We would like to welcome the reader to the new issue of the newsletter of the Bilingual Education Interest Section (BEIS). There are many myths about bilingual education, and one is about assessment. Bi- and multilingual children are often overrepresented in special education, and many other important factors might be ignored in their assessment. The purpose of this issue is to highlight several peculiarities of multilingual language assessment from several perspectives; from the perspectives of professor, from Dr. Elana Shohamy, who has distinguished herself as a prominent scholar in assessment of multilingual individuals; of teacher educator, from Kathryn Henn-Reinke, who has a great experience in training pre- and in-service bilingual teachers; and lastly, of classroom bilingual teacher, from Carolina G. López, whose dedication to students and her vocation inspires her to stay in this noble profession.

Each of these authors presents a unique perspective on assessment, unveiling the fact that holistic assessment of multilingual individuals should go beyond standard linguistic assessment and integrate social, cultural, family, education, and personal information. Such assessment requires that the schools identify, assess, and intervene at early stages of language development and provide opportunities for sustainable and continuous language education through one's primary, middle, and high school education. Only such systematic, targeted, and comprehensive curriculum and instruction led by well-trained and passionate bilingual teachers and educators can create a fruitful environment and opportunities for creating a multilingual population around the world. The article in the Chinese language by Dr. Hsiao-ping Wu strives to set an example for developing multilingual education scholarship in more than the English language. We truly believe that that is the way to move forward—promoting more than one language.

Andrés Ramírez is assistant professor of TESOL and Bilingual Education at Florida Atlantic University, Boca Ratón, USA. His research focuses on the academic achievement of emergent to advanced bilinguals in K–16 contexts.

Alsu Gilmetdinova is head of the Office of International Affairs at the Kazan National Research Technical University (KNRTU-KAI) in the city of Kazan, Russia. Her interests revolve around bilingual education, language policy, and TESOL.