Attempts to create policy and effective curricula to help solve these problems have been hampered by the continuing controversy about which approach can better meet the needs of these children English-based or bilingual and about how long special help should be given to these students. Although educating children is primarily a state and local responsibility, the federal government has a substantial role in ensuring that the educational needs of children with limited English proficiency are met a role that is based on title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and court decisions interpreting it. Questions have been raised about whether the federal government is achieving the right balance between ensuring that states and local education agencies meet the needs of these children as defined by the courts and giving local districts the flexibility they need to implement .programs that respond to their own unique circumstances. The Congress has provided oversight on this issue. No clear consensus exists on the length of time children with limited English proficiency need to become proficient in English.
Several factors make it difficult to generalize about how much time is needed.
First, the two main categories of instructional approaches used to teach children are designed to take different lengths of time, from 2 to 3 years for English-based approaches to much longer for approaches that make extensive use of a child s native language. Second, no agreement exists about how proficiency should be defined or measured. Conversational skills may be developed within 2 years, while achieving broader academic proficiency, such as the ability to read or communicate abstract ideas at grade level, may take several years more. Third, even if there were agreement on instructional approaches and the meaning of proficiency, individual differences among children and their family situations make generalizations difficult. Finally, very few studies have focused specifically on how long students need to attain English proficiency.