Fostering the Literacy Development of Latino Students

language-sensitive instructional practices for Latino students; (c) the alternative or "contrasting" literacies used within the Latino community and their relationship to school-based literacy; (d) the potential of transfer to facilitate Latino students' literacy learning; (e) the prevailing sociopolitical environment with respect to Latino students and education; and (f) the questions raised by minority researchers and writers concerning the academic performance of Latino students. The Need for Informed EducatorsHow can we provide preservice and inservice teachers with the necessary professional development to provide optimal literacy instruction to Latino students?As my colleague, Rosalinda Barrera, and I stated in a recent paper (Jimenez & Barrera, 2000), teacher and administrator education programs seldom place the teaching of linguistically and culturally diverse students at the center of their programs.Instead, diversity is positioned as problematic and marginal to the main task of education.Schooling, in contrast, is considered beneficial for all students, everywhere, all the time (Nieto, 1992).The notion that diversity itself FOCUSOO 1:xce_ntional childrenISSN 0015-SllX FOCUS ON EXCEPTIONAL CHILDREN (USPS 203-360) is published monthly except June, July, and August as a service to teachers, special educators, curriculum specialists, administrators, and those concerned with the special education of exceptional children.This publication is annotated and indexed by the ERIC Clearinghouse on Handicapped and Gifted children for publication in the monthly Current Index to Journals in Education (CUE) and the quarterly index, Excep- tional Children Education Resources (ECER).The full text of Focus on Exceptional Children is also available in the electronic versions of the Education Index.It is also available in microfilm from Xerox University Microfilms, Ann Arbor, Ml.Subscription rates: Individual, $36 per year; institutions, $48 per year.