Final Reflections: La Zona de Promesa and The ABC Continuum Model

In this final chapter, we summarize and reflect on four years of work to create of La Zona de Promesa with a focus on the assets and resources from within the predominantly Mexican descent community. Promesa por promesa was repeated in many chapters showing how the focus of the promising potential of the students and the promise of the adults and community could come together to create educational change. This book also demonstrates how the promesa is represented by each family’s dreams and actions co-constructed toward their child's learning accomplishments. The Zona de Promesa was rooted within an exemplary community, where together members from the research team, community stakeholders, and families created a coalition and identified both challenges and resources to support and transform children’s educational equity from pre-k to university. The Asset-based Bicultural (ABC) Continuum Model evolved from a participatory action research approach which centered the voices and vision of community, family, and student action research. These research studies painted complex, yet hopeful outcomes for La Zona de Promesa (ZdP) community. In sum, we provide an overall summary and provide recommendations, sustained by our action research, across the pK-20 continuum that can be utilized by students, parents, schools, and communities to help create more educational and sustainable opportunities to communities similar to South Tucson with a strong heart of caring for children navigating the challenging inequitable systems of education along the educational continuum.