ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces the California educational policy context through an interaction between a school administrator and a Mexican immigrant mother at a public meeting; based on this interaction, the concepts of ideology and discourse are introduced and compared. The historical context of interactions between Spanish speakers and English speakers in California over the last two centuries is reviewed. The chapter then explains federal and state policies related to standardized testing, especially the federal No Child Left Behind Act and its impact on English learners, as well as the English learner reclassification policies in California. Next, the recent history of California school budget policy is summarized, culminating with the Local Control Accountability Program, which aimed to bring the voices of low-income parents and the parents of English learners into budgetary deliberations. The chapter concludes with the author’s positionality at the school.
