This watershed volume brings together the foremost leading authorities and scholars lending their individual voices to a single, urgent issue: literacy for Latino students. In a departure from traditional paradigms, Latinos examine their own lived experiences in U.S. schools and offer sound theories born from positions of expertise and first-hand knowledge as researchers and educators. Their discussions and critical perspectives on literacy for Latino students in grades K–12 touch on the important topics of:

• Encouraging biliteracy in the classroom
• Constructing theories of possibility
• Promoting critically literate youth
• Organizing teaching and learning to students’ potential
• Linking literacy to lived experiences
• As insiders in Spanish-speaking communities that are often maligned for their children’s alleged “failure” in schools, these authors offer hope for children’s academic potential as well as evidence showing that integration of native language and culture in supportive learning environments can lead to success in literacy in two languages.

Contributors: Alma Flor Ada, Héctor H. Alvarez, María V. Balderrama, Patricia Baquedano-López, Lilia I. Bartolomé, María Echiburu Berzins, Esteban Díaz, Bárbara Flores, María E. Fránquiz, Kris D. Gutiérrez, Bobbi Ciriza Houtchens, Robert T. Jiménez, Eloise Andrade Laliberty, Alice E. López, Roberta Maldonado, Carmen I. Mercado, Luis C. Moll, Rosa Zubizarreta

“In this illuminating volume, the authors courageously challenge the assumption of a skill-based English-only literacy for Latinos. By shifting the literacy debate to a sociocultural terrain, they urge readers to confront the prevailing issues of racism, classism, gender, and economic deprivation that characterize the literacy of Latino/Latina students in the U.S. public schools. Simply put, this volume provides readers with the necessary political clarity to understand and appreciate what it means to be literate in the changing multilingual and multicultural world of the 21st century.”
—Donaldo Macedo, Distinguished Professor of Liberal Arts and Education, University of Massachusetts, Boston