Against the Undertow: Language-Minority Education Policy and Politics in the “Age of Accountability”

Abstract

This article reviews historical and contemporary policies, ideologies, and educational prescriptions for language-minority students. It notes language and literacy policies historically have been used as instruments of social control and that racism and linguistic intolerance have often been closely linked with antecedents in the colonial and early nationalist periods as well as in nativist thought of the 19th century. The article concludes that the contemporary Englishonly and antibilingual education movements share features reminiscent of the restrictionism of earlier periods. The article next assesses policies of the federal and state governments in accommodating language-minority students. urrent debates over appropriate assessment of language-minority students are backgrounded against the history of the testing movement. Recent research on high-stakes testing is reviewed with the conclusion that it is not improving the quality of teaching and learning and appears to be having a negative effect for language-minority students.