Ann Arbor Decision

The Ann Arbor Decision refers to the case of "Martin Luther King Junior Elementary School Children et al. v. Ann Arbor School District". This case was decided on July 12, 1979 by Judge Charles W. Joiner on the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan. The suit was brought on behalf of black students at the school who spoke nonstandard English, claiming that the school district was not taking the language background of these students into account in their instruction. The court ruled that there was a possible relationship between the students' low reading scores and the failure of the school to take into account the home language of the children. The judge ordered the school district to find a way to identify black English speakers in the schools and to "use that knowledge in teaching such students how to read standard English". [Flood, J., Jensen, J., Lapp, D., Squire, J. (1991). "Handbook of research on teaching the English language arts". New York, NY: Macmillan Publishing Company.]

The case is considered to have established an important precedent in the education of African American students who are dialect speakers. [Farr, M. (Ed.). (1980). "Reactions to Ann Arbor: Vernacular black English and education". Washington, DC: Center for Applied Linguistics.]

External links

* [http://www.pbs.org/speak/education/curriculum/high/aae/#aaeann "Do You Speak American?" on PBS]

See also

* African American Vernacular English
* Lau v. Nichols - This 1974 U.S. Supreme Court decision established the right of language-minority students to educational accommodations.
* Bilingual education
* Bilingual Education Act
* Castañeda vs. Pickard

References