Equal Protection on English Language Learners Essay

The equal protection for K-12 is a platform that seeks to provide equal opportunities to everyone regardless of the differences that exist between people and communities. The essay looks at the equal protection for the English Language Learner (ELL). A student who is an English Language Learner considers English the secondary language at the same time; the student faces hindrances when it comes communication and expression in the classroom where the main language being used for instruction is English. As a result, the students have been branded names like Limited English proficient as well as the English Learner. Due to massive immigration in the United States, the number of English Learners in various schooling institutions has increased tremendously. Therefore, the essay aims at showing some of the backgrounds of classification, the legal issues arising from the classifications and finally a detailed description of what the equal protection entails (Artiles et al., 2005).

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To determine the factual background on the how the English Language Learners are classified in school district and schools, a research was carried out on some of the school districts, Department of Justice and the Office of Civil Rights. Indeed, it was discovered that most schools had been found to be breaking the laws that govern the equal protection rule on ELLs in their institutions. The investigations and analysis showed that the violations were based on classifications regarding placement, registration, how they were identified, qualifications of stuff, waiver, and student monitoring. Furthermore, the institutions had set up specialized education and ELL student education for students who don't speak English. Hence, the students were treated and offered services differently from each other. As a preventive measure, such school district and schools were allocated a period to rectify the situation to prevent the action from being taken against them (Samson et al.,2012).

The classification above forms a basis of legal issues that can never be escaped when it comes to equal protection. To begin with, the Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. It dictates that people who reside in the US shall be limited to services despite the color, race or national originality. Hence, the students who don't speak English must not be discriminated against, prevented from accessing services, expelled from school or stopped from enrolling in any institution to fulfill their educational desires due to a Limited English Proficiency. In addition, The Health, Education, and Welfare (HEW) Memorandum of May 25, 1970 where it stated that the institutions must come up with solutions to help students get involved in the cases, where minority children are likely to miss out on taking part in educational programs due to inability to speak or understand English. Also, the Civil Rights Restoration Act of 1988 legal issues recommends that all programs supported by the federal government can face the possibilities of losing their funds if they fail to go live up to the regulations concerning the ELLS (Garcia, 2010).

Furthermore, the classification brings about the aspect of The Equal Opportunity Act of 1974. The act champions equality on participatory levels by pushing local school agencies to fix the issues of language barriers in their institutions to achieve positive results. Moreover, the act on the Office of Civil Rights Enforcement Policy (1991). The policy engineer's measurement of success and it proposes that the ESL personnel must be part of the system to help ELLs student gain confidence and work toward achieving the best. Finally, the policy on the Title III of the No Child Left Behind Act - 2001. The acts state that every child especially non-English speakers must be given a platform to advance their education and nothing shall hold them back (Crawford, 2004). Through proper application of the legal issues, the ELLs will be integrated into the system, and they will have the same access to participation in education whether in the state, school district or schools.

Equal Protection is an important clause in any country. A country that applies for equal protection to their citizens cares about them. The clause requires that the government or the state treats its citizens equally despite the difference in race, color, originality, gender and different abilities. Through it, some unfair laws government actions and policies that worked against citizens have been taken care of to favor people for a greater good (Mahoney et al., 2005).

References

Artiles, A. J., Rueda, R., Salazar, J. J., & Higareda, I. (2005). Within-group diversity in minority disproportionate representation: English language learners in urban school districts. Exceptional Children, 71(3), 283-300.

Crawford, J. (2004, September). No Child Left Behind: a Misguided approach to school accountability for English language learners. In Forum on Ideas to Improve the NCLB Accountability Provisions for Students with Disabilities and English Language Learners (Vol. 10).

Garcia, O., &Kleifgen, J. A. (2010). Educating emergent bilinguals: Policies, programs, and practices for English language learners. Teachers College Press.

Mahoney, K., MacSwan, J., & Thompson, M. (2005). The condition of English language learners in Arizona: 2005. The condition of pre-K-12 education in Arizona: 2005, 3-1.

Samson, J. F., & Collins, B. A. (2012). Preparing All Teachers to Meet the Needs of English Language Learners: Applying Research to Policy and Practice for Teacher Effectiveness. Center for American Progress.