URBAN STUDENTS ACQUIRING ENGLISH AND LEARNING MATHEMATICS IN THE CONTEXT OF REFORM

Urban schools face a dilemma. Should their efforts at reforming school mathematics specifically address the status of students acquiring Eng lish? Or should urban schools assume that these students' needs will b e addressed under the broader aegis of reform This article provides a rationale as to why educators should choose the former: the danger of re-creating stratification of opportunity to learn mathematics is simp ly too great to ignore the status of students acquiring English The bi lingual education literature that is related to mathematics teaching f ails to address critical mathematics reform issues. Yet, bilingual edu cation research provides a foundation on which to build efforts that c ombine attention to bilingual education and mathematics reform. This a rticle ends with an elaboration of ways to think about the bilingual l earner of mathematics, curriculum, teaching, assessment, and evaluatio n where collaboration between mathematics reformers and bilingual educ ators could be productive.