Book excerpt: Mission Statement: The mission of this series is to bring issues of diversity and educational risk to the forefront of national attention in order to assist the nation's diverse students at risk of educational failure to achieve academic excellence. This series will focus on critical issues in the education of linguistic and cultural minority students and those placed at risk by factors of race, poverty, and geographic location. Each volume will include empirical studies and syntheses of research that provide an integrated view of the emerging body of research within areas such as: (a) language learning and academic achievement, (b) professional development, (c) family, peers, schools, and communities, (d) instruction in context, and (e) integrated school reform. In order to inform scholars, practitioners, and policy makers, each volume will provide fundamental knowledge about effective programs and practices that affect students place at risk through linguistic, racial, economic, and geographic diversity. Some volumes will be written by one or two authors on a given aspect of educational diversity. Most, however, will be edited, thematic works with chapters written by several expe