Papers from a conference on the role of language in the academic achievement of African Americans include: "Language Diversity and Academic Achievement in the Education of African American Students: An Overview of the Issues" (John R. Rickford); "The Language of African American Students in Classroom Discourse" (Courtney B. Cazden); "Enhancing Bidialectalism in Urban African American Students" (Kelli Harris-Wright); "Repercussions from the Oakland Ebonics Controversy: The Critical Role of Dialect Awareness Programs" (Walt Wolfram); "Considerations in Preparing Teachers for Linguistic Diversity" (John Baugh); "The Case for Ebonics as Part of Exemplary Teacher Preparation" (Terry Meier); "Language Policy and Classroom Practices" (Geneva Smitherman); "Language, Diversity, and Assessment: Ideology, Professional Practice, and the Achievement Gap" (Asa G. Hilliard, III); and "Lessons Learned from the Ebonics Controversy: Implications for Language Assessment" (Anna F. Vaughn-Cooke). The text of the testimony of Orlando L. Taylor on the subject of Ebonics is appended. (MSE)