Conclusion
It was standing-room only in the South Graham Elementary School (SGE) gym at the “Latin America through the Decades” event on a September evening in 2016. Principal Elizabeth Price welcomed students and their families, speaking Spanish and English in her usual fashion. An audience of more than two hundred people cheered and clapped as kindergarten classes walked onstage wearing white gloves and jean jackets, Michael Jackson– style. They performed choreographed dances to Latin pop music from the 1980s and sang songs with great enthusiasm and huge smiles. Older students followed with different performances highlighting music from the Americas. Afterward, a salsa band appeared onstage and played music as families met teachers and students got stamps on “passports” they had made in school. Despite the fact that the gym was crowded and hot, the audience lingered, laughed, and learned about the extraordinary work of the SGE community, which has embraced learning models that celebrate the heritage and linguistic skills of its Latino students....