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When the State Bilingual Advisory Committee (SBAC) was formed in I970, its members were as new to their advisory roles as their programs were to the newly emerging field of bilingual education. With time, experimentation and emerging research in program delivery helped define content and strategies used in bilingual education classrooms across the state. It also spearheaded trailblazers who, by serving on the SBAC, translated local issues into statewide policy. Mela Leger set the leadership stage for future SBAC chairpersons when she brought an important certification issue to the state superintendent of instruction that directly impacted bilingual education teachers. The synergetic relationship that grew between the New Mexico State Department of Education (SDE) and the committee itself spurred mutual confidence and trust in the work that needed to be done. Little did the New Mexico State Board of Education (SBE) realize when it created SBAC in I970 that the committee would become a powerful action agent for practitioner-based policy development in bilingual education. 1 The first SBE policy statement on bilingual education in the nation (see Blum Martnez, chapter 6 this volume) set the framework for an ambitious agenda for the committee. By I973, many schools across New Mexico had been carrying out bilingual education programs for eight years under state and federal funds and through private foundation grants. 2 It was time for the state to set some guiding principles, both for teacher preparation and for the program itself. The first major task given to the SBAC was to develop criteria for the licensure of teachers in bilingual education. Working in conjunction with Henry Pascual of the SDE's Bilingual Education Unit, SBE Regulation 7374I-Prescribing Program Requirements for Approved Teacher Education Programs in Bilingual Education"-was approved on January 24, I 974 . The document described what a bilingual education teacher preparation program would look like (see Hannum and Salazar, chapter to this volume). At that time, existing local programs were teaching some content in the native language, all had a native language arts component, and most included cultural activities within the social studies. 3 Working directly with Henry Pascual, the committee again helped develop guiding principles for the program, which were approved by the SBE on December 5, i975. The "Guidelines for Implementing Bilingual Multicultural Education Programs" (SBE Regulation No. 75-I9) provided a definition of bilingual multicultural education and directed programs to set objectives for "literacy skills to provide proficiency in two languages, one of which is English; and progressive understanding and study of the history and cultures of New Mexico by including these in the curriculum." 4 The instructional program was to consist of daily language arts in the home language, English language development within the English language arts, content areas taught through two languages focusing on "social, cultural and economic values and history of the cultures of the students," and finally, a fine arts component taught in two languages. It also required parent advisory committees to assist and advise in the implementation and evaluation of the program; teachers who were certified in bilingual education; and an annual evaluation "commensurate with local objectives and needs" that should include "student's achievement through English as well as the home language" (SBE Regulation No. 75-I9). Beginning in I975, the SDE began the process of defining actual university course requirements for prospective Spanish and Native American languages teachers seeking a bilingual education endorsement. Both the SBAC and the Native American Bilingual Education Steering Committee worked on this task for their respective language groups