The Impact of Brown on EL Students: Addressing Linguistic and Educational Rights Through School Leadership Practice and Preparation

In 1974, the Supreme Court drew on the 1954 Brown decision in Lau v Nichols , placing English learner (EL) students’ right to a meaningful education at the forefront of educational policy. Subsequent federal decisions and legislation (i.e., Castañeda; Equal Educational Opportunities Act [EEOA], No Child Left Behind [NCLB], and Every Student Succeeds Act [ESSA]) have placed the responsibility for providing quality educational programming on districts, schools, and school leaders. In this article, we propose a framework for the integration of linguistic equity in leadership preparation and an historical case of a university-based principal preparation program that has integrated this framework into coursework and clinical experiences.