In many school districts, particularly large urban districts, there has been an increase in the number of language minority students and in the linguistic and sociocultural diversity of these students. Historically, programs that served these students tended to operate and be administered separately from the mainstream program. Recent federal legislation has sought to end such fragmentation and isolation of compensatory education programs. The reauthorized Bilingual Education Act (1994) attempts to link the education of limited-English-proficient (LEP) students to efforts to reform the entire school system. The 32 projects funded in fiscal year 1995 are distributed across fourteen states and serve 420,000 LEP students from over 40 language groups. A study of districtwide reform indicates that a number of factors facilitated districtwide implementation of bilingual education. They include: collaboration among mainstream and bilingual/English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) personnel; placement of bilingual/ESL personnel in key district positions; articulation that removes barriers to cooperation; strong leadership; staff development; peer teaching and mentoring; planning for change; qualified teachers; active teacher and school personnel support; and participation of parents as partners in the process. Appendices contain a list of the districtwide programs, an excerpt of the federal legislation, and a list of additional resources. (Contains 18 references.) (MSE)