ABSTRACT
Given that the population of children who enter school not speaking English has grown by 40% in the last decade (Garcia & Jensen, 2009), and that there continues to be no appreciable reduction in the achievement gap for these children as compared to their English-speaking monolingual peers (Gandara & Hopkins, 2010; Wiley, Lee, & Rumberger, 2009), educating children from bilingual families continues to be a major concern of educational systems throughout the United States. While the education of bilingual students1 in the United States is a continuous story of underachievement, it need not be in the future. The current challenge is to improve academic outcomes, and as such, educational policy must focus both on providing equity and fostering excellence.
