This study investigated what is known about content area instruction for linguistically and culturally diverse learners (LCDLs) in mainstream social studies, mathematics, science, and language arts classes. A review of recent literature looked at three major areas: (1) the theory and practice of standards for this group; (2) theory and practice of measures of achievement, proficiency, and/or academic literacy; and (3) promising practices in content area instruction. The study also included interviews with university education faculty to determine current issues and effective practices within the various subject areas, and site visits to a suburban high school that had implemented a team approach to working with language minority students in mainstream classrooms. Some classroom observations are presented as vignettes. Contains 52 references. (MSE)