While the previous cases are of great importance in the development of legal bases to defend the rights of language minority students, Castañeda has a special relevance, since it provided -- and still provides -- important criteria for determining a school's degree of compliance with the Equal Educational Opportunity Act of 1974. In the Castañeda suit, parents of Mexican-American children charged the Raymondville Independent School District, Texas, with instructional practices that violated their children's rights. Those practices included "ability tracking" of students on the basis of discriminatory criteria that caused the segregation of Hispanic students; discriminating against Mexican-Americans in the recruitment and hiring of school personnel; and failing to develop bilingual programs that facilitated learning by language minority students. The case established a three-part test to evaluate the adequacy of a district's program for ELL students.
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