ERIC/RCS: Implications of the Ann Arbor Decision: Black English and the Reading Teacher.

Abstract

and the Reading Teacher In July 1979, United States District Judge Charles W. Joiner decided that there was a failure on the part of the Ann Arbor School Board, Ann Arbor, Michigan, to provide leadership and help for its teachers in learning about the existence of Black English as a home and community language of many students and that it had also failed to suggest to these same teachers ways and means of using that knowledge in teaching children code switching skills for reading standard English. He decided that inattention to the relationship between and standard was not rational in light of existing knowledge on the subject. Judge Joiner further stated that a language barrier exists not in the children's use of English, but rather when teachers, in helping the child switch from the home language to standard English, refuse to recognize the existence of a language that is acceptable in the child's community. His ruling in the case, brought against the Ann Arbor school system by 11 students who lived in a housing project, came after three weeks of testimony from researchers and professionals in linguistics and education. This decision was based on the following portion of United States Code 20, section 1703 (f): No state shall deny equal educational opportunity to an individual on account of his or her race, color, sex, or national origin, by ... the failure by an educational agency to take appropriate action to overcome language barriers that impede equal participation by its students in its institutional programs. What is the information that Judge Joiner believes should be available to and utilized by reading teachers? What have we learned about teaching reading to students who speak English? This article deals with a variety of areas and issues related to teaching reading to speakers of nonstandard dialects. The final section describes several sources that may be especially useful for inservice projects on the topic of and reading.

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