The bilingual situation in Illinois is described briefly, and an outline of the instructional objectives of local bilingual programs is given. The programs are to be: (1) measurable and oriented toward the end-of-year-product, and (2) organized within the guidelines for state-funded bilingual programs. The main part of the report describes the design of the procedures set up to evaluate these programs based on the following recommendations from the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction: (1) prior to implementing a bilingual program in a community a sociolinguistic survey should be conducted there; (2) priority should be given to early childhood programs, preferably pre-school and kindergarten; (3) 'standardized' instruments, rather than criterion-referenced tests should be selected as measurement tools; and (4) insofar as possible, a true experimental evaluation design should be employed, with randomly assigned treatment and control groups. The aim was to select and implement the combination of designs and instruments which would most effectively give an accurate picture of local bilingual education programs. Actual evaluation findings are not reported here. Anticipated design refinements for future years are mentioned, and three tables give: (1) a description of the measuring instruments, (2) statewide evaluation designs and project sites, and (3) between-groups hypothesis. (TL)