Despite limited research due to lack of funding and inadequate program evaluations, enough evidence has accumulated to indicate that quality bilingual programs can meet the goal of providing equal educational opportunity for students from non-English speaking backgrounds. A review of existing research supports this statement. In almost all cases, children in the bilingual programs performed as well as or significantly better than those in the control group. One carefully conducted longitudinal study showed mixed results, possibly because students in the bilingual program were introduced to reading in Spanish and English at the same time. A recent study by Finnish researchers on the achievement of Finnish immigrant children in Sweden may have revolutionary significance for the education of linguistic minorities. Their evidence suggests that if children are submersed in instruction in another language before the age of ten, this exerts a destabilizing effect on the development of their native language as a tool for cognitive organization, especially if the children are members of a minority group. At a more fundamental level, the issue may be one of the relative social and cultural status of groups in the community. These issues, vital to the success of bilingual education, can be resolved only by continued research. (AMH)