Forbidden Language

Pulling together the most up-to-date research on the effects of restrictive language policies, this timely volume focuses on what we know about the actual outcomes for students and teachers in California, Arizona, and Massachusetts—states where these policies have been adopted. Prominent legal experts in bilingual education analyze these policies and specifically consider whether the new data undermine their legal viability. Other prominent contributors examine alternative policies and how these have fared. Finally, Patricia Gándara, Daniel Losen, and Gary Orfield suggest how better policies, which rely on empirical research, might be constructed.

This timely volume:

• Features contributions from well-known educators and scholars in the instruction of English learners.
• Includes an overview of English learners in the United States and a brief history of the policies that have guided their instruction.
• Analyzes the current research on teaching English learners in order to determine the most effective instructional strategies.

Patricia Gándara is a professor of education at the University of California, Los Angeles and the co-director of the Civil Rights Project/Proyecto Derechos Civiles. Megan Hopkins is a former bilingual teacher and a doctoral student at the Graduate School of Education and Information Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles.

“I took hope in reading these chapters, especially when it is clear that learning English is such a priority for these children and their parents…policymakers and educators should read this book carefully.”
—Michael A. Olivas, University of Houston

“This volume offers a sobering view of the consequences of making educational policy by referendum, and of the ways in which we have failed English language learners in U.S. schools.”
—Catherine Snow, Harvard Graduate School of Education