Language Policy Web Site
&
Emporium

I am a writer and lecturer – formerly the Washington editor of Education Week – who specializes in the politics of language. Since 1985, I have been reporting on the English Only movement, English Plus, bilingual education, Native American language revitalization, and language rights in the U.S.A. From June 2004 to February 2006, I served as executive director of the National Association for Bilingual Education. Click here to read about my unplanned departure from the organization. Click here for my short bio.

This site is designed to 

• encourage discussion of language policy issues and report on pending language legislation;
• expose misguided school "reforms" – such as No Child Left Behind – and their impact on language-minority students;
• oppose the bigotry of English Only and other anti-immigrant movements;
• follow current developments, such as census data on language usage,
• illuminate the policy debates over bilingual education, by publicizing the latest research findings;
• flush out canards  about bilingualism;
• track the continuing struggles against Proposition 227, 
California's anti-bilingual education initiative (1998), and against 
Proposition 203, Arizona's anti-bilingual education initiative (2000);
• highlight links to other sources of information; and, to be totally candid, 
• promote my own publications.

Books by James Crawford

Advocating for English Learners:
Selected Essays by James Crawford
(Multilingual Matters, 2008)
HOW TO ORDER

English Learners in American Classrooms
101 Questions, 101 Answers
By James Crawford and Stephen Krashen
(Scholastic, 2007)

HOW TO ORDER

Educating English Learners: 
Language Diversity in the Classroom
5th Edition
(formerly Bilingual Education: History, Politics, Theory and Practice; Bilingual Educational Services, 2004)
HOW TO ORDER

Online Resource Guide, Ver. 5.1
Companion CD to Educating English Learners
Updated for 2006-07
HOW TO ORDER

HOW TO ORDER

Hold Your Tongue: 
Bilingualism and the Politics of English Only
(Addison-Wesley, 1992) *** STILL IN PRINT!!! ***
HOW TO ORDER

Language Loyalties: 
A Source Book on the Official English Controversy 
(University of Chicago Press, 1992)
HOW TO ORDER

Recent Papers, Speeches, and Articles by James Crawford

Loose Ends in a Tattered Fabric: The Inconsistency of Language Rights in the United States
Forthcoming in J. Magnet, Ed., Language Rights in Comparative Perspective, LexisNexis Butterworths.

No Child Left Behind: A Diminished Vision of Civil Rights
Commentary for Education Week, 6 June 2007.

The Decline of Bilingual Education: How To Reverse a Troubling Trend?
Article in the International Multilingual Research Journal (2007).

Official English Legislation: Bad for Civil Rights, Bad for America's Interests, and Even Bad For English
Testimony before the House Subcommittee on Education Reform, 26 July 2006.

No Child Left Behind: Misguided Approach to School Accountability for ELLs
Presentation at a forum sponsored by the Center on Education Policy, September 2004.

Numbers Game: Challenging the Fallacies about Proposition 227
The Bilingual Family Newsletter, Summer 2003. Raw test scores are no substitute for controlled scientific studies.

Hard Sell: Why Is Bilingual Education So Unpopular with the American Public?
Education Policy Studies Laboratory (Arizona State University). Advocates for bilingual education need to rethink their assumptions and strategies in opposing English-only mandates. Otherwise they should expect to suffer more disastrous defeats.

Agenda for Inaction: A Critique of the National Research Council Report Improving Schooling for Language-Minority Children
International Journal of the Sociology of Language 155/156 (2002). Researchers in bilingual education can – and should – be political without becoming politicized.

La Educación Bilingüe en Estados Unidos: Política versus Pedagogía
Paper presented at I Jornadas Internacionales de Educación Plurilingüe, Ayuntamiento de Vitoria-Gasteiz, País Vasco, España, 20 November 2001. Translation into Spanish by Teresa Fernández Ulloa.

Making Sense of Census 2000
Education Policy Studies Laboratory (Arizona State University). Recently released data illustrates the linguistic diversity brought on by immigration. Unfortunately, the Census tells only half the story because of the way it surveys Americans on language usage.

Obituary: The Bilingual Education Act, 1968-2002
The No Child Left Behind Act dismantles the federal Title VII program and turns most funding decisions over to the states. The word bilingual has been expunged from the new law, along with the goal of proficiency in two languages. All this happened with barely a peep from the traditional political allies of bilingual education.

Guide to Title III of the No Child Left Behind Act
ESEA Implementation Guide (2002). A summary of the arcane details of the new education law relating to English language learners (requires Adobe Acrobat Reader). Part of a comprehensive handbook on the legislation published by the Title I Report newsletter.

"Accountability" Versus Science in the Bilingual Education Debate
Education Policy Studies Laboratory (Arizona State University). Claims and counterclaims about Stanford 9 achievement test scores in California prove nothing about the impact of Proposition 227, pro or con. What they do show is how misleading "accountability" measures can be when crudely applied to English language learners.

A Nation Divided by One Language
Guardian Weekly (UK), 8 March 2001. Explanation for European readers of why so many Americans are monolingual, and proud of it.

Bilingual Education: Strike Two
Rethinking Schools, 15, no. 2, Winter 2000/2001. Arizona voters follow California's lead and mandate English Only programs. 

Boom to Bust: Official English in the 1990s
From At War with Diversity: U.S. Language Policy in an Age of Anxiety (2000).

Heritage Languages in America: Tapping a "Hidden" Resource
Article on the contradictions of U.S. language policy, October 1999. 

Life in a Politicized Climate: What Role for Educational Researchers?
Speech to the Linguistic Minority Research Institute, Conference on the Schooling of English Language Learners in the Post 227 Era, 14 May 1999. 

The Campaign Against Proposition 227: A Post Mortem
Bilingual Research Journal 21, no. 1. Analysis of California's anti-bilingual initiative, February 1999. 

Ten Common Fallacies About Bilingual Education
Digest for the ERIC Clearinghouse on Languages and Linguistics, November 1998.

What Now for Bilingual Education?
Report on the Prop. 227 campaign and its aftermath. Rethinking Schools, Winter 1998/99. 

Does Bilingual Ed Work?
Thumbnail sketch of the relevant research. Rethinking Schools, Winter 1998/99. 

The Bilingual Education Story: Why Can't the News Media Get It Right?
Critique of press coverage in the Prop. 227 campaign, presented to the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, 26 June 1998.

Language Politics in the U.S.A.: The Paradox of Bilingual Education
Social Justice 25, no 3 (Fall 1998). Reprinted in Carlos Ovando and Peter McLaren, eds., The Politics of Multiculturalism and Bilingual Education: Students and Teachers Caught in the Cross-Fire, (McGraw-Hill, 2000).

Best Evidence: Research Foundations of the Bilingual Education Act
Special Report for the National Clearinghouse on Bilingual Education, March 1997.

Surviving the English Only Assault: Public Attitudes and the Future of Language Education
Speech to the Michigan Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages, 16 November 1996.

Legislating Language, Mandating Inequality
Article in The WorldPaper, special issue on language policy, July 1996.

Anatomy of the English Only Movement: Social and Ideological Sources of Language Restrictionism in the United States
Paper presented at a Conference on Language Legislation and Linguistic Rights, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 21 March 1996.

Summing up the Lau Decision: Justice Is Never Simple
Overview article for the proceedings of a national symposium, Revisiting the Lau Decision: 20 Years Later (Oakland, Calif.: ARC Associates, 1996).

Seven Hypotheses on Language Loss: Causes and Cures
In Stabilizing Indigenous Languages, ed. Gina Cantoni (Flagstaff: Center for Excellence in Education, Northern Arizona University, 1996).

Endangered Native American Languages: What Is to Be Done, and Why?
Revised version of an article in the Bilingual Research Journal, special issue on Indigenous Language Education and Literacy, vol. 19, no. 1 (Winter 1995).