Introduction
Horne v. Flores, 129 S.Ct. 2579 (2009), is a case about the rights of English Language Learners (ELs) in public schools in Arizona. The United States Supreme Court accepted the case and, in effect, evaluated whether or not Arizona educational policy with regard to students learning to speak English complied with the law, particularly the Equal Educational Opportunities Act (EEOA). On June 25, 2009, the Court overturned the decision of the state court, deciding in favor of Superintendent Horne and allowing Arizona to determine its own requirements with regards to ELL instruction. Justice Breyer dissented (joined by Justices Stevens, Souter, and Ginsburg) and issued an opinion warning that the Court’s decision risked harming ELLs by denying schoolchildren the English-learning instruction necessary “to overcome language barriers that impede” their “equal participation.”
- A short statement from CRP Co-directors about the impact of the Supreme Court decision in Horne v. Flores.
Research related to Horne V. Flores
Concern about these issues and the deepening racial polarization in Arizona led scholars from UCLA, Stanford, Arizona State University and the University of Arizona to donate their time to study how Arizona’s ELs are faring under the state’s current educational policies and to produce the best possible information so that the state and the federal district courts can consider this when applying the Supreme Court decision.
District Court Case Developments
After these independent studies were published in compliance with Institutional Review Board (IRB) on each campus, Arizona’s lawyers took the unprecedented action of attempting to force the researchers and the schools they represented to disclose confidential information about research participants.
- Press Release: A Threat to the Integrity of Civil Rights Research in Arizona and Elsewhere.
- “Arizona Subpoena Seeks Researchers’ ELL Data” by Mary Ann Zehr. Education Week, August 12, 2010.
- “Another Subpoena for Research” by Scott Jaschik. Inside Higher Ed, August 13, 2010.
- “Science and Subpoena” by Felice J. Levine. Inside Higher Ed, August 18, 2010.
Ultimately, a federal judge protected the names of research subjects, but ordered that the names of schools involved should be released to state authorities.
- Statement by CRP Co-Director Gary Orfield on the Court’s Protective Order, June 26, 2012.
- “Split Ruling on Confidentiality” by Scott Jaschik. Inside Higher Ed, August 23, 2010.
- “Ariz. ELL Programs Found to Violate Civil-Rights Law” by Mary Ann Zehr. Education Week. September 13, 2010.
- “L.A. and Arizona: Will Data Conflicts Spur a Chill Effect?” by Sarah D. Sparks. Education Week. September 23, 2010.
- Letters from the Department of Justice on August 3, 2010 and August 27, 2010 finding that the testing systems violate federal civil rights law.
