Issue link: http://educator.cta.org/i/1175948
children, all Mexican except for one Anglo boy off in a corner. The teacher handed out coloring books and pencils. Day after day, the class was coloring, cutting out pictures, doing a little bit of very easy addition and subtraction and recess. The children ranged in age from 7 to 13 but were in the same classroom together all day. A year later, Arturo was still in the same room. Other children on the playground both shunned and teased him and his classmates, calling them "retard" and "tonto." The children in the class complained to their parents, but the parents did not know what they could do. The idea of mounting a legal challenge was completely foreign to the Soledad labor camp parents. They had no understanding of the justice system, did not know any attorneys or have the ability to afford them. But in mid-1969, California Rural Legal Assistance (CRLA) attorneys Marty Glick and Mo Jourdane became counsel for the Sole- dad children — and eventually came to represent them and thousands of other children in a class action lawsuit. The lawsuit, known as Diana v. State Board of Education, challenged the use of English-only and culturally biased IQ tests to justify the placement and retention of the Mexican American chil- dren in classes for the mentally retarded. The battle raged for a decade. CRLA eventually won a consent decree that allowed non- Anglo children to choose the language in which they would respond on IQ tests. It banned verbal sections of the test. It also required state psychologists to develop an IQ test appropriate for non-English-speaking students. T h e S ol e d a d C hi l d ren (Arte Público Press) is available on Amazon. "Many parts of the test asked about things Arturo did not understand, such as 'Who was Genghis Khan?' and 'Why is it better to pay bills by check than cash?'" 45 O C T O B E R / N O V E M B E R 2 019 Kristen Walker M.A. in Educational Leadership (805) 493-3325 clugrad@CalLutheran.edu CalLutheran.edu/GSOE Financial Aid and Scholarships Available • Preliminary Administrative Services Credential • M.A. in Educational Leadership • M.Ed. in Teacher Leadership • Doctorate in Educational Leadership (K-12 or Higher Ed) DON'T JUST ADVANCE YOUR CAREER AS AN EDUCATOR. ADVANCE EDUCATION.