Language Policy Gatekeepers: School District Leaders and Bilingual Education Availability in New York City

• In Event: Transdisciplinary Perspectives for Critically Analyzing Bilingual Education Systems

Abstract

Objectives

New York City is a single school system divided into 32 geographical districts with 45 school district leaders. Our mixed-methods research focuses on the key role that school district leaders play in bilingual education access and language policymaking by exploring the following research questions:

1) What is the availability of bilingual education for multilingual learners (MLLs) in NYC by district?

2) What factors do NYC school district leaders consider and prioritize when determining whether and where to provide bilingual education?

Theoretical Framework

Research in language policy has highlighted the agency of school principals and teachers in the interpretation, creation, and implementation of language education policies (De la Cruz Albizu, 2020; Hornberger & Johnson, 2011; McCarty, 2011; Menken & García, 2010, 2017). While much of this work focuses on their navigation of top-down policies (Henderson, 2017; Forman, 2016; Menken & García, 2010), less attention has been given to school district leaders (Johnson & Johnson, 2015; Morita-Mullaney, 2019). In one of the few studies about their agency, Johnson and Johnson (2015) describe district leaders as key “language policy arbiters” with “a disproportionate amount of impact on language policy and educational programs” (p. 222) and call for more research on their role at the ‘meso level’ of policy processes. Our research aims to address this gap.

Methods

To answer our research questions, our research involved:

1) Compilation and analysis of publicly available descriptive statistical data about each NYC district’s numbers of bilingual programs, MLL program enrollment, and students’ home languages and socioeconomic status;
2) Geographic information system (GIS) analysis to map the location of bilingual education programs in relation to community demographics; and
3) Semi-structured interviews of NYC school district leaders (31 interviews with 37 participants).

Results

We found that the vast majority of MLLs in NYC are currently enrolled in English-only programs in spite of recent efforts at bilingual education expansion. Our map visualization shows the relationship between the location of existing bilingual programs and the communities in which MLLs reside. Taken together, our findings reveal wide disparities in the availability of bilingual education for MLLs by district even across districts with similar MLL populations. We found that district leaders play a significant gatekeeping role in bilingual program access, even though state and city policies mandate the provision of bilingual education for MLLs. Their decisions are influenced by factors such as their personal experiences, professional background and preparation, language ideologies, bilingual education stance, and commitment to a social justice framework for decision making.

Significance

District leaders are key arbiters of language policy implementation who shape the availability of bilingual education programs in their districts. Our mixed-methods research exposes how MLLs in NYC are often foreclosed from bilingual education, a right to which they are entitled by local law. In order for city leaders to meet their stated goal of increasing MLLs’ access to bilingual education, our findings suggest a critical need to focus on school district leaders in language policy and educational leadership research, school district administrator preparation, and in educational policies and practices.

Authors

• Ivana Espinet, Kingsborough Community College - CUNY

• Maite Sanchez, Hunter College - CUNY

• Kate Menken, Queens College - CUNY