Focuses on the purposes of bilingual education programs in schools and their historical development from the 1960s to the present.

In this timely resource, educator Rosa Castro Feinberg surveys the developing field of bilingual education-its history, its theories, its practices, and the conflicts that swirl around it. She begins with an annotated chronology that describes influential people and events and traces themes in bilingual education from precolonial times to the present.

In three detailed chapters, Feinberg summarizes the widely varied state and local policies and bilingual programs across the country, and demonstrates the profound impact of federal legislation, policies, and court decisions. She also examines the political challenge to linguistic diversity by anti-immigration groups and the common myths about bilingual education that have grown out of the media's handling of identity politics.