Critical Issues in Contemporary American Education Series – serie

Among the many recent books on educational reform, Eugene E. Garcia's Hispanic Education in the United States stands out as a landmark work. Garcia vibrantly portrays what works in creating better educational opportunities and effective school reform. He also offers a telling reflection on the bicultural experience of minority groups in the U.S. Culture is an asset in any individual's educational attainment. Garcia shows how and why our educational reforms therefore must seek to build upon rather than downplay the native culture and language of minority students. Poignant stories from the author's life—and from many other teachers and students—make this a vital book for the university classroom, and for any reader interested in the rapidly changing dynamics of America's schools.

According to Gordon and Bridglall, the ability to learn is more of a developed human capacity than a fixed aptitude with which one is born. They argue that the emergence of academic ability is associated with exposure to specialized cultures that privilege the attitudes, knowledge, and skills that schools reward. Children who are born to and raised in these cultures tend to do well in school, while those who are not exposed to such cultures tend seldom rise to high levels of academic achievement. Through a collection of interesting essays, Affirmative Development: Cultivating Academic Ability attempts to address how we can deliberately develop academic ability in those children who are not raised under conditions that predispose them to develop high levels of academic ability.