TODAY'S STUDENTS

Throughout this last decade of the 20th century, public school enrollments will continue to be transformed by an increase in the number of students who bring the richness of linguistic and cultural diversity with them to our schools. For example, from 1991-92 to 1992-93, schools experienced a 13 percent increase in their enrollment of limited English proficient students. By 1992-93 schools enrolled 2.7 million LEP students. In our schools today, over 150 different languages are spoken by students who are eagerly trying to learn English to enjoy the opportunities our public schools and society have to offer.
 
 

WHAT IS THE ROLE OF BILINGUAL EDUCATION?

Bilingual education is a means to make it possible for linguistically diverse children to achieve the same challenging academic standards required of all children enrolled in America's schools.

A well-designed instructional program, using a student's native language (to varying degrees), developed and implemented at the local level, can be very effective in promoting English proficiency and subject area competence. Bilingual education programs aim to:

  • help limited English proficient students master English; and
  • help limited English proficient students master challenging content in all areas of the curriculum.
The role of bilingual education is grounded in two knowledge-based principles:

All children are capable of engaging in complex thinking tasks. Most cognitive science researchers hold that the potential to achieve high levels of cognitive functioning is a property of the human species and is accessible to all children provided they receive high quality instruction and follow a challenging curriculum.

Developing and maintaining the native language in no way interferes with English language acquisition. On the contrary, research over the last decade in bilingual classrooms with established models of instructional excellence indicates that utilization of and facility in the primary language enhances the acquisition of a second language.

Bilingual education is a vehicle to ensure equal access to education and to promote educational excellence for limited English proficient learners.
 
 

IMPROVING AMERICA'S SCHOOLS ACT OF 1994

In October 1994, President Clinton signed into law the Improving America's Schools Act (IASA), Public Law 103-382, which reauthorized the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965. Under the framework of the Goals 2000: Educate America Act, IASA provides for a comprehensive overhaul of programs governing an $11 billion-a-year investment in education to help ensure that all children acquire the knowledge and skills they will need in the 21st century.

IASA encourages educators to align reform efforts to create comprehensive solutions for schools and districts. For example, the Title I program increases the number of schools eligible to develop school wide programs to serve all children, allowing educators to use federal funds for comprehensive education reforms that address the needs of the whole student and the whole school. Title I, for the first time, requires that state plans include strategies for meeting the educational needs of limited English proficient students.
 
 

TITLE VII - BILINGUAL EDUCATION, LANGUAGE ENHANCEMENT, AND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION PROGRAMS

As an integral part of IASA, Title VII moves bilingual education in an exciting new direction. It provides educators with the flexibility to implement and expand programs that build upon the strengths of linguistically and culturally diverse students. The goal is to help them achieve to high academic standards. Title VII makes funding available for purposes of increasing the capacity of Local Education Agencies (LEAs) and State Education Agencies (SEAs) to meet the educational needs to linguistically and culturally diverse students.

Title VII strengthens the comprehensive approach of funded programs; enhances programmatic flexibility; strengthens the state administrative role; improves research and evaluation; and emphasizes professional development. Specifically, Title VII:

  • Establishes four functional discretionary grant categories aligned with the Department's comprehensive educational reform efforts:
Program Development and Implementation Grants -3 year grants designed to assist LEAs develop and implement new and comprehensive bilingual education for linguistically and culturally diverse students.

Program Enhancement Project Grants -2 year grants designed to assist LEAs in carrying out highly focused, innovative, and locally designed projects to expand or refine existing bilingual education for linguistically and culturally diverse students.

Comprehensive School Grants -5 year grants designed to assist LEAs in reforming, restructuring, and upgrading all elements of an individual school's program and operations to serve linguistically and culturally diverse students.

Systemwide Improvement Grants -5 year grants designed to assist LEAs in improving, reforming, and upgrading all relevant programs and operations that serve linguistically and culturally diverse students on a districtwide basis.

  • Improves local program evaluations and promotes the use of appropriate assessments linked to instructional practices that build upon the strengths of linguistically and culturally diverse students to help them achieve to high academic standards. The Act supports field-initiated research, enhanced national discernment efforts, and more Academic Excellence programs.
  • Strengthens the State role by requiring SEAs to review Title Vll applications within the context of their State reform plans. The new Title VII promotes partnerships between SEAs, LEAs and other entities for purposes of improving program design, assessment of student performance aligned with the state plans for Title I and/or Goals 2000.
  • Redesigns and strengthens professional development programs to promote integration into broader school curricula and reforms to improve the knowledge base and practices of educational personnel serving linguistically and culturally diverse students. Four type of grants are authorized:
Training for All Teachers Grants -5 year grants designed to foster the incorporation of courses and curricula on appropriate and effective instructional and assessment methodologies, strategies and resources specific to the education of language-minority and LEP students into mainstream preparation programs for all education personnel, including inservice programs.

Bilingual Education Teachers and Personnel Grants -5 year grants designed to support preservice and inservice professional development of bilingual education teachers, administrators, counselors, and other education personnel; and national professional development institutes for institutions of higher education. Bilingual Education Career Ladder Programs Grants -5 year grants designed to upgrade the qualifications and skills of existing educational personnel to meet high professional standards including certification and licensure as bilingual education teachers and other educational personnel serving LEP students.

Graduate Fellowships in Bilingual Education - Fellowship awards for master's, doctoral, and post-doctoral study related to the instruction of children and youth of limited English proficiency, as well as for the support of dissertation research related to such study.

  • Authorizes the Foreign Language Assistance Program as a discretionary grant program and an incentive program to help local educational agencies establish and improve foreign language instruction in elementary and secondary schools.
  • Authorizes the Emergency Immigrant Education Act to provide funds to local educational agencies that experience large increases in their student enrollment due to immigration.
  • Incorporates provisions to provide for the participation of eligible children attending private schools, including timely and meaningful consultation procedures.

TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE

A comprehensive network provides technical assistance to local and state education agencies and institutions of higher education to help meet the needs of linguistically and culturally diverse students. Assistance is provided for professional development, curriculum materials and development, parent involvement and student assessment by: State Education Agencies in 56 states and territories, which receive funding from OBEMLA to collect data on LEP students and to provide technical assistance to school districts serving LEP students; The National Clearinghouse for Bilingual Education, which is funded by OBEMLA to serve as a one-stop shopping source of information on educating LEP students and includes a web site; and The Comprehensive Regional Assistance Center Network, 15 regional technical assistance centers supported by the U.S. Department of Education, which helps educators coordinate local, state, and federal programs to improve the ability of schools and school systems to help all students meet challenging standards.
 
 

For more information, please write to:

U.S. Department of Education
Office of Bilingual Education and Minority Languages Affairs
600 Independence Avenue, S.W.
Washington, DC 20202-6510

or contact the National Clearinghouse for Bilingual Education at askncbe@ncbe.gwu.edu.

 


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