This is the outcome of work by the National Literacy Panel on Language-Minority Children and Youth. The panel included experts from the United States and Canada selected by the Institute of Education Sciences. The topics addressed include second language (L2) development, cognitive development, curriculum and instruction, assessment, and methodology. Concerned with how best to improve literacy achievement for language-minority students, the collection is a synthesis of more than 200 systematically selected research reports on the development of literacy for language-minority students. The panel (with August as principal investigator and Shanahan as Chair) undertook a comprehensive review of studies on language-minority students based mainly in the United States but also incorporated studies from the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, the Netherlands, Finland, and Israel.

The edited volume has five sections organized according to issues that reflect specific areas of concern for educational policy makers, each of which begins with a chapter that synthesizes the major domain investigated. Part 1, which includes the studies of Lesaux, Geva, Koda, and Shanahan, reviews studies on reading readiness and word-level and text-level skills as well as L2 oral skills. The review in Part 2 is guided by three research questions that focus on the relationships across languages in the development of literacy skills in English as a L2. It includes studies by Genesee, Geva, Dressler, and Kamil. Genesee and Geva, for example, review studies that examine the relationship between language-minority children's first language (L1) and L2 oral development in domains related to literacy. They also review studies that examine the extent to which L1 oral proficiency is related to the development of literacy skills in English.

Part 3 reviews and evaluates evidence on the role of sociocultural factors in the literacy development of language-minority children and youth. This is justifiable given the shift from a deficit explanation of language learning disabilities to perspectives that all communities have appropriate cognitive abilities (Cummins, 1996; Purcell-Gates, 1995). As Goldenberg, Rueda, and August point out in their chapter, most of the research they reviewed posits that “sociocultural influences on literacy attainment must be understood as the product of interactions between children's home culture and the culture of the school and classroom” (p. 269). The studies they reviewed reported on student literacy outcomes, such as measures of achievement and behavioral or attitudinal indictors. Another chapter includes discussion of other factors, such as parents and families; policies at the district, state, and federal levels; and language status or prestige related to the sociocultural context in which children acquire literacy, focusing particularly on language-minority students.

The next two sections, Parts 4 and 5, cover practical key areas of concern in educational reform related to the development of literacy among language-minority children and youth. In their chapter, Francis, Lesaux, and August address the question of the impact of language of instruction on the literacy learning of language-minority students. In another chapter, Shanahan and Beck introduce the reader to particular aspects of literacy improvements that result from enhanced instruction. Moving away from experimental and quasi-experimental studies, August and Erickson review case studies and ethnographic research focused on classroom and school practices as well as contexts designed to build the literacy of language-minority students. In spite of the limited number of studies on special education, August and Siegel quite concisely unravel the issues pertaining to literacy instruction for language-minority students in this area. Important to note from the studies that August and Siegel reviewed is the manner in which students are identified as learning disabled and the assessment used to track their progress. This ties in well with the chapter in which August and Calderon review teachers' beliefs and attitudes thought to influence how they perceive, process, and act on information in the classroom.

In the last section, Garcia, McKoon, and August address the issue of student assessment, covering a variety of measures used to evaluate students' oral, reading, and writing performance. In the final chapter, Snow outlines themes that cut across the chapters and succinctly proposes subtasks necessary to understanding the development of L2 skills.

Each section ends with two very useful databases and background references that make the volume a very comprehensive single source of information for scholars interested in language-minority students. An added bonus for the student and researcher of L2 is the CD containing details of the 293 studies that were selected and reviewed in this useful, state-of-the-art collection.