Title VII of 1968: Origins, orientations and analysis

Abstract

This dissertation is about the first ever federal bilingual education policy. The research for the project comes from three major resources; lay and professional literature, archival documents, and structured personal interviews with over forty analysts and architects of the policy. The presentation of the dissertation follows a case study format. The purpose of the dissertation was to review the historical and immediate precedents that gave rise to the policy, narrate the story of how and why the policy was passed, and tell what those who supported and crafted the policy intended to promulgate. Although called a Bilingual Education Act, the major conclusion drawn from this research points in another direction. The concerns and problems that spawned Title VII of 1968 of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) had less to do with language or bilingual education and more to do with providing support for experimental programs designed to increase school completion by Latino students in the Southwest. This dissertation examines policymaking through several prisms, some specific to language planning analysis. The touchstone for this analysis is Ruiz' Language Planning Orientations (1984a). The conclusions drawn in this dissertation with regard to the original Title VII and to subsequent government policies and school practices is that both emanate from a Language-as-Problem orientation. The recommendations are that bilingual education programs and practices follow a Language-as-Resource orientation. In this way, children can develop and enrich both of the languages they learn in school and the result will be balanced bilingual proficiencies in language use and literacy.