Equal Education Opportunities Act Education,

Equal Education Opportunities Act Education, as the Guinness Encyclopedia puts, is the process that allows each one to learn and sometimes challenge the knowledge, skills, values and behavior that have been developed by previous generations. Education may be acquired formally, in educational institutions like schools, colleges, universities, and workplaces, or informally, in the home and/or through everyday personal experiences (the Guinness Encyclopedia, 1992).

Such is the importance of education that according to Arial and Will Durant, "Education is the transmission of civilization." An educated citizenry do not only breed civilized people, it also produces a class of elites that will be the innovators who would not be scared to take on calculated risks for the sake of development and progress. Education for the most part would also raise the skills and other potentials of a nation's people.

The people of the United States of America would no doubt demand for an educated statesman who is definite, determined, knows what to do, and sure of what he or she is talking about. For Nelson Mandela, the significance of education reaches a point that it becomes a tool for survival.

According to him, "education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world." Education plays a huge role in the personal growth and development of any individual, as well as in the growth and development of economies and whole nations (Gylfason, 2000).

More than learning different skills like reading and writing, or acquiring knowledge on math, science, history, and others, or experiencing various venues for the development of a well-rounded personality like involvement in sports, drama, and others, or even providing an avenue for individuals to meet, interact, and establish social networks; our educational institutions especially those that pursue public education allow individuals to be oriented to the fact that education is essential not only for one's self, but more so with the promotion of economic growth in a country.

In fact, no country in history has ever reproduced sustained economic growth without also achieving near complete basic education. It is just fortunate that the significance of education is recognized in the U.S. In fact, no matter how much of a cliche it has become, the statement still holds true: education in the United States of America is a right, not a privilege. This was strengthened by the so-called Equal Education Opportunities Act of 1974.

What do this act signifies? What are its impacts to the overall educational system in the U.S. What about for the English Language Learners, can it provide significant changes to the concerned students? The Equal Education Opportunities Act of 1974 In the U.S., people are provided with public schools -- elementary and secondary schools maintained by taxes, supervised by local authorities, and offering education to children of the district free of charge (the New Lexicon Webster's Dictionary, 1987).

There are numerous public schools provided by the government, and anyone can enter school, as the Equal Education Opportunities Act of 1974 states. It is this promise and national policy that citizens can and should claim. It should be noted that this act states a federal law that codifies standards set by the U.S. Supreme Court in the 1974 Lau vs. Nichols decision.

Lau required states and school districts "to take appropriate action to overcome language barriers that impede equal participation in instructional programs." Families are then given the chance to choose among a menu of programs that best suited their child (ren). This act further states that the court rules that school districts must provide remedies for non-English-speaking children so that they can have access to meaningful education.

Equal Education Opportunities Act of 1974 provides that no state shall deny equal educational opportunity on the basis of race, color, sex, or national origin." http://www.archives.nysed.gov/edpolicy/altformats/ed_research_chronology.pdf. Because of this, it is very clear that the U.S. educational system is not only concerned with the continuing access of its citizen to education. Because, as stated in the Equal Opportunities Act of 1974, the U.S. government is also very much concerned with they way the U.S.

born students as well as the immigrant or non-U.S. born students learns and/or adopts the universal language in the U.S. Implications for Teachers and the English Language Learners Due to the growing number of immigrant students speaking different languages, many classroom teachers, particularly in cities and states with large numbers of recent immigrants -have become English teachers of students for whom English is a second language.

The problems these educators face include severe personnel shortage, and the uncertain and unclear role of special education in addressing this problem. There is in addition a severe shortage of adequately trained personnel in both special and general education (Woodward, 1994). Clearly, because of the Equal Education Opportunities Act of 1974, the demand for teachers became very high. More students in the U.S. had sought for their rights to learn.

More children started going to school for they realized the value of education and they wanted to enjoy the rights that the government was trying to give them. The teachers, on the other hand, were tied into teaching and accepting more loads due to the rising number of enrollees. They had to attend more trainings and/or seminars to ensure that they would be achieving better educational results from the students.

The struggle confronting the teachers towards this seemingly unpredictable rate of academic progress among the English language learners has made them turn to special education for assistance. They had been confronted with the appropriate method and strategies they will be needing towards teaching to be able to adapt to the students' needs. They are unsure of which level of conventional English language curriculum to use and how to adjust this curriculum make things more convenient for the students.

Another issue that confronted them is being able to determine whether bilingual students are experiencing problems due to learning disabilities or due to their limited comprehension of the English language (Woodward, 1994). Because of the Equal Opportunities Act of 1974, teachers then realized that teaching language to students should not only involve examining irregularities, formulating rules, and teaching complex facts, but rather, language should be appreciated to facilitate learning of the second language.

In the same manner, students are motivated upon learning the new language because they find it as a pleasurable task, not as a mere requirement in academic achievement. (http://www.sk.com.br/sk-krash.html, para 10). Meanwhile, aside from the fact that many children have had the strong desire to study, there have been a lot of issues concerning the approaches to make use of the said right. Standardization on who, where and when can one avail of the said rights.

There have been questions about the legalities and the documents that needed to be passed so as to provide proof that one is legitimate to enjoy such rights. Thus, apart from the enjoyment that this right has given to people, there are those who experienced chaos and confusion. This is because there are states in the U.S. where there are strict guidelines as to which school follows the said Equal Education Opportunity Act and which children can only avail of that.

The main reasons for imposing such limitations are the unavailability of teachers and/or facilities and rooms to accommodate possible huge number of enrollees. Meanwhile, there are some states who are very lenient in accepting students who are trying to avail of their rights to be educated, as stated in the Equal Education Opportunities Act of 1974. Hence, in as much as the U.S.

government would want to implement a fair and legit education opportunity for all, there are still some who complained that there is unfair or unequal treatment with the way the policy is being implemented. In Brown v.

Board of Education, Chief Justice Warren declared, "it is doubtful that any child may reasonably be expected to succeed in life if he is denied the opportunity of an education." While the immediate response to Brown was the racial desegregation of American public schools, the spirit of Brown manifests itself today in the effort to effectuate economic desegregation. For the last thirty years, state supreme courts have interpreted state constitutions to require state education systems to meet basic requirements of adequacy, equity, or both.

Thus, "where the state has undertaken to provide it," education "is a right which must be made available on equal terms. Consequently, it is unconstitutional for a state to delegate its responsibility to local districts when those districts vary greatly in their ability to finance adequate public education. Because every state relies on local school districts to some extent, judicial declarations of the state's ultimate responsibility for education have catalyzed dramatic changes in how states ensure their citizens' fundamental right to education.

Indeed, reform inspired by state supreme court demands for economic equality in education have been as controversial -and as essential to the American ideals of democracy and equality. Conclusion The Equal Education Opportunities Act of 1974 paved the way for more amendments developments in the U.S. educational system. The impact of such law is very noticeable among teachers, students and even to the school administrators. However, there are a number of issues that have been continuously arising as people try to avail of.