The continua model of bilteracy offers a framework in which to situate research,teaching, and language planning in linguistically diverse settings. Using this model, and citing examples of Cambodian and Puerto Rican students in Philadelphia's public schools as illustrative of the challenge facing American educators, this paper suggests that the more their learning contexts allow learners to draw on all points of the continua, the greater are the chances for their full biliterate development. The paper revisits the continua model from the perspective of several international cases of educational policy and practice in linguistically diverse settings--Brazil, Peru, Ecuador, and Bolivia, and from a critical perspective which seeks to make explicit the power relationships which define bi(multi)literacies in these contexts. Building from these perspectives and from continuing research in Philadelphia's Cambodian and Puerto Rican communities, the paper proposes an expanded continua model which takes into account not only biliterate contexts, media, and development, but also, crucially, the content of biliteracy. The paper concludes with comments on how the insights of the continua model of biliteracy can contribute to the understanding not only of diverse classrooms, but also of all classrooms. (Contains 55 references.) (Author/MSE)