Those who write and fund bilingual education programs are primarily concerned with the implementation, administration, and management of certain types of programs rather than with their instructional components. An analysis of 75 bilingual education program proposals indicated that this resulted in a preoccupation with facilities, materials, staffing, and teaching techniques and strategies, but minimal attention was paid to instructional elements such as academic learning time (ALT), classroom management, teacher expectations and attitudes, pupil learning styles, and teacher-pupil interaction. Observation of one California bilingual education program further revealed that teacher-pupil interaction was significantly reduced for bilingual students when bilingual aides were present. Classroom teachers then initiated interaction twice as often with non-bilingual students and mostly in English, whereas aides initiated interaction almost entirely with bilingual students and largely in Spanish. This (and other practices which indicated lower expectations for bilingual students) reduced their ALT and often resulted in classroom management problems. While ALT and teacher-pupil interaction appear to be the two most significant instructional features in bilingual education programs, the other features studied must also be included in such programs to ensure equitable delivery of educational services to bilingual students. (SB)