The law, linguistics, and education: Educational reform for African American language minority students

Linguistic Contributions to the Advancement of Racial Justice Within and Beyond the African Diaspora

“…However, elsewhere (Baugh 1999, 2006), I posit that some of this low achievement may be the result of low teacher expectations and the lack of political will to provide incentives and investment to create educational opportunities that have the capacity to advance the well‐being of all students, but particularly students for whom SAE is not native (Lippi‐Green 1997). Such students would include those for whom English is not native, but also those who are native English speakers but for whom Standard English is not native (Baugh 1998; LeMoine and Hollie 2007).…”

Chapter 6 Preparation, Pedagogy, Policy, and Power:Brown,theKingCase, and the Struggle for Equal Language Rights

“…Although not mentioned in the prior chapter, perhaps the most comprehensive ideas on creating systemic educational language policy reform were formulated by its author (Baugh, 1995(Baugh, , 1998 when he drew on the "African American language minority student" as a point of departure and as a case in point in his discussion of "language minority students." Traditionally, this term had been used as a code phrase that actually referred to English language learners (ELLs) or those students for whom English is not their native language.…”

Chapter 5 Linguistic Considerations Pertaining to Brown v. Board: Exposing Racial Fallacies in the New Millennium

“…Although we will not fully resolve all racial conflicts or identify infallible remedies for past American racial afflictions, we can acknowledge that some children have historical economic and linguistic advantages that others do not have. In addition, substantial linguistic evidence confirms that the vast majority of students who trace their ancestry to former enslaved Africans could benefit greatly from effective educational, medical, legal, and social interventions that were unavailable to their ancestors (Baugh, 1998;Denham & Lobeck, 2005).…”

“…Elsewhere (Baugh, 1998), I have called for reforming the linguistic classification of students, particularly in the wake of the global Ebonics controversy that erupted in Oakland, California, when members of the local school board passed a notorious resolution claiming that 28,000 African American students within that school district spoke "Ebonics." Although the crafters of the Oakland resolution had the commendable intention of improving Standard English proficiency among their students, they did not anticipate the firestorm of protest that would greet their claim that blacks in America speak a language other than English.…”