In Myths and Realities: Best Practices for Language Minority Students, authors Katherine Davies Samway and Denise McKeown offer a user-friendly guide to key issues concerning the education of language-minority students, or students from homes where a language other than English is spoken. As the title suggests, the book is designed to counter many of the prevailing myths that abound in this area of education with a discussion of the “realities” — in other words, basic research findings, actual program practices, and current legislative requirements for educating English-language learners.

Many of the myths challenged in this book — for example, “younger children are more effective language learners than are older learners” (p. 20) — would be viewed as predictable by teachers, administrators, and researchers who have extensive experience in language-minority education. As long-time teacher trainers, Samway and McKeown wrote their book not for seasoned language-minority educators, but for an audience of educators “who are not specially trained to teach language minority and limited English proficient students” (p. xiii). With this book, the authors hope to provide these educators with a basic understanding of the issues relevant to educating language-minority students.

The nine chapters in Myths and Realities cover a wide range of topics on language-minority education. These include the demographic characteristics of the current limited-English-proficient student population; native-language instruction; school-based practices related to program design, enrollment, placement, and assessment; the professional development of language educators; and the involvement of linguistic-minority parents and communities in schools. Each chapter follows a similar format: a myth is presented, followed by a statement of counterargument, and then an overview of relevant research or literature. Informative tables and figures are incorporated throughout the book; for example, a table summarizing legal decisions (pp. 30–31) helps readers appreciate an important chronology of events that influenced the education of language-minority students. The book also includes a glossary of acronyms and vocabulary commonly used in the language-minority education field. In addition, the book contains a comprehensive list of national organizations, research centers, professional teacher associations, advocacy groups, and local and state educational organizations that teachers will find invaluable.

One particularly unique feature of Myths and Realities is the use of “vignettes” in each chapter designed to capture “a more realistic, day-to-day view of how things really operate in schools” (p. xiii). These vignettes take the form of short dialogues among teachers or school administrators (e.g., a faculty meeting conversation in which the teachers discuss the progress of their language-minority students; see pp. 35–36), descriptive accounts that illustrate school policies or program decisions (e.g., the hiring of bilingual faculty and staff in response to increasing numbers of native Spanish-speaking students; see pp. 92–93), or profiles of learner experiences (e.g., a Vietnamese seventh grader whose English learning difficulties were related to a significant hearing loss that was not diagnosed for her first two years of schooling in the United States; see pp. 55–56). While these vignettes succeed in grounding each chapter in the lived experiences of teachers, administrators, and students, they would have been more useful if the authors had provided some guiding questions to help the reader think more deeply about the myths discussed in the chapter. For example, a vignette on placement of language-minority students (ch. 4) introduces two Latino high school students, Carlos and Francisca, who both demonstrated strong academic potential but were never placed in academically challenging classes. A few guiding questions (for example, What action steps would you recommend to this district so that placement mistakes such as these are not repeated?) would have helped the reader actively expand on the ideas presented in this chapter.

Myths and Realities is an important book for educators to read and discuss with their colleagues. In addition to its intended audience, the book represents a must-read for parents and legislators who want to evaluate choices and make informed decisions about the education of language-minority students.

M.G.S.