Educating Latino Boys

" David Campos has written a book that will be extremely useful for teachers, educational leaders in general, and school administrators in particular. His careful description of the cultural context of Latino boys is groundbreaking and should awaken all of us. He makes a persuasive case for the need to examine the lived experience of Latino boys and the implications for policy and practice. His many examples are powerful, imaginative, and supported by data. The book is engaging, fascinating, and a solid addition to the literature on the culturally relevant curriculum. I will definitely use this book in my classes to illustrate this topic."

"With passionate concern and a probing insight drawn from experiences as both learner and educator, David Campos deconstructs the complex factors affecting the academic success of Latino boys in our schools today and compels us to embrace the need for change. This book is a must-read for all classroom educators who genuinely want to find solutions to the crippling effects of the achievement gap on the fastest growing subpopulation in our country."

"Campos (Univ. of the Incarnate Word) begins his book with the statement that 'Latino boys are often appraised from a deficit perspective because school leaders and teachers appraise students of color using the middle-class, dominant-culture frame of reference.' That is, Latino boys fall short because that standards to which they are held are inappropriate to them. To assauge educators, Campos notes, 'I don't think that school professionals are aware that they are appraising Latino boys in such a fashion.' The irony is that in the pronouncement of an educatior bias, the author does not recognize his own. His evidence is largely anecdotal, and when hard data are introduced (chapter 3, for example), the explanations are made to fit the thesis. The book's importance turns on the degree to which education should be adjusted for ethnic group difference. For those believing that education 'wrong-foots' Latino males by failing to recognize their strengths, the author provides confirmation. To those less sure that achievement differences refelct the vagaries of educator appraisal, the book will be less important."