To examine the ways in which high schools in New York City attend to second language acquisition is to consider everyday actions in schools, government dealings, localized policy responses, and disparate discourses on bilingualism. It is to position the circumstances of learning and teaching English in an American high school within the problems…

Using the concept of figured worlds, this article demonstrates how the faculty, staff, and students of Gregorio Luperon High School in New York City figured "success" by prioritizing the students' linguistic and cultural resources. "Success" was constructed specifically through granting Spanish high status, developing positive…