This history of bilingual education in the United States begins with the advent of the Spanish in the early 16th century, and traces the development of the phenomenon to the present. Chapters cover (1) early immigration of Spanish and Germans before the Revolution, (2) early 19th century xenophobia, (3) bilingual schooling in the early 19th century, (4) bilingual education's decline in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, (5) the Puerto Rican influx in the mid-20th century, (6) the rise and failure of instruction in English as a second language (ESL), (7) the 1960s renaissance of bilingual education, (8) the federal bilingual act (Title VII of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965) and its implementation, (9) the ethnic awareness movement of the mid-1970's, (10) the peak of the bilingual movement, and (11) the aftermath of the Lau v. Nichols ruling. Also included are chapters on (1) variations on the bilingual concept, (2) a comparison of concepts of bilingual education and school desegregation, (3) the status of bilingual education in the bicentennial year, (4) program evaluation efforts and results, (5) denial of educational services to undocumented immigrants and challenges to Lau remedies, (6) issues of accountability, (7) foreign language deficiencies and linguistic chauvinism in American society, (8) the increasing need for bilingual instruction due to immigrant influx and other needy language minorities, (9) the 1979 proposed Lau regulations, (10) the recent shrinkage of the federal role in education, (11) headline immigrant language issues, (12) jeopardy to some individual rights, and (13) some projections and suggestions. (MSE)