Historically, research in regards to the instruction of culturally and linguistically diverse students focuses predominantly on a comparison to mainstream culture as well as the use of primary language separate from the second language. The traditional approach focuses on a deficit lens, or perceived deficiencies of culturally and linguistically diverse students in comparison to a mainstream monolingual culture. This research perspective establishes one language and as a result, one culture, as dominant. Despite a large body of research on the need for high quality rigorous instruction to support linguistically and culturally diverse students, minimal research focuses on instructional approaches to support diverse student literacy. This paper discusses a review of the current research literature specific to evidence based practices to support academic literacy development in students of culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds. Overall, the research findings suggest that traditional approaches to academic literacy instruction are inadequate for developing academic literacy in culturally and linguistically diverse students.