| The problem addressed in the study was the impact of national language policy on the public school education of children up to grade twelve who are culturally and linguistically different. This study provided a historical overview of national language policy issues from 1777 to 1994. The key issues contained in federal legislation since the Civil Rights Act of 1964 were employed in the hermeneutic study of triangulated legal data: congressional law, administrative regulation, and federal case law to examine patterns and themes in the evolution of national language policy. The findings from these primary data sources were analyzed and applied to the formulation of conclusions, recommendations, and implications for school leaders and policy makers.; The key policy issues which framed the analysis were: equal protection of national origin language minority students guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution, the requirement of the Equal Education Opportunity Act of 1974 that state and local education agencies take appropriate action in devising programmatic responses which will not impede access of language minority students to an equal educational opportunity, and the funding preferences for bilingual education programs contained in the Bilingual Education Acts of 1968, 1974, 1978, 1984, 1988, and 1994.; The documentation of patterns and themes contained in congressional law, administrative regulation, and federal case law since the Civil Rights Act of 1964 provided the foundation for the extrapolation of future trends in the definition of national language policy issues. These future trends were delineated for use by federal and state legislators, faculty members at institutions of higher learning, local school leaders, and classroom teachers who will be in positions of responsibility to facilitate the educational opportunities of a growing segment of the population. |
