Abstract
The demographics of public schools across the United States is becoming increasingly diverse. Within California K-12 public schools, students of Latino background represent the largest and one of the fastest-growing ethnic and racial minority populations. Despite the growing diversity of schools, Latino students face a number of challenges, such as being at higher risk to drop out of school and obtain lower achievement scores. In addition, most Latino students are taught by teaching professionals who do not represent their racial or ethnic identity and have insufficient training and understanding of the Latino culture. In an attempt to address this issue, a movement toward culturally competent teaching has been on the rise. The literature review in this paper explores cultural competence and its importance within the scope of education and includes the skills, knowledge base, and instructional strategies that teachers should obtain when working with Latino students. The project, Creating Culturally Competent Classrooms for Latino Students, was developed to address the need for ongoing professional development in the area of cultural competence and prepare elementary school teachers to work with Latino students.