This paper presents a brief historical overview and summary of the various approaches and recent developments in the field of bilingual education. The controversy that exists with respect to the different approaches to bilingual education has prevented the development of national goals and guidelines and the preparation of adequate evaluation instruments. Educators are now striving to remove the stigma that bilingual education is only compensatory education for the disadvantaged. Efforts are being made to demonstrate the importance of establishing and maintaining bilingual programs. The Bilingual Education Act was enacted in 1968, and in 1974, educational amendments were introduced to authorize funding for the Bilingual Education Program so that its goals could be reached. Considerable inroads have been made in the field of bilingual-bicultural education at the elementary and high school levels. However, institutions of higher education have been slower in providing equal educational opportunities. The second part of this paper focuses on a model developed at the college level which is designed to serve the special educational needs of a sizeable number of Spanish dominant students attending the Community College of Philadelphia. A major goal of this program is to provide the city's Hispanic community with an opportunity to acquire English language proficiency through its intensive English as a second language component, and to increase access to post secondary education for Hispanic students in the Philadelphia public schools. (Author/AM)