This study draws on 3 years of ethnographic data to illustrate one of many possible alternative typologies of parent roles in the pursuit of educational access. What do parents of color without college experience think and do when they want their high school-age students to go to college? What shapes their beliefs, goals and support strategies? Findings suggest that the involvement of working-class parents of color may be motivated by distinctive concerns linked to theirsocial and cultural location, such as the need to help their students navigate barriers in the K-16 system or to transform family approaches to social mobility. Just at these parents’ nontraditional strategies are often invisible to schools (Mehan, Villanueva, Hubbard, & Lintz,1996), so too are their roles largely outside the partnership model. With its highlighting of marginalized parents’ voices and the cultural logic behind their actions at a critical juncture in student careers, this article suggests directions for reconceptualizing parent roles in education and contributes to a more inclusive discourse on families, schooling, and equity.