Latine students constitute 56% of the public school population in California. Their educational experiences, therefore, not only shape the trajectories of individual students and families but also the broader future of schooling in the state. Yet, despite their substantial demographic representation within the state, the perspectives of Latine students and their families remain underrepresented in research and policy discussions about education. Much of the scholarship and public understanding about Latine education has focused on limited forms of assessment and classification: standardized test performance, English language proficiency classifications, graduation rates, and postsecondary access. While these indicators are essential for documenting patterns of inequity, they reveal only one slice of the educational landscape. Less frequently examined are the perspectives of students and families themselves. Fundamental to understanding the necessary shifts in California's educational policy is a nuanced spotlight on how Latine families understand schooling, navigate educational institutions, and make sense of the policies that shape their opportunities. Driving this report, then, is an intentional focus on centering the voices of Latine students and families, their experiences, concerns, hopes, and desires.
Drawing on interviews with Latine parents and their children across California, this report examines how families describe their experiences with schooling across K–12 education. Participants represent diverse geographic regions, linguistic backgrounds, and schooling contexts within the state. The families in this study come from major cities in Northern and Southern California, with diverse immigration histories and statuses. They are mostly of Mexican/Chicanx descent, with some families representing the Caribbean and South America. The sample also includes families composed of adopted children, Queer parents, single parents, racially and ethnically mixed families, and intergenerational families living together, with children spanning Pre-K through high school. Parents represent a wide range of educational backgrounds, from high school graduates to those pursuing advanced degrees. Drawing on this diversity of experience, the report highlights how families articulate educational aspirations, evaluate institutional supports and barriers, and make sense of the broader social and political environments in which schooling takes place.
The need to understand these perspectives is particularly urgent within the contemporary sociopolitical context shaping education in California and across the United States. Debates surrounding immigration policy, language education, school funding, and access to higher education continue to influence how schools serve Latine communities. These debates unfold alongside longstanding histories of racialized educational policy that have structured schooling opportunities for Mexican American and broader Latine students for more than a century. Just as importantly, these families illustrate how this contemporary context is shaped not only by existing policies but by how the climate around state and federal policies creates racialized climates of fear and uncertainty for Latine communities. For many families, schooling is therefore experienced not only as a site of academic learning but also as an institutional space where questions of belonging, language, and civic inclusion are negotiated.
Importantly, this report also attends to how these perspectives may vary across developmental stages and grade levels. Much of the existing scholarship on Latine student voice focuses on adolescents navigating college access and preparation. While this research has yielded important insights, it leaves comparatively less understanding of how younger students conceptualize schooling and educational opportunity. By including participants across elementary, middle, and high school levels, the present study examines how student and parent perspectives emerge, evolve, and intersect across the K–12 continuum.
The findings presented in this report therefore, contribute to a growing body of scholarship that calls for centering community voice in educational research and policy. Rather than relying solely on institutional indicators of success or failure, this approach recognizes that families’ interpretations of schooling provide critical insight into how educational systems function in practice. Understanding how Latine students and parents describe their experiences can illuminate gaps between policy intentions and lived realities and identify sources of resilience, aspiration, and community knowledge that often remain invisible in conventional policy discourse.
The report proceeds in several stages. First, we review the existing scholarship on Latine education in California, focusing on the historical policy contexts, dominant outcome-based research paradigms, and emerging work on parent and student voice. This literature review highlights both the contributions of prior research and the gap in understanding the perspectives from families and students that motivate the present study. Next, we describe the research design and methodology for collecting and analyzing interview data from parents and students across the state. We then present several thematic findings emerging from participants’ accounts, focusing on how families describe students' needs, educational aspirations, and the structural conditions that shape their schooling experiences. Finally, the report concludes with a set of recommendations for policymakers and educational leaders seeking to better align educational systems with the perspectives and priorities of Latine students and families.
By centering the voices of those most directly affected by educational policy, this report aims to deepen understanding of schooling in California and inform more responsive and equitable approaches to educational policy and practice.
