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For decades, the education system has struggled to serve Latinx students, viewing them in a way that focuses on their deficits. However, Latinx scholars have proposed a series of asset-based frameworks to reframe and reshape how we see and treat Latinx students in the U.S. system. Using the "Dora the Explorer"'s "mochila" (backpack) as a metaphor to capture the assets Latinx students bring to the classroom, Louie Rodriguez proposes that teachers think of Latinx students as carrying "mochilas" of excellence into the classroom. This framing encourages educators to recognize and develop Latinx student agency and help them realize the power and promise of education in their lives.

This article examines the foundations of Latina/o/x excellence as a culturally-embedded practice born, taught, and cultivated in the home by the family members of Latina/o/x high school students. The research team conducted a phenomenological study on excellence in the home, school and community of Latina/o/x youth in Southern California. In this study, we examined the definition and source of excellence in the homes of Latina/o/x high school students through a Lotería Card Project inspired by artist, teacher, and professor, Dr. Luis-Genaro Garcia. Findings demonstrate that excellence involves meeting and excelling expectations in the home, is learned through intergenerational knowledge and lived experience, and is grounded in reciprocity. We offer suggestions to educators on how to learn about excellence in the lives of Latina/o/x students and their families.

Research shows that many of the predominantly White and middle-class teachers are unprepared to teach an urban public school population increasingly comprised of low-income children of color. Lack of cultural competencies, low expectations of and lack of caring for students, and racial/ethnic, linguistic, and class biases are all cited as barriers to the success of teachers in urban schools (Bollin, 2007; Brown & Rodríguez, 2009; Howard & Milner, 2014; Rodríguez, 2012; Williams, 2013), and as this and other studies suggest, these barriers are not limited to White teachers (Conchas, 2001; Lynn, Bacon, Totten, Bridges, & Jennings, 2010; Whitney, 2009). At the crux of the problem is the fact that many pre-service teachers have significant gaps in the critical knowledge they need to connect pedagogically and personally with children from backgrounds different from their own. Adding to these difficulties is the relative isolation of teacher education programs from the urban communities that many of their pre-service teachers will one day serve. This disconnection profoundly impedes understandings--among both university faculty and students--of the significance of the social, economic, and political contexts that profoundly impact what happens in urban schools. In this article the authors highlight two initiatives that sought to address these gaps in pre-service teachers' knowledge through participatory action research (PAR) with urban youth. Specifically, they examine how, within these projects, negative perceptions about low-income Black and Latino youth among some pre-service teachers were revealed through their direct engagement with these young people and how this helped the authors themselves, as teacher educators, to better understand and address their students' knowledge gaps. Included are recommendations for further implementing the direct involvement of urban youth as partners in teacher education to address some ways in which pre-service teachers are often unprepared for success in urban schools.

While there are numerous studies that employ additive frameworks to combat deficit views of Latina/o/x students, few focus on the perspectives of Latinx youth. This study examines the ways in which 9th grade high school Latinx students define and conceptualize excellence at home, school, and the community using photovoice methodology as a means of youth participatory action research. This research analyzed the photovoice projects of 22 students contextualized within their Educational Journeys (Rodriguez, 2018). The following objectives guided this article: 1) to empirically examine excellence across the home, school, and community among a group of Latina/o/x 9th graders, 2) to provide an in-depth case analysis of two students' photovoice projects within the context of other data sources explored within the Collaborative Research for Equity and Excellence in Our Schools (CREER) project, and 3) to situate the findings within the larger context of the challenges and possibilities facing Latina/o/x students in education. The photovoice projects allowed students to authentically share their stories on the sources of excellence that shape who they are. The article concludes with implications for educators on how they might incorporate photovoice methods in the classroom across the educational pipeline.

Social inequality as evident through poverty, racism, and irrelevant social and educational policies and practices have created consistent disparities on most educational achievement and attainment outcomes for historically marginalized students, and students of color specifically. These ongoing inequalities and injustices require policy, practical, and pedagogical changes across the educational pipeline. The work of the people on the ground needs to be intentional when exploring ways to creatively and courageously engage with students of color inside and outside the classroom. This paper describes, conceptualizes, and applies a pedagogical practice called Educational Journeys/"Caminos Educativos", which is built on a grounded, context-specific, and culturally relevant set of processes that helps students, educators, leaders, policy makers, and other stakeholders to co-create a series of pedagogical approaches that facilitate opportunities for educators to heal, build, and thrive "with" historically marginalized students, particularly minoritized, immigrant, and undocumented youth. The goal of this paper is to propose pedagogical processes that allow these populations, and the educators who serve them, to imagine a new social condition for and with students of color across the educational pipeline as a gesture toward equity and social justice. The author suggests that the pedagogy of Educational Journeys is more than storytelling; it's about a struggle for freedom--past, present, and future.

The educational system continues to inadequately serve Latina/o students across the educational pipeline. A key shortcoming is the system's inability to develop, support, and grow educational leaders that can respond. In this article, the author poses a series of pedagogical approaches using a Community Cultural Wealth (Yosso, 2005) lens. In the spirit of "testimonio," the author sets the context by articulating his own principles for engagement as a Chicano scholar directly engaged with Latina/o students and communities across the educational pipeline. Then the author shares four concrete pedagogical principles that have been used in his work with students, communities, parents, and in higher education, particularly in a leadership development program. The article concludes with a proposed set of principles focused on Institutionally Responsive Pedagogies driven by Community Cultural Wealth and centers on the ways in which institutions need to shift so that the cultural wealth of Latina/o students and communities are realized across the educational pipeline.

This study draws from a larger phenomenological study on African American academic persistence and career aspirations in education. This article highlights three African American males' experiences with concentrated forms of stereotype threat in teacher education. Their voices revealed dimensions of how power and privilege operate in teacher education. Three themes emerged as significant factors, stereotype threat, grappling with marginalization, and significant role models, in their schooling experiences and motivations to teach. Findings of this study suggest practical implications for teacher-credential programs, faculty practice, and prospective African American male teachers.

Background/Context: The academic success and failure of low-income youth, and Black and Latina/o youth in particular, has received significant attention in the educational literature, particularly in relation to school dropout. Over the last decade, several studies have demonstrated that student-teacher relationships, committed teachers, and notions of caring are critical to the success of Latina/o youth. However, high-poverty urban schools are graduating fewer than half of their students, in comparison with about 70% at the national level. There remains a scant body of research, policy, and conceptual frameworks to help address the crisis, popularly deemed the "dropout crisis," particularly among Latinas/os, the youngest, fastest growing, and lowest educated group in the United States. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study: In what ways can and should researchers, practitioners, and policy makers recognize the existence of Latina/o youth? The purpose of the article, contextualized in the theoretical and empirical literature, is to problematize the concept of recognition, particularly for Latina/o youth, and introduce a conceptual framework to understand, examine, and help rectify the crisis facing this population. Research Design: In this conceptual paper, I argue that key stakeholders must recognize the existence of the Latina/o youth by acknowledging their human existence through legitimizing the unequal conditions and struggles they face in school. Educators much engage youth in curricular and pedagogical experiences that seek to raise students' consciousness through critical thinking and dialogue. This article is focused on the human and interpersonal actions and processes that are necessary to facilitate agency and change among students. Theoretical origins informing recognition are discussed, followed by a contextualized analysis of recognition within the present-day conditions of U.S. schools, particularly for Latina/o youth. I then propose five pedagogies of recognition: relational recognition, curricular recognition, pedagogical recognition, contextualizing recognition, and transformative recognition. Each form of recognition is situated in the relevant literature. Conclusions/Recommendations: This article argues that the proposed pedagogies of recognition need to be enacted to foster the intellectual, academic, and political development of youth, particularly Latina/o youth. Recognition can help educators and scholars understand how the social, political, and economic conditions impact Latina/o youth and helps educators reframe the conceptual bases of their work by challenging them to interrogate the (in)effectiveness of institutional and classroom-level practices. The ultimate goal is to help educators and researchers reconstruct and redefine the purpose of education for Latina/o youth in U.S. schools.

Only about half of Latino, Black and Native American students graduate from high school. Much of the research explains school dropout using statistical relationships between dropout rates and a variety of "risk factors" attributed to students, like income, race/ethnicity, academic achievement and behaviors and attitudes. In contrast, this study examines two Latino adolescents' everyday experiences of dropping out in the context of cultural and structural aspects of school and consciously works against the common view of poor students of color as inherently "at risk" for school dropout. We illuminate how, through educational neglect and social and intellectual alienation, schools and school adults contributed to these two students' progressive disengagement from school. Implications for practice and further research are explored.

Hip hop culture is typically excluded from conventional educational spaces within the U.S. Drawing on the experiences of an educator who works with urban high school students and university level pre- and in-service educators, this article examines the role of hip hop culture for student engagement in two settings--an alternative high school setting and the university classroom. The article explores how dialogue, as a core element of hip hop culture, is used in disrupting traditional vehicles of engagement, particularly between youth connected to hip hop culture and educators who are traditionally disconnected from the culture. Drawing upon dialogical pedagogy and analyzing an actual dialogue between urban youth and preservice teachers, the author examines the ways in which the student-researchers were "dissed" (disrespected) during and after the dialogue. Implications for practice and policy are explored. (Contains 1 note.)

This case study explores how a community-based truancy prevention program mediates against absenteeism, truancy, and dropping out and positively transforms the lives of Black and Latina/Latino middle school youth. Findings suggest that community-school partnerships are critical in the quest to combat truancy and the alarming dropout rate among urban youth. This study also shows how committed individuals can work to engage and empower low-income urban youth who are disengaged from school. Extensive interviews and observations with Latina/Latino and Black youth demonstrate how the intervention program mediates against social and academic failure. Using grounded theory, this article explores four student-identified dimensions that impact his/her (re)engagement with school: (a) the importance of space that promotes peer relations, (b) incentive structures within programs, (c) the need for social networks, and (d) youth advocacy as a mechanism for institutional accountability. Implications for combating truancy, reducing dropout, and promoting student engagement are discussed. (Contains 2 figures.)

This article begins by examining current crises facing historically marginalized youth, which necessitate more critical approaches to youth development and empirical investigations into the challenges that young people face. This requires not only listening to their voices, but actively engaging them in investigations of and interventions into social problems that affect their lives. Researching with youth raises particular dilemmas, however. The authors discuss strategies, within three guiding principles, that they found effective in conducting participatory action research with marginalized youth for the purposes of social and educational transformation. (Contains 30 notes.)

In today's reform context, much attention is placed on policies and outcomes and far less emphasis on understanding the social and cultural processes in schools. Using case-study methodology, I examine relationships between low-income, urban high school students of color, and the school adults with whom they interact. Using grounded theory, students' experiences are analyzed and interpreted through the lens of recognition. Recognition is used as both a theoretical and empirical concept to illuminate students' experiences and voices, especially since the construct is largely absent in the U.S. education discourse. Students revealed that being known by adults, talking with adults, engaging with adults personally, and experiencing encouraging adults were all critical elements of recognition. I suggest that student-adult relationships, via the practice of recognition in urban schools, needs to be interrogated, deliberate, and political so that the transformative purpose of education can be realized.

The struggle to equitably serve low-income students of color in U.S. schools is as significant as ever. The nation is also struggling to prepare enough teachers to serve these students. These challenges are exacerbated when these students are more likely to attend substandard schools. Combined, a tension exists between producing enough teachers and developing teachers who can justly respond to these challenges. One way to address this challenge is to interrogate teacher ideology. This article is a reflective analysis of one professor's experiences in teaching preservice teachers for critical consciousness in a complex social context.

The richest nation of the world, the United States still struggles to graduate 50% of its Latina/o high school students. Nominal policy attention on this issue begs the need for bolder and more creative initiatives that call attention to this crisis. States, districts, and schools need to reconfigure this pedagogical crisis by leveraging all venues of potential support, including popular culture. The author calls for courageous leadership that moves beyond the traditional teaching and learning dynamic to address this problem impacting the future of the Latino community's health and mobility.

Urban high school reform is one of the most significant challenges facing education today. In response to this challenge, reformers have put significant energy toward restructuring the large high school primarily through creating smaller school settings. Although the research literature often draws connections between school size and student outcomes, an examination of life within these settings remains a large void. From the voices and experiences of students, this article examines how relationships are connected to school culture. The nature of student-adult relationships is disentangled by exploring how students experience personalized, respectful, and encouraging interactions with school adults. Then relationships are connected to student dispositions in schools by examining the question, relationships for the purpose of what? The author concludes that the silver bullet for high school reform is a commitment to forging deliberate "cultures of success" for low-income Black and Latina or Latino students in U.S. high schools. Implications for research, policy, and practice are explored. (Contains 1 note.)

The strong association between student-adult relationships and student retention, achievement and aspirations goes largely unrecognized and such relationships are seen as secondary to test scores, policy and budgets. However, it is not the case at Community Academy, an alternative public high school in Boston, where teachers endeavor to build solid relationships with their students, recognizing them as whole people, who are valued, thus, giving out a message of hope.

The strong association between student-adult relationships and student retention, achievement and aspirations goes largely unrecognized and such relationships are seen as secondary to test scores, policy and budgets. However, it is not the case at Community Academy, an alternative public high school in Boston, where teachers endeavor to build solid relationships with their students, recognizing them as whole people, who are valued, thus, giving out a message of hope.