As Mexican immigrants move from urban centers to rural, mountainous regions of the U.S. Southwest, their children are often measured by mainstream middle-class cultural ideals that value athleticism, extroversion, and English language proficiency. Based on a year-long ethnographic study undertaken in 1998-1999, this article explores how newly immigrated adolescent girls negotiated the sociocultural context of middle school in light of teachers' taken-for-granted beliefs about Mexicanas. The theoretical lens focuses on cultural practices that define the "good student" at schools in which knowledge is differentially distributed in a dialectical interaction between the social organization of the schools and students' creative agency. This analysis critiques the cultural production of the good student and suggests implications for educational practice and policy. (Contains 4 tables.)