Because Language Minority learners tend to have more limited vocabularies and background knowledge (two highly interrelated areas) than their monolingual English-speaking counterparts, we can expect Language Minority students’ writing to be greatly impeded. Indeed, the 2002 National Assessment of Education Progress writing assessment revealed that only about one-quarter of 4th, 8th, and 12th grade performed at or above the proficient level in writing (NCES, 2004), but even more troubling is the fact that substantial differences emerged when examining the data by ethnicity: At all grade levels, on average, Whites and Asians scored above the 50%percentile, while Blacks and Latinos scored near the 25% percentile.