Ruecker, T. (2015). Transiciones: Pathways of Latinas and Latinos writing in high school and college. Logan, UT: Utah State University Press. 240 pages, paperback.

Todd Ruecker offers a significant, action-research oriented look at the transitionthat Latina/os face when leaving high school to pursue a college education.Transiciones: Pathways of Latinas and Latinos Writing in High School and College serves as a call to action. Rucker exposes the issues in the educational system from an individual to a national level by demonstrating the lack of support to linguistic minority students. By the end, readers are offered solutions to bring about their own change and influence.

Chapter 1 begins with a focus on the research, location, participants, and other factors, such as Ruecker’s adaptation of Yosso’s theory of community cultural wealth and Bourdieu’s capital.

Ruecker sets up a foundation that allows access for a general audience, providing the students’ feelings and thoughts about college, which create a welcomed base for understanding the individuality of each student. Chapter 2 discusses the reasons students choose further education, and what type of institution beyond high school. Upon asking the seven participants why they want to attend college, Ruecker includes their emotionally stirring quotes about desires for an improved life and success. This is also where an introduction of state testing, particularly the Texas Assessment of Knowledge, ties into student writing and its limitations. It is important to note that the students did not understand the purpose of the standardized writing prompts, and “consistently reported learning nothing through completing them, and did not receive any feedback…” (p. 34). As a former high school teacher, I have seen that this is not a new notion, and it has been echoed through the halls of many high school institutions.

Chapter 3, which dives into the case studies, focuses on Daniel. From the first chapter, Daniel is the only participant that established English as his L1. His uniqueness also stems from being the only nonfirst-generation college student in the study. This is echoed in Chapter 3’s introduction, but he swiftly moves on to discuss his previous literacy experiences, motivations, and eventually, his initial literacy and learning in a college environment. Daniel’s part of the chapter ends with thoughtful conclusions and a visual map of his aforementioned capital. This chapter concludes with a similar process, following Joanne, followed by the next two chapters switching between other students with different end results (e.g., succeeding in college despite challenges). The structure of dedicating individual page space to each of the participants, along with their backgrounds and quotes, are some of the techniques Ruecker uses to create closeness to each of the participants, which is a major success of this text.

Chapter 6, while following the pattern of the previous chapters, ends differently for the focal student, Paola. While initially showing great promise and ability, she drops out of school after the first semester. Her transition is the catalyst for the following chapter, which homes in on the root of such unsuccessful transitions. While Ruecker does not excuse students and their families of agency in regard to learning, he does point out how institutions fail these students. This chapter discusses the pattern of expectations and labeling that many students receive, which is not limited to Latina/os. By perpetuating this stereotype, these students are already fighting an uphill battle. Ruecker makes sure to not only hold accountable individual institutions, but he mindfully considers educational shortcomings from the state and national level. In regard to Common Core State Standards, he asks,

With national standards still being designed around a native English speaking white norm in a century where minorities are expected to become the majority, can we expect the associated assessments to be any different than traditional assessments that are culturally-biased, consistently demoralizing minority students by labeling them as “failures”? (p. 150)

The book concludes with a notion that researchers, teachers, and administrators can create a positive impact for future students. Easy steps, such as getting to know our students both from a demographic standpoint and an individual standpoint (e.g., Do they work? What are their families like?) will give teachers a way to build more accessible content and activities to connect with the students, further encouraging student success. Varying and expanding delivery of information in and outside the classroom and creating an institution with a diverse faculty are Ruecker’s reasonable suggestions for transforming our institutions. Institutions may never be able to keep pace with each sociocultural movement, but the real failure only comes if nothing is tried.

Initially, this book may seem to strike a particular demographic, based on geography and language. I was drawn to this text in my third year of teaching in southern Arizona. The students that Ruecker focuses on exist here, as does the need to approach their literacy in a more supportive way, especially during their academic transitions. However, upon closer inspection, an audience that may find the text initially irrelevant will quickly find this book to provide a sobering experience. Misconceptions and expectations on the transition from high school to college are often one-dimensional: graduate from high school, attend a school, and graduate in 4 years. Ruecker’s triumph is in deconstructing the misinterpretation behind this thought process.

Overall, Transiciones: Pathways of Latinas and Latinos Writing in High School and College breaks away from traditionally dull, data analytic texts bybringing the individual students to the forefront. At times, the text reads like a narrative, which furthers audience engagement. This book is useful for both writing instructors and institution administration who desire a refreshing perspective on the cultural evolution of the American student. It is an essential read, as Ruecker’s message is more applicable now than ever.

Samantha Kirby is in her first year of the Masters of English, Language, and Linguistics Program at the University of Arizona. She teaches first-year English as a graduate assistant. After teaching at the high school level for 2 years prior to the ELL program, and serving as a district ESL coordinator, she would like to teach English as a foreign language overseas upon graduation.