The goal, which is aimed towards teaching linguistically diverse students, varies, and greatly influences policy, pedagogy, and the expected outcomes of the instruction.  The variation in the goals of the education also leads to two different ways of teaching English and consequently two different types of education, Compensatory Education and Quality Education.

Compensatory Education:

·         Aims at students becoming proficient in English and emphasizes pedagogy that searches for the best model of teaching English.

·         Suggests that education is possible only in English.

Quality Education:

• Aims at students becoming proficient in English as well as in their native language, to various degrees.
• Aims at sociocultural integration.
• The pedagogy of Quality Education emphasizes that schools must be effective, lead to advances in education, and provide students with the opportunity to achieve academically.
•  Views a student’s language and the culture as vehicles of education.  

The opinions about which type of bilingual education is favorable and should be implemented vary greatly.

Opponents of bilingual education favor programs that only emphasized English language development. They are of the opinion that students need English proficiency in order to be educated and therefore argue that the faster the students learn English, the sooner they can transition into English only instruction and gain access to engaging grade-level curriculum.

Supporters of bilingual education favor models that use and promote the native language of students. They argue that students learn English faster and are able to gain age-level appropriate subject matter knowledge simultaneously when they are educated through their native language while studying English.