ABSTRACT
In the early 1990s we began to reflect seriously on the agenda that culminated in this book. At the time, both authors were living and working in geographic regions with significant Latino populations, Sandra Schecter in the San Francisco Bay area of northern California and Robert Bayley in San Antonio in south Texas. The education of language-minority children had moved to the top of the agenda for professional educators, researchers, and policymakers in the United States. It had achieved this prominence because of the significant increase in the rate and volume of immigration from non-English-speaking countries that began in the 1970s and continued unabated through the 1980s and into the 1990s, reaching levels not seen since the 20th century's early years.
