According to Cummins (1994), the presence of linguistically and culturally diverse children is becoming the norm in classrooms across the country. Nationwide, ESL/ESOL enrollment has increased by 104% between 1989 and 1999, compared to an overall increase in school enrollment of 14% for the same time period (National Clearinghouse for Bilingual Education, 2000). The growing numbers of the Latino/Latina population in the United States has led to recent publications showing some common needs and trends for this unique group. According to Garcia and Marotta (1997), 29% of Latinos/Latinas live below the poverty line as compared to 14% of the general U.S. population. Their report also indicated that Latinos/Latinas have high-school dropout rates above the national average, and only 9% hold college diplomas compared to a nationwide average of 21%. Unemployment also is more prevalent among Latinos/Latinas than among the general population (August & Hakuta, 1997).