About the Author Valerie Ooka Pang (Ph.D. in Education, University of Washington) is a professor in the School of Teacher Education at San Diego State University. She has taught first and second grade in both rural and urban schools, and is the author of the text, MULTICULTURAL EDUCATION: A CARING-CENTERED, REFLECTIVE APPROACH. Dr. Pang was senior editor of STRUGGLING TO BE HEARD: THE UNMET NEEDS OF ASIAN PACIFIC AMERICAN CHILDREN, which was awarded honorable mention by the Gustavus Meyers Center for the Study of Bigotry and Human Rights at Boston University. She has published in a variety of journals including Educational Researcher (an AERA journal), Harvard Educational Review, The Kappan, The Journal of Teacher Education, Oxford University Press Bibliographies, Multicultural Perspectives, Asian American and Pacific Islander Nexus, Action in Teacher Education, Social Education, Theory and Research in Social Education, Multicultural Perspectives, and Multicultural Education. As associate editor of Theory and Research in Social Education from 1998-2002, she worked on pieces that focused on issues of equity, civil rights, culturally relevant teaching, and methodology in social studies. Dr. Pang has consulted with organizations such as Sesame Street, Fox Children's Network, Family Communications (Producers of Mr. Rogers Neighborhood), and Scott Foresman. The National Academy and the Spencer Foundation honored her with a postdoc fellowship. She was a senior Fellow for the Annenberg Institute for School Reform at Brown University and honored by organizations such as the American Educational Research Association's Standing Committee on the Role and Status of Minorities in Education, National Association for Multicultural Education, and the University of Washington's College of Education.