Although nearly 90,000 students in the New York (New York) public schools participate in bilingual education programs and English as a Second Language (ESL) programs, insufficient data are available to conduct effective program evaluations. The school system's bilingual and ESL programs achieved their size and permanence as a result of two lawsuits of the 1970s. The Aspira Consent Decree, using the precedent of "Lau v. Nichols," ensured the right of limited-English-proficient New York City students to bilingual education. English language education that would benefit from evaluation includes the following: (1) comparison of bilingual and ESL programs; (2) proficiency standards; (3) service delivery; (4) length of stay in bilingual programs; (5) educational needs of Hispanic students; (6) needs of students whose score on the Language Assessment Battery (LAB) are a little too high to qualify them for bilingual education; (7) language needs of non-Hispanic minorities; and (8) dual language proficiency. Data that should be transferred to the school's central computer file (student bio file) include the following: (1) country of birth; (2) country of last address; (3) language spoken at home; (4) length of stay in a language program; (5) educational achievement; and (6) parents' place of birth. Statistical data are included on two tables. (FMW)