Bilingual education in the United States has been directed by various language education policies to which there are three dimensions: (1) the language or dialect the child speaks on entering school; (2) the type of language policy in the school, which may be monolingual or one of three types of bilingual policies; (3) the divisions of language functions which reflects the appropriateness of each language or dialect for the spoken and written channels and various social situations. To propose a language education policy, particularly in the design of bilingual education programs for nonstandardized languages, three types of languages or dialects must be considered: world, standard, and local, all of which interact in advancing the community to a modern life. On this basis, the problems of bilingual education for the Navajo have involved the development of an orthography; standardization, so that the written language may be taught; and modernization, to facilitate the handling of modern concepts. The last five years have been marked by a growing acceptance of the potential value of Navajo bilingual education, which is recognized as more than an answer to a language problem; rather, it is a central element in changing education from an alien function to one shared or controlled by the community. (LG)