TAKE-HOME EXAM

Due Date: 5:00 PM, Friday, March 10

(note, this is different than the date announced in class 2/29).

Please submit 2 hard copies to Kenji Hakuta's Office (209 CERAS).

Electronic submission as a Word attachment is also acceptable, mailed to Hakuta and Rosenzweig separately.

Answer both questions. They will be counted equally. You may discuss with other students the overall framework of the questions and strategies for answering them. However, do not discuss the specifics of your answers or share written drafts of answers with others.

1) Assume that you have been retained as an educational consultant to Sanford, an English-speaking nation that has decided that it needs to increase immigration dramatically in order to fuel its economy. The policy leaders are, however, concerned about the expected increase in students who come to school who do not speak English. The nation is concerned about its workforce and the capacity of its schools to educate students to high standards, and of course is interested in the remarkably robust U.S. economy, and decides to learn from the U.S. education system and how it educates LEP students. They have hired you to draft a brief memorandum for its top policymakers summarizing: 1. current U.S. policy on educating LEP students; 2. how well the students are doing academically, and 3. your recommendations on what can be learned from the U.S. efforts in developing policy. The policymakers of Sanford, much like policymakers anywhere, have short attention spans and cannot read anything past 8 double-spaced pages (which is actually much longer than most U.S. policymakers).

2) Two states, State 1 and State 2, differ on characteristic X in the policy/practice by which LEP students are educated. State 1 does A, and State 2 does B. Choose and describe X for any two states that we have covered in class, and contrast A and B with respect to federal laws and policies and what we know from theory and research. We are like U.S. policymakers, and fall asleep after 5 double-spaced pages, so limit your answers accordingly.