Portales and Portales, Quality Education for Latinos/as, University of Texas Press

"This thoughtful book is worthy of being studied and its principles adopted."
—Hispanic Outlook
"Portales and Portales, teachers and insiders, provide a needed perspective on the critical relationship between teachers and students and the factors that affect it.... Their work deserves to be read by teachers and parents, educational administrators, and policymakers."
—Miren Uriarte, Senior Research Associate, Mauricio Gaston Institute for Latino Community Development and Public Policy, University of Massachusetts, Boston

As educators and legislators across the country debate how to improve public schools, the most vital factor often disappears from the equation—the relationship between the teacher and the student. According to veteran educators Rita and Marco Portales, this relationship is the central issue in the education of students, especially Latino/a students who often face serious barriers to school success because of the legacy of racism, insufficient English-language skills, and cultural differences with the educational establishment.

To break down these barriers and help Latino/a students acquire a quality education, the Portaleses focus attention on the teacher-student relationship and offer a proven method that teachers can use to strengthen the print and oral skills of their students. They begin by analyzing the reasons why schools too often fail to educate Latino/a students, using eloquent comments from young Latinos/as and their parents to confirm how important the teacher-student relationship is to the student's success. Then they show how all educational stakeholders—teachers, administrators, state education agencies, legislators, and parents—can work together to facilitate the teacher-student relationship and improve student education. By demonstrating how teachers can improve students' reading, critical thinking, writing, and oral communication skills across the curriculum, they argue that learning can be made more relevant for students, keeping their interest levels high while preparing them for academically competitive colleges.

Rita and Marco Portales each have over thirty years of teaching experience. Rita Portales has taught in the public schools of New York, California, and Texas. Currently she is an ESL Instructional Specialist at a middle school and a Student Teacher Supervisor for the College of Education at Texas A&M University. Marco Portales is Professor of English at Texas A&M University and has also held faculty appointments at the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of Houston-Clear Lake. This book is the third of his "Latino trilogy," the previous volumes being Crowding Out Latinos and Latino Sun, Rising.