To evaluate the implementation of the Bilingual Education and English as a Second Language (ESL) programs, the Houston Independent School District (Texas) studied the participation and academic achievement of limited English proficient (LEP) students who participated in these programs in the 1995-96 school year. The Fall 1995 database reported 56,269 LEP students in the district's bilingual education program. Of that number, 57% were classified as bilingual education students, and 28.7% were classified as ESL students. The great majority of these students were Spanish speakers (95.3%). The remaining 14.3% were enrolled in all-English classes. In general, achievement scores of LEP students in English increased over the scores of the previous year in reading (58.4% to 58.9%) and mathematics (50.9% to 63.5%) and declined in writing (83.7% to 80.5%) during the 1995-96 school year. Recommendations address curriculum development, staff development, text adoption, instructional materials, data collection, and other instructional and administrative issues. A particular concern will be providing support to LEP students whose native language is other than Spanish. One appendix contains the evaluation form used in site visits to the 11 schools studied in detail, and the other describes the site visits themselves. (Contains 1 figure, 11 tables, and 28 references.) (SLD)