Voters have also had a direct impact on English language education
policy. California’s 1998 Proposition 227, for example, requires
that all California public schools conduct instruction in English. It also
mandates that ELLs be taught “overwhelmingly in English” through sheltered/structured English immersion and then
transferred to a mainstream English-language
classroom. Voters in Arizona and Massachusetts
have approved similar initiatives, and 25 states
have English-only laws which shape ELL education.
However, there is no evidence that statewide
English-only initiatives improve the learning
outcomes of ELLs.8