The Multicultural/Bilingual Division at NIE was established in January of 1975 as a reflection of the increased attention to cultural and linguistic factors in education. The emergence of this interest in minority education programs and research can be traced through three phases of activity: (1) adoption and management of OE-transferred projects, and promotion of field-initiated research; (2) completion of 10 multicultural planning conferences and continuation of support for selected projects; and (3) creation of the Division, synthesis of planning conferences, and completion of the first program plan beginning to systematically focus on needs in the field. A new conceptual framework proposes a definition of multicultural education, identifies the relationship between multicultural and bilingual education, and draws from the definition a statement that information about cultural and linguistic communities should be used in the development of instructional programs for children of ethnic minority background of limited English-speaking ability. The new framework also provides a structure for organizing and assigning priorities to continuing and proposed Division activities. (Author/AM)