Prof. Kate Menken

Language Policy in the U.S. & the Education of English Learners in the Era of "No Child Left Behind"  

Wednesday, February 21, 2007

Kate Menken, RISLUS Research Fellow and Assistant Professor of Linguistics and Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) at Queens College (CUNY), will report on her research on Wednesday, February 21, at 6:30 p.m. at the CUNY Graduate Center, room C201. All are welcome.

No Child Left Behind was passed into law by Congress in 2001, with serious implications for all students – particularly English-language learners (ELLs). In the wake of this federal education legislation, standardized tests are being used to determine major decisions such as high school graduation. Yet ELLs typically score far below native-English speakers on standardized tests, and are disproportionately being “left behind.” This presentation locates NCLB within the history of language policy in the U.S., and then explores the law’s impact on high school ELLs in New York City, sharing findings from an intensive year-long research study in ten different schools.