Simultaneous to local players engaging in language policy work in practice across classrooms, schools and districts, other educators and educational administrators influence the education of English learners (ELs) at the state level. Whether designing the English Language Development (ELD) model, monitoring districts for policy compliance or preparing the state's teaching force, state policy players have broad impact on the language educational practices around the state of Arizona. In this chapter, I foreground the layers and players involved in EL education at the state level, as connected to and contextualized by local practice in Greenwood and other Arizona communities (Rogoff, 1995; Tharp, 1997). Building on the historical and contemporary information presented in Part 1, I begin by introducing the layers and profiling the players who participated in the current study (Hornberger & Johnson, 2007; Ricento & Hornberger, 1996). See Table 6.1 for details on state education participants. I then utilize themes emergent at the state education level to chronicle players' developing perspectives and ongoing experiences first historically throughout two decades of Arizona education and then recently across five years of implementation of the 4-hour ELD approach. I close with a discussion exploring the complexities within Arizona state education, including the alignment, misalignment and dependency across state and local contexts of language policy in practice.

Policy Layers and Players in Arizona State Education

English Learner Task Force

As described in Chapter 2, House Bill 2064 established the EL Task Force, composed of nine members appointed by political leaders (HB 2064, 2006). Language policy charged the task force to develop and adopt research-based, cost-efficient program models aligned to federal and state laws for implementation in school districts and charter schools. The resulting 4-hour ELD block became the state-mandated model for EL instruction, situating the task force as a unique policy layer with executive, legislative and educational roles and responsibilities.