Does NCLB Promote Monolingualism?
Document Type
Opinion
Publication Title
Education Week
Publication Date
3-15-2010
Abstract
(Excerpt)
Eight years into the No Child Left Behind Act, educators, researchers, and advocates remain locked in heated debate over the effects of the law’s testing and accountability mandates on students, many from immigrant homes where a language other than English is spoken. Remarkably lost in the crossfire are the equally serious implications for the nation and its competitive position internationally.
Two recently reported developments related to language instruction, set against rising multilingualism abroad, lend truth to that proposition. Together, they reveal that NCLB is an impediment to fostering bilingual skills and bicultural understandings, especially among the nation’s 12 million students from immigrant families, including the 5.1 million identified as English-language learners, as well as millions of English-dominant students who are economically disadvantaged.
Comments
Available at: https://www.edweek.org/policy-politics/opinion-does-nclb-promote-monolingualism/2010/03