Researchers are now assessing the educational and community impacts of the monolingual, one-size-fits-all approach to basic skills that characterizes current US federal legislation (Abedi, 2004; Evans and Hornberger, 2005). In indigenous and multicultural education in Australia, New Zealand, and Canada, there is ongoing policy debate over the contingent factors in the achievement of indigenous and multilingual students in socioeconomically marginal communities. Innovative and productive approaches begin from the building of supportive links between community language ideologies and the choice and implementation of medium of instruction and approach to literacy in the school, and a reciprocal link between teachers’ understandings of the sociolinguistic patterns and language functions in the community (Au, 1998; Durgunoglu and Verhoeven, 1998; McNaughton, 2002). However, the inclusion of these elements in a language education plan may be necessary but not sufficient for transforming material conditions and life pathways in equitable ways. Increased and improved literacy via school can only make a difference if it enables access and engagement in social fields where that capital can be gainfully and fairly exchanged.
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