Some lessons learned from the pandemic include that in times of crises, the humanitarian needs of students, families, and ourselves must be a top priority; and forming effective partnerships with families and communities is essential to the health and well-being of our children. We were offered a blunt reminder that a system designed to serve the interests of a privileged few was destined to fail our historically underserved students, especially our millions of multilingual learners. Above all, we learned that the normal
many of us have yearned for was never good enoughthat we must envision a better world
, where we build on our multilingual students' unique assets and cultivate their inner brilliance. Only then will we deliver on their promise. It's this better world
, a world in which communities, schools, and classrooms work together as a whole-child ecosystem
, that this book sets out to create. Taking a look from the outside in, it three critical arenas: Imagining Communities describes how to design and enact strengths-based family and community partnerships, including the critical importance of identifying, valuing, and acknowledging each member's assets and competencies, and the ways recent crises have amplified their struggles; Imagining Schools takes an up-close look at policies, structures, and now irrelevant ways of schooling that call for change and how we might reconfigure professional development to ensure every teacher and administrator is dedicated to the well-being and success of our multilingual learners; and Imagining Classrooms demonstrates how to optimize learning opportunitiesboth virtual and face-to-faceso our diverse students grow cognitively, linguistically, and social-emotionally, and accentuate their talents in knowing and using multiple languages in linguistically and culturally sustainable environments.