Fast forward to 1977. I was an Administrative Intern at an inner-city school in Connecticut.
Our school's English-Spanish bilingual program was award winning and recognized by the state for its innovation and effectiveness.
Students were grouped for instruction as follows: K-1, 2-3 and 4-5. Many of them were bused from surrounding neighborhoods so they could participate in this superior program. Sounds great, right?
Here's the rest of the story.
In early 1978 the government informed the school system that our school's 65% Hispanic population was higher than the district average of 25%. Consequently, in its effort to ensure quality education for all, we should only have a 25% Hispanic student body.
How did this play out?
K-1 bilingual students stayed at our school. Grades 2-3 were shipped to a different school and yet another school for grades 4-5.
Imagine you were a parent with a 1st, 3rd and 5th grader. Not an uncommon scenario. You now had 3 different schools to deal with.
The benefit of staying in one school throughout the elementary years was lost. Siblings were separated. The opportunity to make and sustain lasting friendships was dealt a deadly blow.
It's hard for students to leave friends and difficult to start over in a new school.
In fact, the result was basically a form of forced segregation as the only students a child had continuity of contact with were fellow Hispanics in the bilingual program.
These kids became scholastic nomads as they changed schools every two years.
Was this helping these students? What do you think?
I mentioned the examples above because they are the ones where I personally experienced the harm done to students when the U.S. Department of Education for the right reasons takes the wrong actions.
The Takeaway!
During the first round of Democratic presidential debates Joe Biden took a lot of political flak for his busing position of almost 50 years ago.
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