How to teach English language learners has been among the most contentious - indeed, most politicized - issues in American education over the past three decades. Meeting the pedagogical needs of these children, the fastest-growing population in U.S. schools, is a formidable challenge in itself. Educators' mission is further complicated by external factors including the English-only movement, anti-immigrant agitation, resistance to civil-rights laws, attacks on bilingual education, mandates for high-stakes testing and other misguided reforms, uninformed media coverage, and legislators'...