ABSTRACT
The cultural and linguistic diversity among children in American public schools has substantially increased in the past few decades. According to the U.S. Census Bureau (2010), there has been an increase in the number of immigrants to the United States, leading to higher numbers of ethnic minorities and a greater variety of languages being spoken in schools. Indeed, more than one-fifth of school-age children speak a language other than English at home (National Center for Education Statistics, 2012). Furthermore, children from culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) groups are more likely to be living in poverty, with one in six African-American and one in seven Hispanic children living in extreme poverty (Children’s Defense Fund, 2011).
