When students experience academic or behavioral difficulties, examining their learning experiences from an ecological perspective provides a much broader understanding of the relationships between culture, learning, and academic performance. The value of the systems approach to viewing culture is that it points to the limitations of focusing on a single aspect of the interactions between culture and academic performance. As we move to articulate an integrated, inclusive educational system, we must develop programs and services that are responsive to the diverse sociocultural and linguistic backgrounds of the students and families we serve so that all children participate in equally meaningful educational experiences.