Our community university, located along the Texas-Mexico border, in cooperation with a local elementary school campus is involved in a project focused on working with elementary students and their families in relation to early literacy development. The project provides preservice teachers with a structured opportunity to work directly with Latino families. Two years of data, collected and analyzed from preservice teachers\u27 reflections about their experiences, revealed positive benefits and concerns. Benefits include development of preservice teachers\u27 skill and confidence in working with parents, their ability to build relationships with families, and their capacity to form partnerships for children\u27s literacy development. However, preservice teachers may fail to recognize that all families possess cultural capital or funds of knowledge. We recommend that university programs consider family involvement as a necessary component of the curriculum to build preservice teachers\u27 capacity to involve all
