Candid and illuminating, this text exposes the educational realities of Latinos (U.S. and foreign-born) in K-12 public schools in the Western United States from the students' own perspectives. Through the testimonies of students who struggled to graduate from high school, issues that are often oversimplified and commonly misunderstood are brought to life. The students themselves offer pragmatic solutions to reduce the unchanging academic gap among culturally diverse groups. Their accounts are then compared with the viewpoints of a range of K-12 teachers on matters of community, learning,...

Candid and illuminating, this text exposes the educational realities of Latinos (U.S. and foreign-born) in K-12 public schools in the Western United States from the students' own perspectives. Through the testimonies of students who struggled to graduate from high school, issues that are often oversimplified and commonly misunderstood are brought to life. The students themselves offer pragmatic solutions to reduce the unchanging academic gap among culturally diverse groups. Their accounts are then compared with the viewpoints of a range of K-12 teachers on matters of community, learning,...