Aspira v. Board of Education Revisited

Puerto Ricans are a unique Hispanic subgroup, though their experience in the public schools of New York City mirrors the experiences of other Hispanic groups around the country. In 1972, Puerto Ricans in New York sought to obtain equal educational opportunity for children with limited English proficiency (LEP) by suing the New York City Board of Education. The suit resulted in a consent decree that required the implementation of a transitional bilingual educational program. This article offers a 10-year overview of the implementation of the decree. It concludes that the board has failed to provide the program to large numbers of children, to systematically monitor the implementation of the program, and to evaluate the educational outcomes of the consent-decree program for LEP children. The article suggests that, although the courts have played an important role in bringing about a significant degree of institutional change, holding schools accountable for improved outcomes is likely to continue to require consistent and concerted community pressure and local- and state-level policy initiatives that, among other factors, give attention to the language-policy issues inherent in the status of Puerto Ricans.