Maria de la luz Reyes, professor of education at California State University-Monterey. Paul Winfield, actor and narrator of NCREL's video, Many Voices, Many Dreams (1995), describes research into the importance of understanding students' culture and needs by Professor Reyes.
"Through her research and collaboration in Alice LaLiberty's class, Professor Reyes discovered that students as a group perform better when their linguistic and cultural backgrounds were brought to the foreground and used as a foundation for learning."