Arizona is the Only State that Separates Students under English-Only Laws. A Mountain of Evidence Shows it Doesn’t Work.
Fifteen-year-old Ileana Salinas — vibrant, outgoing and set on going to college — found herself in an entirely new country with a new educational system after fleeing Mexico City in 2004.
She remembers taking her first academic placement exam alone, in an empty classroom. The results labeled her as not proficient in English.
Salinas is among the thousands of immigrants in Arizona — many of them Latino children — placed into a “structured English immersion” program, commonly known as “English-only.” Students are separated from their peers for hours to learn the language in an English-only environment. For Salinas, this meant time away from her math, science, and other classes critical to academic success and college readiness.
“I was rushing to try to get out of (English-only) classes, so I could fit in regular English,” she said, adding that like many native English-speaking students at the time, she also needed regular English course credits to graduate.
