In 1996, 24 years ago, Prop. 209 was passed in the state of California. Prop 209, also referred to as the ‘California Civil Rights Initiative.’ Quoting from that Proposition:"... prohibits the state from discriminating against, or granting preferential treatment to, any individual or group on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity, or national origin in the operation of public employment, public education, or public contracting." We’ve focused on public education in this episode's conversation. Here’s a useful definition Academic Language: While the term is most commonly applied to language-specific skills, competency in academic language also bleeds into a wide variety of related non-linguistic skills that are difficult or impossible to separate out from language ability, including foundational academic skills (organizing, planning, researching), cognitive skills (critical thinking, problem solving, interpreting, analyzing, memorizing, recalling), learning modes (questioning, discussing, observing, theorizing, experimenting), and work habits (persistence, self-discipline, curiosity, conscientiousness, responsibility), in addition to other forms of literacy required to succeed in modern schools, such as technological literacy, online literacy, media literary, or multicultural literacy, among others (for a related discussion, see 21st century skills). Here’s a link to a valuable article about how to help students develop their Academic Language skills: https://www.edutopia.org/blog/8-strategies-teaching-academic-language-todd-finley (Before Prop. 16 became Prop. 16 it had to pass through the California Assembly to qualify to be on the ballot.  While in the process of passing through the California Assembly, it was referred to as ACA 5.)  This excellent article explains the value of Prop. 16 (while it was still referred to as ACA 5) http://speakupparents.org/blog/2020/6/1/its-time-to-dismantle-educational-injustice-against-black-students --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/onewhitewoman/message