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Preschool teachers are facing the challenge of serving the nation’s growing number of students from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds in an increasingly restrictive climate that dismisses native language instruction. In the U.S. over two million of these chil dren attend pre-kindergarten through grade 3 classrooms (Abedi et al., 2004). Although the number of English-language learners (ELLs) entering pre-kindergarten con tinues to grow, the early lit er acy de velopment of these chil dren has not been thoroughly investigated (but see Kenner et al., 2004; Reyes, 2006; Reyes & Azuara, 2008; Soltero-González, 2008, 2009). In spite of extant research evid ence on the ad vant ages of bilingualism and bilit er acy (e.g., Au gust & Shanahan, 2006; Dworin, 2003; Pérez, 2004; Reyes, 2001), 87 percent of the ELL students enrolled in pub lic schools are in English medium programs (National Center for …