NCLB and California's English Language Learners: The Perfect Storm

The authors argue here that the combination of U.S. federal education policy as embodied in the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 with the passage of a California state initiative that required that "nearly all classroom instruction [be] in English...for a period not normally intended to exceed one year" in 1998 created a "perfect storm" for English Learners. The authors suggest that English Learners have been provided inadequate and incomprehensible academic instruction and that California's case should serve as an example to others who are examining whether current assessment practices violate principles of social justice.