Hispanic CREO's Daily Grito

Blog on Hold

2008-05-23T12:22:00.001-04:00

Well, faithful readers, I must announce that this blog will have to be put on indefinite "hold," as your blogger will be leaving Hispanic CREO and moving to a new organization.

Thanks for reading!

Better Late Than Never

2008-05-08T11:19:00.000-04:00

Where was this article last November?

One More Reason to Love NPR

2008-05-07T15:43:00.002-04:00

Here's why: they have some smart talk about Latino kids.

Pedro Noguera, venerated and visionary teacher and professor of education at NYU, and Jeffery Passel of the Pew Hispanic Center discuss myths about Latino kids.

1 in 4 children under 5 is now Latino, so this has proven itself to be an increasingly relevant topic as the population grows. Noguera, in particular, offers some strong commentary when talking about the opportunity gap. He notes that Latino students have fewer opportunities to attend well-funded schools and that they are more likely to attend under-resourced schools - which seriously diminishes the likelihood of them attaining an excellent education. Right on. And let's change that, by the way.

Want to listen? Here you go.

Competition = Success for Disabled Students

2008-05-05T10:29:00.004-04:00

Researchers Jay P. Greene and Marcus A. Winters weigh in in today's East Valley Tribune on how Arizona's voucher program has benefited the state's special needs population by creating competition between public and private schools. According to their research, special needs students who stay in traditional pubic schools benefit from the voucher program, because their schools are motivated to improve in order to retain students.

Greene and Winters's most recent project measured the impact that a similar voucher program had on public schools in Florida and was sponsored by the Manhattan Institute. The researchers employed their Florida research to analyze Arizona's program.

Initially, I am reluctant to agree with Greene and Winters. After all, just because vouchers have had a positive impact in Florida doesn't necessarily mean that they have been equally effective in Arizona. One must be careful about such slippery reasoning - I prefer hard data.

However, I would say that there's no reason why Greene and Winters can't use the same methods to evaluate Arizona's voucher program - and they should.

A School Choice Win in Washington

2008-04-30T15:56:00.004-04:00

The Washington Post published an excellent editorial yesterday praising the city's voucher program and advocating for its renewal.

This is notable for two reasons. Firstly, it's an extremely compelling editorial and secondly, The Washington Post is a somewhat unlikely supporter of this issue. So congratulations to them for bucking the trend and speaking out for this program and the kids that are in it.

I am truly heartened by this city's renewed focus on the future of its children. Mayor Fenty and Chancellor Rhee have brought an amazing fresh breath of reform to Washington and they deserve considerable admiration for their commitment to improving the education of DC's kids.

Now, time will tell if our children's education will ultimately triumph over the status quo and the forces that keep it in place. Luckily, the WTU is embroiled in a nasty lawsuit right now, so maybe they will be distracted from this issue. One can only hope.

Study: Take That, Other Studies!

2008-04-16T16:06:00.004-04:00

The Cato Institute released a study today criticizing other studies.

Really.

Entitled, "Dismal Science: The Shortcomings of U.S. School Choice Research and How to Address Them," the report points out the flaws in school choice research, focusing in particular on the lack study on the ways that school choice programs affect the education market.

I haven't read the entire report yet, so my comments have to be limited, but I was always under the impression that markets were infrequently addressed because most programs aren't large enough to create systemic market impact. My two cents.

More on Cool V. School

2008-04-14T14:32:00.002-04:00

Mr. AB of From the TFA Trenches comments on the San Jose Mercury News article that I wrote about last week. The best part is this:

"Get this straight and send it to your friends: Children of color don’t devalue a good education and therefore fail to get it, they’re never given it and eventually, sensibly, stop caring.

By the time San Jose’s Latino population gets to high school, they will have endured nine years of being told they are failures, of listening to the devaluation of their home language, of watching all fun be stripped from their education, and of receiving sub-par instruction from inadequate teachers. It is a testament to the triumph of the human spirit that any child of color graduates from a high-challenge school at all."

Check out his entire post here. And thanks to dy/dan for the tip-off.

Latinos: Can You "Behave" in School?

2008-04-11T17:02:00.003-04:00

I feel like I've spent much of this week ranting about racism in education, but here's another great example (unfortunately): Fairfax County Virginia's "Behavior Study," which ruled that Black and Hispanic kids behave worse and have worse "moral character" than White and Asian students.

Some brave School Board members are protesting the "study," which was conducted by surveying teachers and asking them to judge the moral character of their students. The results were disaggregated by race and then presented as a staff report.

For the past few decades, educators have worked to convince the public that all children - regardless of their race or economic background - can learn. And now, they're recanting that statement. Talk about a step backwards.

Update: The Fairfax County School Board has decided to suspend voting on the report.

Too Cool for School?

2008-04-09T15:31:00.005-04:00

Today, Eduwonk's guestblogger J.B. Schramm asks the question, "How Can We Make Going to College Cool?"

Schramm claims that high school students are more likely to attend college if their friends also plan to attend. Therefore, according to his logic, "positive peer pressure" is the solution to getting kids to go to college. You have to make college cool, or so he writes, because then, kids will want to go.

One problem: minority and low-income kids don't avoid in college because "it's uncool." They do not enroll because it is expensive, the admissions process is confusing, or they are not academically-prepared for the work, amongst other reasons. These students understand the value of a college degree - it doesn't have to be "cool" - but they are up against a lot of obstacles in reaching that degree.

It is important to have a "college culture" within schools - and especially important in low-income, high minority schools. But peer pressure isn't enough. Schools need to give our students the practical skills and strategies that will help them understand how to apply to college, get in, and stay through graduation. Kids understand the value of college - let's teach them how to get there.

The Dropout Crisis: Not a Problem After All

2008-04-07T14:13:00.004-04:00

So, maybe this whole dropout thing isn't as terrible as we thought.

Or so says Steve Blow in his Dallas Morning News article, published yesterday.

"Here's my guess," he writes, "Most kids who drop out manage to become productive citizens anyway." Later in the article, Blow declares, "Look around. Lots and lots of jobs require only a basic academic education. Let's tailor some schools to match those students and those jobs."

He's right - there are a lot of jobs that require only a basic education. But are those the jobs that provide livable salaries, that come with health care benefits, that include a 401k plan?

Most likely not.

The point of education - which Blow misses - is to give our children options for the future. We must prepare them for any career path that they choose. Students should be equally prepared to choose to become auto mechanics as they would be to become pre-med students. There is nothing wrong with having a job that doesn't require a lot of education, but children must be able to opt out of these jobs and not be forced into them.

I'm pretty sure that Blow has never heard the phrase, "the soft racism of low expectations." Unfortunately, that is just what he is promoting.

The Daily Grito is back, new and improved!

2008-04-07T14:08:00.003-04:00

The Daily Grito has returned from its brief hiatus - and we are ready to make some changes to our blog!

Firstly, we will begin to post regularly three times per week: on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. These postings will cover all of the weekly news and information about education reform and the Latino community.

Secondly, we will be partnering with some new guestbloggers to provide you with even more commentary on education reform. More news about that to follow.

Thirdly, we will now offer periodic interviews and analyses of educational issues. We will also switch the Friday blog round up to be a periodic feature.

We look forward to all of these changes and the improvements that they will offer to our blog. We hope that you do too!

Hispanic High School Grads Are On the Rise

2008-03-20T15:11:00.002-04:00

By Guestblogger Rena Mathena

The West Interstate Commission for Higher Education has just released its 7th edition of their report, Knocking at the College Door: Projections of High School Graduates by State and Race/Ethnicity, 1992-2022, which has some shocking and exciting numbers for the Hispanic high school population across the country.

Out of all high school students, Latinos are the ones who will see the largest increase in their graduation rate from 2004-2005 to 2021-2022. In states where there is a large Latino population, like Arizona, Colorado, and Florida, the increase is an exciting surprise, since all three states are looking at more than a 60% jump, with Arizona expecting a 102.6% swell in graduates. The increase of Hispanic graduates is going to be an excellent contributor to the overall increase of the national graduation rate.

Even in states with smaller Latino populations, like Tennessee, Nevada, and Utah, the projected growth of Hispanic high school students and graduates will give their parents a powerful influence in the education systems of their state. With more Latino students and parents becoming part of the school system, their voice for change and choice will be louder and could help bring about more educational reforms in states where that had never been a big possibility.

Some of the most impressive expected growths, like Nevada’s 228.7% increase of Hispanic graduates and Tennessee’s +400% projected increase, will be a big bright sign to state educators and officials. Parents are going to be looking at their schools and wanting the best choices to assure their children will be a part of this rising achievement trend.

Language Debate Across the States

2008-03-17T15:27:00.002-04:00

In Florida, some educators and individuals are calling for better instruction in Spanish and more efforts to ensure that bilingual children are also biliterate...whereas in Arizona, the battle is still raging over the state's new English fluency requirements and their potentially punitive effects on students.

Even for Citizens, In-State Status is Hard to Attain

2008-03-14T16:09:00.002-04:00

The Washington Post has an article today about how some Latino students - U.S. citizens - have been denied in-state tuition at public universities because of the immigration status of their parents. A number of universities have ruled that if their parents are illegal immigrants, these children can be denied in-state tuition, because they are "technically" dependent on the status of their parents.

This seems like a clear violation of citizens' rights to me, but take a look for yourself...

Homeschooling Parents Victorious in California

2008-03-12T15:05:00.004-04:00

The California Department of Education will continue to allow parents without official teaching credentials to homeschool their children, according to the Los Angeles Times.

The decision signifies a major victory on the part of homeschooling parents, who came under fire in February when a California court ruled to require parents who homeschool their children to have teacher certification. Despite this decision - which has been decried by many of the state's politicians - the state Department of Education will maintain their current policy on home schooling - effectively ignoring the ruling.

The Dept. of Education's decision to maintain their original policies ensures that home schooling continues to exist as a vital educational option for California's children. Although on the whole, only a small percentage of Hispanic students are homeschooled, a movement is growing to attract more minority students to this type of education.

Bonus: An op-ed from the San Francisco Chronicle commenting on this issue.

UCLA's New Major Combines Spanish, Community Service

2008-03-10T16:36:00.002-04:00

Undergraduates at UCLA can now combine their work in Spanish literature with community service under a new major entitled, "Spanish and community and culture," which was instituted by the university this week. The program allows students to merge their love for Cervantes and Gabriel García Márquez with social justice internships, ensuring both a strong academic education and significant practical experience.

Kudos to UCLA for encouraging social involvement amongst its students. I will be interested to see if the majority of students who participate in this program are Latino themselves, or if other minorities and White students also sign up for the new major.

Will also be interesting to see if Black Studies departments and Women's Studies departments take on this idea for themselves.

Spanish-Speaking Parents: Are You Keeping Up with Your Kids?

2008-03-07T13:38:00.003-05:00

By Guestblogger Rena Mathena

After reading these two recent articles, from the Denver Post and the Star-Ledger, I was wondering what connections could be made between the two.

The first discusses the Denver Public School System’s increasing percentage of gifted minority students participating in the “highly gifted and talented” programs. According to the article, schools are trying to include the 76% Latino and Black student population in their special programs regardless of their first language or how many free lunches they receive. This translates to mini-Affirmative Action technique to help those students who may not be scoring as high as white students to also benefit from the special program. Although the figures are increasing, the overall percentage of “gifted” students who are ethnic minorities is only 25%.

The second article from New Jersey’s Star-Ledger described the struggles of the large Hispanic population's struggle to have civil resources printed in Spanish. Spanish-speaking New Jersey residents are in need to bilingual bus schedules, instructions for registering their children for school, etc. If this information is provided in Spanish, the 900,000 people speaking Spanish in New Jersey would be able to take advantage of resources that were previously unknown to them and they would also be able to understand state regulations that were previously posted only in English.

Examining these two articles through a parent-student perspective is easy. If more resources are printed in English and Spanish - as the Hispanic community in New Jersey recommends - more Hispanic parents would be able to understand school notices and the options their children have of participating in special programs, such as gifted and talented programs. With increased parental involvement and support for their children’s participation, the percentage of Hispanic students in gifted and talented programs at schools would increase, giving more students a chance to learn at their greatest potential.

We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: the more parents are involved in their children’s schooling, the better opportunities students will have to learn at their best.

Goldwater Institute Releases Study of Arizona's Choice Programs

2008-03-04T13:16:00.003-05:00

Today Matthew Ladner of the Goldwater Institute released a study entitled "School Choice in Arizona: A Review of Existing Programs and a Road Map for Future Reforms."

The school choice programs in Arizona serve a considerable number of Latino children, so his findings will be of particular relevance to the Hispanic community.

Young Latino Voters Charge Polls and I Philosophize

2008-03-04T12:32:00.004-05:00

This is good news for the Latino community. The more voters, the better, and having politically engaged young people will be key to the future well-being of Hispanics in the U.S.

But simply having voters is not enough. It is essential to have educated voters - voters who can think for themselves, reason for themselves, and independently decide how they should vote. This is where our country's educational system steps in, as it was founded to ensure that every child in America would have the skills necessary to be this sort of educated voter and participate in the democratic system. Although today, we often consider education an end in itself, in truth, it is the means to an end - that end being a functional democracy.

So, when 47% of Latino children are dropping out of high school before graduation, we can ask, is our school system accomplishing its ultimate goal? Is it creating young adults who have the literacy and critical thinking skills necessary to be productive citizens? Is it creating young adults who are educated voters?

The answer: a resounding no.

Chiming in...

2008-02-26T17:12:00.001-05:00

The NY Sun adds it's $0.02 on Obama's voucher stance/slip.

Obama's Voucher Backlash

2008-02-22T15:29:00.004-05:00

I pretty much always like reading Joe Williams's Democrats for Education Reform blog and this post on Obama's "scandalizing" voucher moment is a worthy, entertaining read, even though it's a few days old.

Here's some additional analysis on the V-word from Education Week's Campaign K-12.

Welcome Colorado Visitors!

2008-02-22T15:05:00.003-05:00

Welcome y bienvenidos to all listeners of Colorado's 1150 AM, where I recently spoke on-air about this blog.

If you are interested in reading about why this blog was founded, you can find out here.

I encourage you to leave comments and feedback on our posts and if you have any questions, do not hesitate to contact me at hcreoblog@gmail.com.

School Choice in Watts

2008-02-21T10:32:00.003-05:00

Hispanic Pundit has a posted an excellent video about school reform in Watts - the notoriously troubled section of LA. The video centers on the trials and travails of Locke High School, which you may remember as the center of this 2007 controversy.

As you watch, keep in mind that Locke High School is not the only school in such desperate need for change. Thousands of other schools across the U.S. are in need of similar reforms.

Retrospective: Latino Students After Seven Years of NCLB

2008-02-20T16:11:00.005-05:00

Elena Rocha at the Center for American Progress has a new article up: "NCLB and Latinos: No Latino Child Left Behind Matters." She does a good job profiling the Latino education crisis AND speaking on the positive gains that Latino students have made under the accountability-focused NCLB.

And then there's this:

Failure to take immediate action to improve public schooling for Latinos will be detrimental. There isn’t much time to reverse course. Latinos are and will continue to be a significant force in every aspect of American life. Admittedly, constructing a 21st century education system that properly supports Latinos and other minorities, poor children, English language learners, and children with disabilities will require greater commitment and financial investments from federal, state, and local leaders. But continuing on the existing path is not an option.

I don't take issue with her assertion that public schooling for Latinos must improve - it's true, it must. But I have to disagree that "greater commitment and financial investments from federal, state, and local leaders" is going to be the key to improving those public schools. More money does not equal a better education; take DC, for example, which consistently ranks among the lowest in the country on student achievement, yet spends over $13,000 per pupil.

Years of pouring money into our school system has not solved the Latino education crisis - 42% of Latino students still drop out of high school before graduation.

Therefore, I ask: do you want a system that supports all kinds of learners? Where students attend schools that serve their individual educational needs? Where Latino students are consistently successful, because they are learning in a way that suits them?

Give families a choice. Give them school choice.

And best of all: it won't cost us millions of dollars.

Florida's Class Size Reduction Threatens Public School Choice

2008-02-19T10:20:00.002-05:00

This fall, Florida's schools will begin to enforce a strict class size reduction policy, decreasing the number of student slots allowed in each classroom, according to the Tampa Tribune.

The policy will reduce the overall number of choice spots that are available in public schools - meaning that parents who apply for inter-district transfers or hardship transfers are more likely to be denied. Unfortunately, this means that low-income families will have even fewer educational options than before.

However, an unintended consequence of this policy may be that more parents end up applying for Florida's CTC scholarships, which provide children with the opportunity to attend a private school. I will definitely be interested to see if applications to this program increase as class size reduction takes effetc.

Hispanic CREO's Target States Win Big in Friedman Study

2008-02-14T11:41:00.004-05:00

By: Rena Mathena

Hispanic CREO is seeing positive results in our target states, where we are working to empower families with school choice. The Friedman Foundation's latest evaluation of the nation's 21 school choice programs finds that three of our target states have some of the best-ranking school choice programs.

Hispanic CREO's target states of Arizona, Florida, and Ohio all have school choice programs ranking in the top ten positions, with the Florida McKay Scholarship Program for students with disabilities in the number one spot, and Arizona’s Personal Tax Credit Scholarship coming in at number three.

Others in the top ten included Arizona’s Foster Child Vouchers (number 5), Ohio’s Autism Vouchers (number 6) and Educational Choice (EdChoice) Vouchers (number 8), and Florida’s Tax Credit Scholarships (number 10).

This new evaluation, along with other recent articles and reports, is building major momentum in the school choice movement, softening the ground for school choice programs in other states. The movement is likely to gain even more momentum if school choice continues to retain support from Republicans, while growing its support amongst Democrats.

School Choice Works for Latino Kids!

2008-02-13T17:06:00.004-05:00

Apparently, it's been working pretty fantastically since 1998.

If you haven't already read Matthew Ladner's analysis comparing the NAEP performance of Latino students in Florida to those in Arizona, well....hop to it and check out the incredible difference that school choice has made.

Snell v. Stern on Instructional Reform

2008-02-07T11:00:00.000-05:00

A good article by Lisa Snell came out of Reason Magazine yesterday. It's a response to Sol Stern's (now infamous) criticism of school choice and a detailed analysis of how instructional reform has yielded little impact on the achievement rates of low-income and minority kids. As she notes, good instruction is essential (that's a given), but it is not The Answer to education reform; school choice is still necessary.

Definitely a thought-provoking read.

Are Latinos Disenchanted with GOP Policy?

2008-02-06T13:26:00.000-05:00

By Guestblogger Rena Mathena

This past Wednesday, the Colorado Confidential posted this article, “State of U.S. Latinos has Suffered in Bush-led Union, Hispanic Leaders Say,” by Kate Bernuth, explaining the loss of Latino support during President Bush’s second term after noticing that nothing was much better than it had been in 2004, when Bush had 40% of the Hispanic vote, a record number for a GOP candidate.

After all the promises made by Bush during his first term that have yet to be completely accomplished, like reforming the immigration system, providing health care for uninsured Hispanic workers, and improving education opportunities for minorities and low-income families, it’s no wonder why the Republican National Hispanic Assembly of Colorado is saying that the GOP will struggle to get a high percentage of the Hispanic vote. After listening to his last State of the Union address on Jan. 28, Bush did not seem to be advocating for his Hispanic voters and he hardly mentioned the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) of 2001, which he began to improve K-12 public education, especially for minority and low-income students. It almost seemed like he had given up, making it hard for most Latino voters to continue to support the GOP or to have believe that NCLB will continue and improve public education. The one vague promise is his proposed "Pell Grants for Kids" program, which has potential, but also needs to be further "fleshed out" before we can put much faith in it.

Looking at the statistics from 2004, 24% of Latino 16- to 24-year-olds dropped out of high school and only 25% of those who did graduate went directly to college. In 2006, 22.4% of Latino students dropped out of high school, and of those who did graduate, only 30.3% went directly to college. Not much of a difference when looking back on the grand promises of NCLB, implemented by Bush to repair the educational crisis.

Details: Pell Grants for Kids

2008-02-05T09:40:00.000-05:00

Like all other cabinet-level departments, the Dept. of Education unveiled its 2009 fiscal year budget yesterday. Here are some details on the much-talked about and controversial Pell Grants for Kids:

$300 million has been designated for the program.
The scholarships are directed primarily towards minority, low-income students attending low-performing schools.
Students receiving the scholarships will have to take national standardized assessments and have their progress tracked (although schools will not be held to NCLB standards).
Individual states and LEAs will be able to apply for the grants on a competitive basis.

Latino students are likely to benefit significantly from the program, as they are some of America's students most likely to attend low-performing schools and thus, most likely to receive one of the Pell Grants for Kids.

If yesterday's budget hearing was any indication, this program is sure to incite strong feelings from voucher opponents. At one point, the questions from the audience actually devolved into a rant against Secretary Spellings's aides and their "love of vouchers and NCLB."

Hold on, friends...this is going to be a wild ride.

More on Teachers v. Parents

2008-01-29T16:11:00.000-05:00

New Education Policy Research study on how to encourage parental involvement despite language barriers.

Hint: Find new ways to reach ELL parents.

New University of Missouri study on low-income students' access to high-quality teachers.

Hint: They don't have much.

Teachers v. Parents: Who is the Greater Influence?

2008-01-29T15:32:00.000-05:00

In his weekly column for the WaPo, Jay Matthews argues that, contrary to popular belief, teachers have a greater influence on children's achievement than their parents:

Do unsupportive parents create pathetic schools or do pathetic schools create unsupportive parents? It is the most frustrating of chicken-and-egg questions. Many education experts will say it is a bit of both, but that's a cop-out. Most of our worst schools are full of low-income children in our biggest cities. No one has yet found a way to revive those schools in any significant way by training the students' parents to be more engaged with their children's educations. It is too hard to do and too unlikely to have much impact on the chaotic school district leadership.

What has worked, again and again, is the opposite: Bring an energetic and focused leader into the school, let that person recruit and train good teachers and find ways to get rid of those who resist making the necessary changes. Great teaching makes great schools, and once you have a good school, parents become engaged and active.

I don't disagree with him entirely, but I do believe Matthews gives too little credit to parents.

Matthews focuses mainly on parental engagement - for example, programs that teach parents how to help their children with their homework. This type of program is clearly important, but as Matthews said, it doesn't exactly create systemic change. Students benefit and parents benefit, but schools rarely transform because parents start checking homework assignments at night.

What does have the power to create systemic change - and what Matthews misses - is parental advocacy. This type of "parental involvement" is not taught by schools, primarily because of its political nature. After all, if schools teach parents to demand better, eventually, those parents will start demanding better of the schools themselves.

Yet advocacy is a necessary skill for parents, especially low-income, minority parents. Wealthy Anglo parents often have the education, social capital, and financial resources to be effective advocates for their children. Low-income parents, minority parents, immigrant parents - these are people who we should pour our resources into. These are the people to whom we must say, "This is America. Your child deserves an excellent education. Now, let's go fight for it."

If it is taught effectively, parental advocacy can change not just the lives of students and parents, but the entire school system as well. This is the next phase of parental involvement - moving from engagement to advocacy - and it has incredible potential.

Well, this is not the first time..

2008-01-28T13:49:00.000-05:00

that you've heard it, but School Reform News is reporting that "School Choice Could Help Slow Latino Dropout Rate."

Interestingly, the article includes some comments on the difference in dropout rates between Latino immigrants and American-born Latinos. For obvious reasons, Latino immigrants drop out of school at a much higher rate, but as of yet, there is little research to indicate exactly how educators can reach out to these students and prevent them from leaving school. As the Latino immigrant population grows and moves to new areas, however, this will surely because a necessity for school systems that want to graduate their Latino youth.

Friday Blog Roundup

2008-01-25T14:04:00.000-05:00

This week's finalists, in quote form:

"Maybe that’s the problem. I got into teaching for all the wrong reasons. I was idealistic… I didn’t think I would change the world, by any means, but I thought I would infuse enlightenment into the neglected minds of these inner city kids. What can I say? I was 17.... I was going to be the radical English teacher that taught the kids to subvert the system and refuse to surrender to their destiny." Se Hace Camino Al Andar.

***

"If it becomes law, AB586 would provide formal and financial acknowledgement to a reality that informs all the work we do in education. It is not only more difficult, but more expensive to educate an English Language Learner. It is not only more difficult, but more expensive to educate a low-income child. As long as Los Altos spends $11,000 per student while my district spends $6,000, educational equity will remain a pursuit and never a point of arrival." Teaching in the 408.

***

"I have lived on the East Coast and in the Midwest for more than 18 years, and during that time I've come to deeply appreciate the great capacity and courage of Americans to talk about their problems and differences rather, needless to say, than shooting each other over them. But today, such conversations seem fewer and less civil than they once were.

Perhaps the reason why Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama's message of reconciliation is getting some traction is because for many Americans, the divisiveness and intolerance of recent years have meant the erosion of a fundamental American value." Desde Washington.

Guest Posting at Hispanic Pundit!

2008-01-25T13:53:00.000-05:00

One-third of Latino college students say that their parents should be more involved in their college careers - and help them decide things like which classes to take and which activities to participate in.

And you thought college kids just wanted to "fly the coop."

Want to learn more? Head on over to Hispanic Pundit, where I've posted my first guest blog.

Mark Krikorian Cries "Multiculturalism!"

2008-01-24T11:46:00.000-05:00

In an article for the National Review Online today, Mark Krikorian attacks John McCain for his support of "multiculturalism," which he defines (with Francis Fukuyama's help) as, "not just tolerance of cultural diversity in de facto multicultural societies, but as the demand for legal recognition of the rights of ethnic, racial, religious, or cultural groups."

Of course, Krikorian condemns McCain's stance on immigration, but what's more, he derides his support of bilingual education. He also criticizes McCain for insisting that Hispanic Americans be honestly and realistically represented in the media - as the important, intelligent human beings that they are.

Wait a minute! Krikorian is criticizing McCain for these things? For recognizing the civil rights of other people? Wow, I must have missed the big meeting where bigotry and racism became okay again. But no matter. My best suggestion is this: read Krikorian's intolerant, supremacist message. Then, write to him and explain exactly WHY he is so very wrong - and why minorities in this country deserve basic civil rights. Also note that, once upon a time, his ancestors were immigrants and minorities too - and that only because this country afforded THEM basic rights, is he even writing his column today.

This man must be joking.

Latinos in 2008: MALDEF Roundtable

2008-01-23T16:37:00.000-05:00

The Mexican-American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF) hosted its first annual roundtable on law, policy, and civil rights this afternoon, titling it, "State of Latinos 2008." The roundtable featured three different panels, which focused separately on Congress and Public Policy, the Judiciary and MALDEF's Key Lawsuits, and the Presidential Elections and the Latino Vote.

The event was impressive for a number of reasons, not least of which was the diversity that it brought to the (round) table. Hispanics from various backgrounds, organizations and political affiliations weighed in on the issues, offering their unique perspectives on such matters as comprehensive immigration reform, "activist judges," how Democrat and Republican candidates are (or are not) reaching Latino voters and more.

Much of the discussion centered around immigration reform, for obvious reasons. A majority of the panel participants were pessimistic about the chances for immigration reform in 2008 and many were adamant about the need to "change the tone" of the immigration debate. Some speakers characterized immigration reform as a social justice issue. "People need to understand that erosion of rights for some...is a slippery slope... that leads to erosion of rights for all," said Maria Echaveste, a member of the board of directors of MALDEF.

Being involved in partisan issues on a daily basis, it can become easy to forget that some issues truly do unite people across parties. Therefore - and pardon my gushing - it was inspiring to see Hispanics from both sides of the aisle committed to this cause.

My one major criticism is this: for a roundtable on "civil rights," an awful lot of civil rights issues appeared to be missing from the agenda. Things like, oh, education reform, health care, etc. I'm looking forward to another roundtable next year, but also hoping for some changes in this arena.

Comments Have Returned!

2008-01-23T16:32:00.000-05:00

As the more observant among you may notice, I have officially turned the comments back "on" for The Daily Grito. I hope that this will encourage more discussion and debate amongst my readers - so please contribute!

Spanish to English: Helping Adult ELLs Make the Transition

2008-01-22T13:55:00.000-05:00

Fairleigh Dickinson, an independent university in northern New Jersey, has recently begun a program called "MiraeRo," or "To the Future," to help adult Korean speakers to transition to speaking English while studying for an associate in arts (A.A.) degree. This is modeled after the university's "Puerta al Futuro" (Gateway to the Future) program, which was originally designed for Spanish-speaking English Language Learners. The programs, which last three years in total, offer evening and weekend classes to ELL students with little to no knowledge of English and gradually transition them from classes taught their native language to classes taught exclusively in English. The Puerta al Futuro program, which began in 2003 with 20 students, has now grown to over 200 students.

The potential impact of this type of program is impressive, especially for Latino adults. Considering that in 2003, less than 12% of US Hispanics had a bachelor's degree, one can easily see how programs like these could offer excellent educational opportunities to Spanish-speaking adults. Not only would higher educational attainment amongst Latinos benefits the students themselves, but the degrees would make them more marketable and employable and thus, more likely to contribute positively to the American economy on the whole. If well-designed and well-executed, these programs have the potential to empower huge numbers of adult ELL students to find better, higher paying careers and increase the amount in which they give back to our economy.

New Guestblogger: Hispanic Pundit

2008-01-22T11:25:00.001-05:00

Hispanic Pundit will now be guestblogging occasionally for The Daily Grito and I will be doing the same on his site. Free market ideas, education reform, the Hispanic community - what could be a better combination?

Stay tuned for his always interesting reporting and commentary on the latest in politics and daily events.

Friday Blog Roundup

2008-01-18T14:20:00.000-05:00

Today's blog roundup asks the following questions:

Online public schools....are they the educational option of the future?

What is the perspective of a KIPP mom on the schools' pedagogy and structure?*

Must curriculum for ELL students be culturally relevant?

* This entry is especially notable for the KIPP debate, since, in the blogosphere, there is a great glut of opinions from educators and ed reformers and hardly any weigh-in from families who are actually in the KIPP schools.

Educational Robin Hood: Sneaking into Out-of-District Schools

2008-01-17T15:08:00.000-05:00

Today's blog post is authored by an Hispanic CREO intern, Moira Nadal. For comments or questions, she can be reached at mnadal@brynmawr.edu.

An article in the New York Times reveals a crisis currently faced by many suburban school districts: students claiming false residence to sneak into out-of-district schools. It describes the experience of one school in New Jersey trying to deal with this problem and the drastic measures administrators have turned to in order to cope. To combat this major problem, for example, school districts are hiring investigators and retired policemen, creating anonymous hotlines and posting bounties for reports of out-of-district students that are proven to be true.

The lack of educational opportunities that creates this phenomenon is a problem for students across the US. Several sources in the article are quoted as saying that students’ sneaking in is a persistent problem in their districts. This is clearly a manifestation of parents' need to have more and better options for schooling their children. In several parents’ and community blogs across the nation, parents admit to sending their children to out-of-district schools and give many reasons why they choose to do so. For many parents in the Berkeley area, for example, the issue of convenience came up for working parents who want their child’s school to be closer to their place of work. In Georgia’s Henry County, many seem to believe that a search for better facilities is leading students to sneak in from neighboring counties.

Other forums mention students who want to switch to another school because of smaller classes, better teachers, and safer learning environments. These reasons for transferring are particularly relevant to Latino students, who are disproportionately enrolled in failing or persistently dangerous schools. For many low-income Hispanics, especially those who are denied school choice and lack the resources to pay for private school, transferring to an out-of-district school - or sneaking in - may be the only viable opportunity for a decent education.

There are still many parents who wish that their child’s school were more convenient, to their work or to a caregiver. There are parents frustrated by the lack of qualified teachers and learning materials, overcrowding, and violence; who wish for their children to be able to go to schools with more competitive sports teams or with specialized language classes. There are many reasons that students are sneaking illegally into other school districts - these reasons are the same why parents deserve to be given more power over their children’s school choices.

Preschool: The Magic Dropout Prevention Technique?

2008-01-15T15:21:00.000-05:00

Each year, hundreds of thousands of Latino students enter high school. Four years later, less than 60% of them graduate. Nationally, Latinos represent one of the highest dropout rates of any ethnic group; dropping out at a rate much more frequent than White or Asian students.

Today, the WaPo features Jay Matthews's reflection on dropout intervention strategies - and the effectiveness of each. The most "impactful" program appears to be a preschool program, where students spend 1.8 years in a preschool which has small classes and requires parental involvement. This program yielded 19 "extra" high school graduates for every 100 students who participated. Other programs relied on class size reduction, teacher salary increases, etc... but check them out for yourself.

What Matthew's rightly notes is that only one of the programs profiled can actually be instituted by high school educators - the rest are for K-8 schools.

Even so, it is interesting to me to see that the most effective program is a preschool program. This validates the correlation between Latinos' dropout rates and their lack of preschool education (Latino children in the US are the least likely to receive early childhood education). It also gives us some clues as to where we should focus our resources when trying to address the Latino dropout crisis.

Futures Uncertain for Undocumented Graduates

2008-01-14T10:38:00.000-05:00

This morning, the Washington Post takes on the question, "What happens to undocumented students after high school?" Without the protection of an official visa or the benefits of in-state residency, college is simply out of reach for most undocumented students, no matter how impressive their academic achievements. The article doesn't offer easy answers or propose a solution to this problem, but it does offer an informative glimpse into the battles that these students must fight if they want to pursue higher education.

Friday Blog Roundup

2008-01-11T16:30:00.000-05:00

Away we go! These blog links were compiled by myself and my fabulous intern, Nicole.

Wow, do I feel for NYC Educator after this day. Ah, the joys of teaching. Like the time one of my students gave me a "research paper" that was actually a Wikipedia entry on LeBron James. Of course, he then tried to tell me, when I showed him the Wikipedia, that they weren't the same thing.

Liking the Republican candidates this year, but don't know how to separate the sound bites from the truth? For those of you who care about education reform, take a look at Sadie's review of the Republican candidates and their positions. This post is very well researched and most importantly, includes a "Real Actions" list of what the candidates have actually done to effect change. Amen.

It's like eduwonkette was reading my mind....well, at least, we were thinking about the same things this week. Check out her response to the question, "Where should I send my kid?"

UK Paves Way for Education; US Latinos Lag Behind

2008-01-10T09:42:00.001-05:00

Today's post is written by Nicole Matos, a student of Bryn Mawr College and an intern at Hispanic CREO. She can be contacted by e-mail at nmatos5@gmail.com.

UK school minister Jim Knight announced plans to require that every secondary school student, almost 6 million children, to have Internet access in their homes, according to Friday's article from the Guardian. The government will work with major IT corporations, such as Virgin and Microsoft, to make such services more affordable and schools will receive 100 million pounds to guarantee access for disadvantaged families. The major motivation out of this is to narrow the achievement gap between “pupils from the richest and poorest families”. This gap widened in the UK by 10% last year.

The initiative will help narrow the achievement gap in two ways. Firstly, it will level the playing field amongst students. At this time, more than one million UK children do not have access to a computer. Lacking the ability to do Internet research and other computer work at home, these students are at a great disadvantage when competing with their more technologically privileged peers. For these children, most learning and schoolwork is limited to school or a library, while more privileged students get to do it at home. Secondly, the initiative will narrow the achievement gap by creating a network for parents to receive “real time reporting,” online updates and communication from teachers and students.

A policy like this instated in the US would be a positive step forward to solving our own gap. A recent report done by the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights Education Fund shows that Latinos, especially Latino children, are lagging far behind their White counterpoints when it comes to having computer and Internet access. According to the report, only about 40% of Black and Latino children have Internet access, while 77.4% of White children do. Even at a higher income levels, Latinos still lag behind and Spanish speaking Latinos are not to “have strikingly low rates” of computer ownership and Internet access.

Technologically disadvantaged students suffer a vicious cycle where their lack of computer ownership and Internet access affects their educational success which, in turn, affects their future career success. A policy like this would be an exciting new way to get Latino children a better chance at academic success and would be a first step to getting Latinos on the right path to computer literacy.

Wedneday Issue: Educating Parents to Make the Right School Choose

2008-01-09T10:32:00.000-05:00

Earlier this week, the University of Colorado at Boulder and Arizona State University released a collaborative study entitled, "Who Chooses Schools, and Why?" Full text found here.

In the report, the authors examine how parents who exercise school choice evaluate their children's educational options and settle on the best school. They review the literature about parents who send their children to private school, as well as parents who participate in means-based voucher programs, who send their children to charter or magnet schools, and those who choose to homeschool their own children.

Here are some key findings (in italics) and my commentary:

The primary stated motivation in all types of choice is perceived academic quality; the primary influence in terms of documented behavior is peer composition in terms of race and class.... White parents tend to avoid schools with high minority concentrations, and minority parents tend to avoid schools with high percentages of low-income students.

Therefore, while parents are searching primarily for the best academic education for their children, demographic information heavily influences how they define "best academic education."

The school choice movement has long argued that school choice will desegregate schools. While it is true that in certain cities, private schools are more racially diverse than their public counterparts, this research indicates that not all parents who elect schools of choice are necessarily looking for racial (or class) diversity. Therefore, the question becomes: how do we help (White) parents get away from the assumption that a high minority population equals a worse education and how do we convince (minority) parents that schools with large low-income populations can offer a good education?

The primary way that parents learn about schools in through their social networks.... What social networks do is present constrained sets of schools. Of particular note here is that lower-income families tend to have more failing and less competitive schools in their choice sets.

Here is where school choice organizations can provide a real boon to parents. We have the resources to develop effective "word of mouth" strategies to reach out to low-income parents. So, what will they be? How can we ensure that parents are getting the right "word of mouth" information and thus, empowered to make good decisions about their children's schooling?

Recent research also shows that having instructional and academic information about schools, which many choice programs provide (i.e. booklets on choice programs) is not necessarily sufficient to get families to choose schools of high academic quality. Demographic information about schools appears to be a key factor parents consider in a variety of choice settings...

And here, friends, is one of the paradoxes of school choice. Universal school choice means that parents have the power to choose whatever schools they want, and that choice can be based on whatever information they want, even if it goes against the ideals of the school choice movement (like desegregating schools, for example). So how do we strike a balance between giving parents what they want (and deserve) and ensuring that choice really CAN improve and diversify our school system? It's an interesting question and something that, surely, choice advocates should have on their minds.

The Big WHY

2008-01-08T17:14:00.000-05:00

Why, oh why, Michael Gerson asks in a WaPo op-ed, haven't Democrats pursued real education reform?

Why should teacher pay be determined by collective bargaining instead of teacher competence, especially in low-income schools that need to reward and retain good teachers? Why not give districts more flexibility to fire teachers who would serve children better by changing professions?

Edbizbuzz offers a provocative - and quite poetic - response to his question.

Tomorrow's Wednesday Issue: Join the Daily Grito as we expound on what recent research on parental involvement in school choice programs means for education activists.

Parents and the Education Game

2008-01-07T14:02:00.000-05:00

I've been reading a bit on parental involvement lately, but I promise that I will not even mention the phrase "helicopter parent."

Firstly, of particular interest to the Latino community, are the ideas of Edwin C. Darden, Appleseed's director of education policy, who writes on how to teach low-income parents to "work the system" to guarantee their children's best education. Noting that many low-income parents do not understand how the educational system operates and do not believe that they can influence it in any way, Darden cites the need for legislation like NCLB, which, he claims, "has the potential to address these problems [see above] and spark greater parental involvement throughout the United States." He also recognizes that, "The grand battles over testing, adequate yearly progress, and reconstruction of failing schools threaten to swamp efforts to strengthen compliance with NCLB's parental involvement provisions."

Obviously, Darden is right that parents are not effectively engaged in their children's education. But are the mandates of NCLB really all that helpful? Here's what NCLB gives parents: a few letters home, saying, "Your child's school did not make AYP, therefore, you may enroll him/her in free tutoring classes." Is that engaging parents, truly educating them and empowering them to make decisions about their children's education?

I much prefer some of the other ideas that Darden includes, such as Montgomery (MD) County's Parent Academy, which offers more than 35 free workshops for parents. These workshops are not mandated by NCLB - but they seem to be a much more effective way to get parent's involved in their children's education and not just act as spectators.

Secondly, a thank you to the blog Historical/Present for directing me to the report Deciding on Postsecondary Education, from the National Postsecondary Education Cooperative. Some key points critical to the Latino community:

- Focus groups with first generation students revealed that it is not unlikely for academically under-prepared and/or first generation students to delay the college search process for a few years following their high school graduation.

- Research by Zimbroff (quoted in the study), revealed that youth in cultures that emphasize community values and discourage "standing out" are less likely to leave home and tend to prefer local institutions over prestigious or geographically distant colleges.

- Focus group research indicated that Hispanic first generation college students were encouraged to stay close to home for college, since they would "need the support of their families."

Some other interesting findings in the study - I suggest you check it out.

Friday Blog Roundup - First of 2008!

2008-01-04T15:03:00.000-05:00

A new year, a new blog roundup.

This week's picks:

Show Me the Education Money (Eduflack)

The Letter From: Three "E's" in the School Improvement Industry's Year Ahead (edbizbuzz)

What "The Wire" Says about the Presidential Candidates' Education Proposals (Campaign K-12)

University-School Partnerships: A Collaboration for Success?

2008-01-02T10:36:00.000-05:00

Happy New Year! I'm glad to be back with you for 2008.

There will be no "Wednesday Issue/Interview" today, seeing as today is really a "Monday" - well, okay, it just feels like one. However, I am happy to report on some recent education reform news:

California is trying an innovative approach to school partnerships: allowing colleges and universities to start their own K-12 schools. Now, university-school partnerships are not a new idea; over the past few decades, it has become a common practice (especially in urban areas) for institutions of higher education to collaborate with schools and districts to improve learning. What's new about this is that for the first time, California can claim a number of schools that are actually RUN by colleges and universities - not just partnered with them.

The universities pitch it as a win-win situation: the children receive a high-quality education (thus, improving their chances at a successful college career) and the universities win by being able to "funnel" these youngsters into their college programs. Oh, and by the way, the schools also serve as "laboratories" to see whether the educational theories being taught by the university are working or, as the article quotes, "falling flat."

Wow, I would love to have my child attending a school where he/she is essentially a lab rat. A chilling quote by Howard Levine, Dean of UC Davis's School of Education, is this: "Either we know something about how to deliver education to these children or we don't." Well, Mr. Levine, I sure hope that you're banking on knowing! We already have too many schools failing our students; we don't need another one, thank you.

That said, the idea is not all bad. I think that these could be very productive partnerships and they do show a willingness on the part of education schools to be accountable (even if only to themselves). Many schools of education would do well to evaluate their own relevancy and effectiveness; this could be a step in the right direction for that.

Friday Blog Round-Up

2007-12-21T10:45:00.000-05:00

This week, we have a few reflections from teachers who are actually working in the trenches and giving their all to educate our kids. Here, Ms. Frizzle has a very interesting and artistic reflection on an interaction with one of her students. Another NYC teacher, who writes the Syntactic Gymnastics, blogs about the "sinking ship" that is her school. I include her link with much sympathy and empathy for her, as the description she gives of her school reminds me all too much of where I taught last year.

The Daily Grito will be on hiatus from December 21st through January 2nd. Have a wonderful holiday and we look forward to seeing you in the New Year!

New Students, New Schools

2007-12-20T15:51:00.000-05:00

Here's a nice complement to two issues I've been writing about recently: bilingual education and how schools are coping with the recent influx of Spanish-speaking immigrants. Seems like the NYC suburbs aren't the only towns that are being forced to redesign their curriculum to address the needs of English Language Learners; the suburbs of Dallas are doing the same.

Wednesday Issue: Bilingual Education y Los Candidatos

2007-12-19T17:26:00.000-05:00

When asked during last week's GOP debate how he would work to improve our nation's public schools, Mitt Romney pointed to his work in Massachusetts as a model for the nation, declaring, " ...we also fought for English immersion. We wanted our kids coming to school to learn English from the very beginning."

Romney is not the only presidential candidate to support English immersion programs and he is certainly not the most vehement supporter. Case in point: Tom Tancredo, who skipped the Univision debate because he opposed the idea of having his remarks translated into a language other than English.

Compared to other issues, such as affordable health care and the war in Iraq, bilingual education has gotten fairly little airtime during this the presidential race. However, with immigration being a hot-button issue on the table, bilingual education is sure to come into the spotlight soon.

And the candidates are prepared. When Hispanic Link, a weekly newspaper on Latino issues, surveyed the campaigns on this issue, most candidates had statements ready. The outcome? Clinton, Richardson, Dodd, Edwards and Obama were for bilingual education - including instruction in the students' native languages*. Romney and Tancredo were against bilingual education and support English-only instruction.

* I've specified this because the term "bilingual education" sometimes includes English-only ESL programs (although the reason for that is...unknown).

What are the candidates basing their decisions on? Well, it's probably not conclusive research. As EdWeek's Mary Ann Zehr notes, high-quality research about English language instruction programs is scant. There are a lot of different methods for teaching English as a second language, but none can be ranked as the absolute best form.

My suspicion is that their positions on bilingual education are too-closely linked to their immigration stance. Candidates who want to make a show of their patriotism and their "tough stance on illegal immigrants" cry "English-only, English-only." In doing so, they deny important opportunities to both ELLs and native English speakers - opportunities like two-way dual immersion schools.

At a time when America's international test scores are dropping, we should be seeking ways to make ourselves more globally competitive - and that means not isolating ourselves linguistically. Imagine the possibilities of a bilingual or trilingual America where all students were able to speak, read, and write in at least one other language. Their opportunities - and those of our country - would be endless.

Chiming in on the selective teaching pool...

2007-12-18T15:34:00.000-05:00

The Quick and the Ed points out that although the new ETS study shows that America's teacher pool is improving, it is still sorely lacking in minority teacher candidates.

I agree with them that this is a major issue that needs to be addressed quickly. It needs to be addressed form two angles: attracting more minorities to teaching as a career AND getting more minorities to the point where they could actually BE a teacher (i.e. a college degree). After all, if only 12% of Latinos have a bachelor's, it would seem a bit idealistic to imagine that a large percentage of the nation's teaching corps would be Latino.

Therefore, this is an issue that reflects on (and affects) the teaching profession, but our education system as a whole. Let's start the reform from the bottom up: How can we get more minority students into 4-year college programs and THEN attract them to teaching?

Seems like a big question.

"Que Ningún Niño Se Queda Atrás:" Take That, NY Times

2007-12-17T11:42:00.000-05:00

Catching up on some weekend reading, I came across the NY Times Article, "No Child Left Behind? Say It in Spanish." I followed their advice with the title of this post.

The article explains how the schools in NYC's suburbs are coping with the large influx of Hispanic immigrants that have recently settled in the area. In recent years, the 19 suburban counties closest to NYC have experienced a 17% growth in the Hispanic population under age 15, forcing schools to re-evaluate their ESL and Hispanic outreach programs.

Randolph, NJ was chosen as a example of one suburban district that is learning to cater to the needs of Spanish-speaking families. After noticing a drop in the test scores of an elementary school with a high number of recent immigrant students, the district initiated a multi-pronged plan to improve the academic performance of its ELL students. This included reducing class sizes, hiring a reading specialist and a full-time social worker, and initiating a "Noche Latina" outreach event for Spanish-speaking parents.

So far, test scores seem to be rising, but the ultimate result remains to be seen.

Amazingly enough, there hasn't been political backlash against these new expenditures, despite the fact that other schools in the district have seen budget cuts. Randolph's superintendent said the following: “...[I]t costs more to educate some kids, and it’s going to cost more to educate immigrants,” Mr. Riley said. “Once you accept that, everything falls into place.”

In this case, the new programs seem like a thoughtful, reasonable investment. We'll see what other districts follow their lead and how they work to find cost-effective ways to educate their ELL students.

Wednesday Issue Delay

2007-12-12T16:37:00.001-05:00

The Wednesday Issue is in the works, but as I am scrambling to finish a surprise project, it looks like it will be delayed until tomorrow. Apologies to all.

Wednesday Issue: Bilingual Education y Los Candidatos

2007-12-12T14:53:00.000-05:00

When asked during the final GOP candidate debate how he would work to improve our nation's public schools, Mitt Romney pointed to his work in Massachusetts as a model for the nation, declaring, " ...we also fought for English immersion. We wanted our kids coming to school to learn English from the very beginning."

Romney is not the only presidential candidate to support English immersion programs and he is certainly not the most vehement supporter. Case in point: Tom Tancredo, who skipped the Univision debate because he opposed the idea of having his remarks translated into a language other than English.

Compared to other issues, such as affordable health care and the war in Iraq, bilingual education has gotten fairly little airtime during this the presidential race. However, with immigration being a hot-button issue on the table, bilingual education is sure to come into the spotlight soon.

And the candidates are prepared. When Hispanic Link, a weekly newspaper on Latino issues, surveyed the campaigns on this issue, most candidates had statements ready. The outcome? Clinton, Richardson, Dodd, Edwards and Obama were for bilingual education - including instruction in the students' native languages*. Romney and Tancredo were against bilingual education and support English-only instruction.

* I've specified this because the term "bilingual education" sometimes includes English-only ESL programs (although the reason for that is...unknown).

What are the candidates basing their decisions on? Well, it's probably not conclusive research. As EdWeek's Mary Ann Zehr notes, high-quality research about English language instruction programs is scant. There are a lot of different methods for teaching English as a second language, but none can be ranked as the absolute best form.

My suspicion is that their positions on bilingual education are too-closely linked to their immigration stance. Candidates who want to make a show of their patriotism and their "tough stance on illegal immigrants" cry "English-only, English-only." In doing so, they deny important opportunities to both ELLs and native English speakers - opportunities like two-way dual immersion schools.

At a time when America's international test scores are dropping, we should be seeking ways to make ourselves more globally competitive - and that means not isolating ourselves linguistically. Imagine the possibilities of a bilingual or trilingual America where all students were able to speak, read, and write in at least one other language. Their opportunities - and those of our country - would be endless.

Sound Bites: The Univision Republican Debate

2007-12-10T09:40:00.000-05:00

The first Spanish-language Republican debate was hosted on Univision last night. This was an opportunity for GOP candidates to win back the Hispanic vote, which, as I noted last week, has declined significantly.

The questions ranged from immigration to making English THE official language of the US, but here are some quick bites from the candidates on education:

Question: How do you explain the decline of support to Republicans by Hispanics?

Mike Huckabee: I think Hispanics want the same thing everybody wants. They want jobs. They want education.... If we're really serious about truly saying we want more than 30 percent of the vote, then as we look at issues like education we'll understand that while the dropout rate from high school is 30 percent among all populations, it's 50 percent among Hispanics. We've got to change that by creating personalized education that focuses on perpetuating what's good for students, not just making what's good for the school.

***

Question: Do you think that you're taking a risk to come here and lose support from the more conservative base of your party?

Rudolph Giuliani: Don't see any risk at all in coming before a Hispanic audience. Hispanic Americans are Americans, just as much as all other Americans. They have the same values, the same interests.... Hispanics have a tremendous interest in giving more freedom back to people, giving more people -- giving people more of a chance to decide on the education of their child. That's why I think school choice would be a very good thing to do for Hispanics, for Hispanic parents, for all parents. The decision on where the child goes to school should primarily be made by the parent, and the parent should decide what school the child goes to, not the government bureaucrat.

That's one of many, many things that really unites what Hispanics want and need and what all parents want and need, which is more control over their child's education. And that's something that I would fight very hard to bring about.

***

Question: A recent survey done for La Raza National Council show that nine out of 10 Hispanic voters think that improved public education should be a priority for the next president of the United States. Let's start with Senator Thompson. What should we do to improve the public schools so our children will be educated in this country from coast to coast?

Fred Thompson: First of all, I think we need to recognize where the responsibility lies. It would be easy enough for someone running for president to say: I have a several-point plan to fix our education problem. It's not going to happen. And it shouldn't happen from the Oval Office.

We spend about 9 percent of education dollars now at the federal level. The responsibility historically and properly is at the state and local level. I think, however, we can do things that would support choice, do things that would support vouchers, do things that would support homeschooling, and recognize that we need to speak the truth.

One of the advantages of being in the Oval Office is having a bully pulpit. And the fact of the matter is, if families would stay together, if fathers would raise their children, especially young men when they get into troublesome ages, we would solve a good part of the education problem in this country.

John McCain: Choice and competition is the key to success in education in America. That means charter schools, that means home schooling, it means vouchers, it means rewarding good teachers and finding bad teachers another line of work. It means... rewarding good performing schools, and it really means in some cases putting bad performing schools out of business.... I want every American parent to have a choice, a choice as to how they want their child educated, and I guarantee you the competition will dramatically increase the level of education in America.

Mitt Romney: Well, we've got a pretty good model. If you look at my state, even before I got there, other governors and legislatures worked real hard to improve education. And they did a number of things that made a big difference. One is, they started testing our kids to see who was succeeding, making sure that failing schools were identified and then turning them around. They fought for school choice. When I became governor, I had to protect school choice because the legislature tried to stop it.

And then we also fought for English immersion. We wanted our kids coming to school to learn English from the very beginning. And then we did something that was really extraordinary. We said to every kid that does well on these exams that we put in place before you can graduate from high school, we're going to give you a John and Abigail Adams scholarship, four years tuition-free to our state university or state colleges for all the kids that graduate in the top quarter of their class.

We care about the quality of education. I want to pay better teachers more money. Teachers are underpaid, but I want to evaluate our teachers and see which ones are the best and which ones are not.... These principles of choice, parental involvement, encouraging high standards, scholarships for our best kids -- these turn our schools into the kind of magnets that they can be for the entire nation.

***

Question: We're going to continue talking about education. One our of three Hispanic students don't finish high school. What would you do to stop dropouts of school?

Mike Huckabee: An education is empowerment. The lack of it leads us to incredible, just all kinds of obstacles in our path.... And we always talk about we need more math and science, and we, and we're doing a better job. But one of the reasons we have kids failing is not because they're dumb, it's they're bored. They're bored with a curriculum that doesn't touch them.

We have schools that are about perpetuating the schools, not helping the students. I propose launching weapons of mass instruction, making sure that we are launching not only the math and science... but music and art programs that touch the right side of the brain, and not only educate the left side of the student's brain.

Because without a creative economy and a creative student, you have a bored student, and that's one of the reasons we see so many of them dropping out.

Rudy Giuliani: Well, you know, Governor Huckabee reminds me of the fact that I'm the product of a Catholic school from the day I started in kindergarten until the day I got out of college....It was my parents' choice. They made that choice for me. I wouldn't have known. They made that choice. It was hard for them to afford it. I was fortunate enough to get scholarships along the way to help.

But the reality is, that's really the answer. And we're all saying it in a different way. We can revolutionize public education in this country by allowing for choice.

Has it ever occurred to you that we have the best higher education system in the world, and we have a weakening K-12, including for Hispanic students? Now, why do we have the best higher education in the world and this K-12 that's under great stress?

Because higher education is based on choice. It's based on you pick a college because you want to go there. The government doesn't force you to go there. We should allow parents, like my parents were able to do; we should empower them by giving them the money, giving them scholarships, giving them vouchers, let them choose a public school, a private school, a parochial school, a charter school, homeschooling. Let's give the power to the parents, rather than to the government bureaucrats. And we will turn around education within three years.

Duncan Hunter:...What we have to do in this country is to take away all this old credentialing. We've got to bring in aerospace engineers and pilots and mathematicians and scientists and business-people, and we have to bring in people who can inspire kids at a young age to reach for the stars, and then convince them to work hard enough to get there.

Inspiration, that's how we increase our capability in education.

The debate's transcript can be found in its entirety here.

Friday Blog Round-Up

2007-12-07T14:54:00.000-05:00

The blogosphere has been subdued this week, but here's my favorite writing:

TMAO at Teaching in the 408 on "The Ledge" that high-performing teachers navigate.

Data, Data, Data

2007-12-06T16:35:00.000-05:00

A few new wonk-y things out and about:

The Cato Institute's Policy Analysis #605: The Public Education Tax Credit, which I was halfway through and is proving to be an exceptional policy brief.

The Pew Hispanic Center's report on Hispanic voters' party affiliation. Surprise! They are leaning back towards Democrats. I wonder if the immigration thing had any influence....?

Wednesday Issue: Hispanic Achievement and Acting White

2007-12-05T09:23:00.000-05:00

Inspired by Eduwonkette's recent analysis of the "Acting White" theory, I've decided to do a small spin-off here. Although much attention has been paid to "acting white" within the Black community, there has been little discussion of how this mentality affects Hispanic students' academic achievement.

In his 2006 study, Harvard economist Roland Fryer and his colleague Paul Torelli released a study which showed that minority students' social popularity suffered when it was known that they were academic high-achievers. The researchers found that for Black students, popularity began to decline once students achieved a 3.5 GPA or higher, but for Hispanic students, the bar was even lower. Latino students began to lose standing with their peers once they attained a 2.0 GPA. This data led to the conclusion that minority students deliberately under-perform in school to avoid "acting white" and keep their social standing intact.

Below is Fryer's graph of how a GPA affects students' popularity (thanks to the Hoover Institution):

Roland and Fryer make no hypotheses about why Hispanic students' popularity decline begins so much earlier than that of Black students. Thankfully, this leaves room for our further inquiry.

The following questions are important ones that need to be raised in our analysis of Hispanic student culture. They do not yet have answers, but are sure to result in important knowledge about attitudes towards academic achievement in Hispanic culture(s).

1.) Do Latino immigrant children and native-born Latinos share the same attitude towards academic achievement?

According to John Ogbu's theory, recently emigrated individuals - called voluntary minorities - often have more optimistic attitudes towards America and its various opportunities. They value education and hard work highly and therefore, are more likely to trust and do well within the school system. Therefore, it should follow that Latino immigrants are more academically successful than native-born Latinos. But is this true?

2.) To what extent does the "acting white" stigma affect low-income, middle class, and wealthy Latinos? Does one group experience more pressure than others to under-perform?

3.) For immigrant Latinos, does the desire to assimilate into American culture have positive or negative effects on academic achievement?

There are a number of ways to assimilate into this culture: on the one hand, Latino students could swing towards the "acting white" mindset. On the other hand, they could swing to the other side (see above: voluntary minorities). Which actually plays out in real life?

The Price of English Language Education

2007-12-04T16:48:00.000-05:00

Following up yesterday's news about the price of "adequate" education for Special Education students, today we learn that in Arizona, the Flores v. Arizona case has been resurrected. The legal battle, which first began 15 years ago, has had an immense impact on the way that English Language Learners are educated in the state.

In this appeal, the court will decide how much money is necessary to educate an ELL student and what, if any restrictions, can legally be placed on their English Language Education.

"Acting White" and Student Motivation

2007-12-03T15:44:00.000-05:00

Eduwonkette has an absolutely dead-on analysis of the NYC Dept. of Education's new cell phone plan and how it relates to the theory of "Acting White." I was going to leave this comment on her own site, but quickly realized that it was turning into a blog post of my own, so here goes:

Eduwonkette,

I agree with you that the battle is not getting kids to believe that education leads to better opportunities.

So here ARE some the issues that need to be addressed:

1.) Promoting a "college culture." At the affluent high school which I attended, everyone had their reach schools and safety schools picked out by spring of their Junior year. At the urban high school where I was a teacher, I had my senior students coming to me in February asking how to apply to college. There is a great lack of information in urban communities about the process of applying to college. This needs to be addressed - not just by a few assemblies for 11th graders, but by teachers, coaches, and other influencers constantly reinforcing the college message. These adults need to talk about college, their experiences, and what it takes to get in. English teachers (which I was), have a special role in this, as they can prepare their older students for the application process by assigning application essays as part of the curriculum. The students get writing practice AND learn about the admissions process - win-win.

2.) Students need to know real people who have gone to and benefited from college.

Sadly, when I surveyed my students, very few of them had friends and relatives who had graduated from 4-year colleges. So although they knew that a college education could give them better "future opportunities," that idea was a very vague concept. Students need to be able to have role models who they can point to and say, "Wow, if he hadn't gone to college, he would never have been so successful." If they have legitimate examples of the types of opportunities that college provides, this can help keep them focused on attending. And these shouldn't be from "phone messages" from the NYC Dept. of Education. They need to be from real people in their own lives. Mentoring, like you said, is essential.

3.) Students need to be able to understand the connection between their work inside school (and their behavior outside school) and their future education.

I wish that I was making this up, but when I was in the classroom, literally dozens of my students with sub-2.0 GPAs and sub 600 scores on the SATs insisted that they were eligible to attend prestigious 4-year colleges. It was not fun to explain to them the actually reality of their situation.

I think that this was caused by two things that plagued my school in particular. Firstly, teachers' bizarre and inconsistent grading were the main cause. There were numerous teachers in the school (this was well known), who would simply give everyone A's, because they didn't want to fail anybody and have to explain it to their parents. There were also teachers who assigned random grades, usually because they weren't actually teaching and had their students watch movies or do irrelevant worksheets nearly every day.

So many of my students never understood or respected the value of a grade, until they met me (or so I like to think). I remember that my first semester, almost half of my students came complaining to me about why they had failed when they had handed in 2 assignments (we had about 30 assignments per quarter). Why didn't they just get an A, since they had shown up to class and done some work?

It took a lot of effort to get them to see the correlation between their academic effort, personal behavior, and their grades. But they eventually got the message - almost all of them, anyways. And what helped is that every week, I posted their grades on the wall (anonymously, of course), so that they could see that, "Hey, I did well on my quiz, so my grade went up!" or "Wow, I missed two homework assignments, so my grade went down."

The other problem within my school was that so much attention was focused on building up kids' self-esteem, giving them second chances, and basically being their cheerleaders that nobody told them, "Hey, you are going to have to really work to get into college." There needed to be a better balance between the "You Can Do It!" mentality and the reality of how the college admission process works. And FYI, I'm not just thinking of the admissions process of highly selective schools - just of schools in general.

These are the three most prominent that I have seen in my career, but I am sure that there are others. What additional tools do you think urban students need to prepare them to do well in school and be admitted to college?

- Anne

Special Ed Vouchers in Texas

2007-12-03T10:38:00.000-05:00

A Latino family in Texas is battling their local school district to cover the cost of sending their special needs son to a private school. They allege that the school district, Coppell ISD, has not fulfilled the requirements of their son's Individualized Education Plan (IEP) and has allowed for him to suffer bullying and attacks by other students. The Dallas Morning News has the whole story, along with a brief history of this type of legal case.

The deciding word of this case will be "adequate," as in, is this child receiving an "adequate" education from his public school? If the court decides that he is not, the legal requirements of the IDEA Act will require the district to pay for his private school education.

Other states have formal programs to serve the needs of special education children. One example is Washington, DC, which follows the IDEA Act's requirements.

DC's current program pays the private school tuition of special education students who cannot be "adequately" educated within the existing public school system. This program has come under fire in the past because of its cost. Earlier this year, Mayor Adrian Fenty pledged to reform the city's special education programs that are offered in public school, so as to reduce the amount spent on sending students to private school.

In contrast, Florida offers a private school scholarship program to ALL special education students, regardless of whether or not their public schools are serving them adequately. Any student who attends a public school and has an Individualized Education Plan (IEP) is eligible. This program is called the McKay Scholarship Program.

Last year, the more than 18,000 students who participated in the McKay Scholarship Program received an average of $7,206 to attend private schools. The program has been ranked as exemplary amongst school choice supporters, especialy because of its broad reach and few participation restrictions.

Friday Blog Round Up

2007-11-30T10:45:00.000-05:00

This week's best blog entries, in no specific order:

Mary Ann Zehr on Presidential Candidates and Bilingual Education (quoting Hispanic Link).

Tech in the Class on The Importance of Technology Education. A comprehensive look at California's CTE programs and how they can be improved and expanded.

The Quick and the Ed on Same Sex Education and its impact on minority kids.

The TFA Trenches on Nationwide Assessment.

Career and Technical Education (Part II)

2007-11-29T11:45:00.000-05:00

A continuation of yesterday's "Wednesday Issue:"

When discussing CTE, we must weigh the good with the bad. For all of these benefits of these programs, I still have my questions and reservations about CTE. Primarily, I take issue with the way that CTE has been operated in the past – as a tracking system that diverts minority kids from college prep programs. With CTE, low expectations are a very dangerous temptation. (“Oh, Miguel isn’t doing well in his academic classes, but it doesn’t matter - he doesn’t need US History to be a mechanic.”) Therefore, when designing CTE programs – particularly CTE programs that will cater to minority students – there must be equal emphasis on academic instruction and career training. We must ensure that these programs are preparing our children for all of the opportunities that they will face after graduation – in both the workforce and the academic world.

My other reservations about CTE are more philosophical. While well-balanced CTE programs surely have the potential to produce students who are both technically skilled and intellectually creative, I often wonder if a focus on “marketable skills” reduces students to robot workers. Intellectual curiosity and creativity must not be sacrificed in the name of career preparation – especially since they are essential to so many careers. Having a wide exposure to different subjects and disciplines is as important as having specialized training and CTE programs must be carefully designed to include both.

Interrupting the flow..

2007-11-29T09:18:00.000-05:00

I will return to CTE later today, but before that, I wanted to put this out there:

The Pew Hispanic Center has released a report on English Usage Amongst Hispanics in the US, which can be found here.

According to the study 88% of US-born adult Latinos say that they speak and read English very well. In contrast, only 23% of foreign-born Latinos say that they speak English very well.

The study is somewhat imperfect - as its asks for mere opinion and doesn't actually measure the participants' English fluency - but it is sure to be important data for the bilingual education community.

Wednesday Issue: Career and Technical Education (Part I)

2007-11-28T10:56:00.000-05:00

When we talk about educational options, oftentimes, traditional models come to mind: charter schools, homeschooling, private schools, etc. One educational option frequently ignored, however, is career and technical education (CTE), formerly referred to as vocational/technical education. Considering the needs and values of the Latino community, CTE proves to be a very important educational option for Hispanics. Today’s analysis will take a very quick look at the positive opportunities that CTE offers to the Latino community. Tomorrow, we’ll take a more critical look at these programs and consider their flaws.

Before any real analysis can begin, however, one must understand the full breadth of the term “Career and Technical Education.” CTE is no longer just the auto mechanics class that meets in the back of the school; numerous pedagogical and institutional models fall under the category of CTE. One example is dual enrollment programs, where high school students attend college classes (and receive credit for them) while pursuing their high school diplomas. Another example is Tech Prep programs, which generally begin in the ninth grade and provide students with technical training to pursue a career in engineering, mechanics, agriculture, or a number of other fields. Students often graduate these programs with an Associate’s degree or a professional certificate in their field. Many other models exist for CTE, but all share one main purpose: prepare students to pursue higher education and a specific career field.

Although each CTE model is unique (and thus, has its own positive and negative quirks), CTE programs benefit Latino students in similar ways. Firstly, most of these programs allow students to receive college credit for the classes that they are taking. While this is an obvious “plus” for any child, it is especially helpful for Latinos whose families may struggle financially and are unable to pay college tuition. Research from the organization Excelencia in Education reveals that Latino students are much more likely than other undergraduates to be from a low-income family. Earning college credits in a CTE program can allow Latino students to “speed up” their university careers, reducing their financial obligations and making it more likely that they will graduate from college.

In addition to helping Latinos get an educational and financial “head start” on college, many of these programs equip students with marketable skills that can help them during their undergraduate careers and beyond. For example, many programs train students to work as auto mechanics. Being able to work as an auto mechanic during an undergraduate career is surely a much lucrative option than say, working at McDonald's (or the school's dining hall, like I did).

Thirdly, while I would love to see every Latino child in America (in fact, every child in America) graduate from college with a 4-year degree, that is not the wish or destiny of every student. Some students cannot or do not want to attain a bachelor’s; for these, CTE provides major opportunities. According to the Census Bureau’s most recent analysis, the average full-time worker with an Associate’s degree will earn $1.6 million over the course of his/her working life. In contrast, the average full-time worker with only a high school diploma earns a mere $1.2 million. That’s some difference. By providing students with an easy opportunity to attain an Associate’s degree or professional certificate (which also has extra earning power), CTE programs ensure a better future for that student – a future which holds not only increased earning power, but also increased employment options.

Finally, I must examine CTE from a former teacher’s perspective. Another reason why I support CTE is that students actually like it. The practical approach of these programs provides concrete goals for students to work towards and keeps them invested in their education. When I was teaching in DC, our high school had an extremely popular culinary program. This program funneled students into post-secondary culinary schools, but aside from giving them that opportunity, it kept them interested in their high school work. Needless to say, that is no small feat. Being able to engage students who have been historically alienated by our school system is one major benefit of CTE programs and, in my opinion, all the more reason to support them.

Of course, CTE programs are not perfect. Although they offer many excellent opportunities to Latino students, there are also aspects of CTE which must be criticized. Tune in tomorrow to hear more about the challenges of CTE programs.

Vouchers versus CTC Scholarships, Part II

2007-11-27T15:07:00.000-05:00

Today's goal is two-fold:

1.) Point out some of the philosophical differences between vouchers and CTC scholarships.

2.) Discuss how these philosophical differences could affect the CTC push in Utah.

Numero uno:

School choice opponents are often quick to label tax credit scholarships as "vouchers," however, in reality, the two models operate quite differently - and have different philosophical underpinnings.

Vouchers come from public tax dollars - essentially, as money "returned" to the citizen for his/her own use. Voucher systems function on the belief that individuals have the right to control how their tax dollars are used for their children's education. Generally, voucher programs are proposed as "universal" and available to all residents of a particular state. This fits with their underlying philosophy - after all, if one family has the right to decide how its tax dollars are used, all other families should have the same.

On the contrary, corporate tax credit scholarships are created by the donations of various corporations. The donating corporation is the one who receives the tax credit; the student is the individual who receives a scholarship for private school. Rather than emphasize taxpayers' rights, CTC programs emphasize a philosophy of responsible business. They are also generally targeted to a specific audience - low-income families, for example. This results in a feel-good situation for both businesses and the general public. By participating in a CTC program, businesses enjoy a tax break and the squishy "I made a difference" feeling while families receive the money they need and the comforting thought that Big Business cares.

Numero dos:

The difference between "taxpayers' rights" and a focus on philanthropy cannot be understated for the Utah case. Utah's legislators would be seriously remiss to assume that their constituents who favored vouchers will also support a CTC scholarship program. My guess, based on what happened earlier this month, is that Utah's citizens will not be particularly enthusiastic about CTC scholarships.

To back this up, I must again refer to the Salt Lake Tribune poll, which found that only 6% of Utah voucher supporters favored the program because it would "help the poor." For most voucher supporters, "parental choice" was the driving factor in their approval. However, if a CTC program is initiated, it is likely to be restricted to low-income families. Thus, it will focus exclusively on helping the poor.

It's a recipe for resistance. While voters may not decide the future of this program, they'll have plenty to say to their legislators, who will be listening.

Additional Notes:

One of the most common misconceptions and fears about the Utah voucher program was that it would "take money away from public schools." Since the CTC program clearly has nothing to do with public funds, Utahns may be much more supportive of it despite the fact that it conflicts with some of their original reasons for supporting vouchers.

I will also be watching to see how the idea of competition figures into this debate - will the proposed CTC program actually provide enough scholarships and influence to change the public system itself? We shall see...

Tomorrow Wednesday Issue is Career and Technical Education, so stay tuned for some good information and hopefully, lively discussion!

"I'm Not Dead Yet!" : Utah Voucher Update

2007-11-26T16:29:00.000-05:00

Okay, the Monty Python reference was cheap, but I decided to go for it anyway...as it appears, the Utah vouchers are NOT dead yet.

Paul Rolly of the Salt Lake Tribune is reporting that the Utah legislature is considering starting a Corporate Tax Credit (CTC) scholarship program following the defeat of voucher legislation that would have created a universal voucher program in the state.

We have seen this happen before in Pennsylvania, Arizona, and Minnesota. At one point, these states all had voucher legislation on the table, but when the legislation was defeated, the states came back with CTC scholarship programs. And they won.

So what are the chances that this program will pass? When asking yourself that important question, here are some facts to consider:

1.) This campaign will be different. First of all, let's remember that the original voucher legislation passed in the House and Senate and was signed into law by the governor. Then, and only then, was it defeated in a voter referendum. The proposed CTC scholarship program will likely never go to a voter referendum, so instead of convincing everyday citizens, the school choice movement will have to focus their efforts on people in power.

2.) The November 6th vote will have a major effect. School choice suffered a major defeat in the voter referendum - a defeat which could alter the outcome of this (possible) legislation in two ways. On the one hand, the voucher defeat could motivate Utahn legislators who support school choice to re-commit themselves to the cause and ensure that the CTC program is passed and protected.. On the other hand, a 60/40 vote against the voucher program is difficult for legislators to ignore. Well, it's difficult for legislators who want to please their constituents to ignore. Granted, the CTC program is not a voucher program, but polls show that the general public is not very well informed on school choice programs; therefore, the nuances of vouchers vs. CTC just might be too much for them.

3.) The NEA still has lobbyists. Tying in to the fact that the general public is uninformed about school choice programs, we must expect that the NEA will vilify the CTC program as an underhanded way to get vouchers into Utah. Not that I'm trying to give them any ideas; I'm sure they're already thinking that. So the school choice side must be prepared with a strong strategy to educate our legislators about the benefits of the CTC program and how it differs from vouchers.

I'm sure I missed a few points there, so please chime in.

Tomorrow I'll take a deeper look at the history of CTC scholarship program legislation in Arizona, Minnesota, and Pennsylvania to explain how Utah can move forward. I'll also ask the more philosophical question: Should CTC scholarships be accepted as a "consolation prize" after the defeat of a voucher program?

Wednesday Issue: Guestblogger Dan Lips on NCLB

2007-11-21T10:43:00.000-05:00

Guestblogger Dan Lips, an Education Analyst at the Heritage Foundation, takes the reins today to share his views on NCLB and its effects on Hispanic children*:

Here’s a fact you probably won’t see in your local newspaper: Half of all Hispanic children in public schools in this country can not read or write the English language. Will Congress and the American people wake up to this grim reality before Congress makes a big mistake in its new version of No Child Left Behind?

The 2007 National Assessment of Educational Progress reveals the depth of the crisis in education for Hispanic children. It reports that 50 percent of Hispanic fourth grade students scored “below basic” in reading. Given that statistic, it is no surprise that only 59 percent of Hispanic girls and 48 percent of Hispanic boys end up graduating from high school.

Yet parents shouldn’t look to Congress for an immediate solution. True, Congress is about to decide whether and how to reauthorize No Child Left Behind, which was originally intended to address the problem of low expectations facing many minority students. The law was designed to hold schools accountable for results through annual testing and by giving students trapped in low-performing schools the opportunity to transfer into higher performing schools.

But after five years, NCLB hasn’t solved the problems in American education. Evidence suggests that federal high-stakes testing has led some states to change how their tests are graded, making it difficult for parents to understand whether their children are making progress. Some states have simply lowered standards to make their test easier to pass.

Early discussions on Capitol Hill suggest that NCLB will become worse, not better, if Congress moves forward with reauthorization. Some of the changes that are being considered would put Hispanic children further behind in the classroom. In particular, draft legislation released by Education and Labor Committee Chairman George Miller (D–CA) would change current testing policies to give states more leeway in how English language learners are tested. Specifically, the new proposal would reform existing law to allow states to use more subjective portfolio assessments and native language tests for five or more years to measure whether children are learning.

This change would force public schools across the country to make a tough decision: tackle the challenge of teaching Spanish-speaking children English so they can pass regular exams or take the easier path of using native-language tests and portfolio assessments. Because NCLB would continue to pressure schools with high-stakes state tests, federal law would provide an incentive for states to choose the easier path. The result: Fewer Hispanic children would learn the critical skills of reading, writing, and speaking English at an early age.

If Congress doesn’t have the answer, what can be done to address the crisis facing Hispanic children in the classroom? Fortunately, there is a promising solution.

A growing number of states and communities are enacting school choice policies that let parents use their children’s share of public education funding to choose the best school for their child. This gives parents the power to ensure that their children receive a quality education. If a child isn’t thriving in his or her current classroom, parents can pick a new school where the child will receive a better education. Giving parents choices puts pressure on schools to succeed.

And giving parents more control in education is a popular idea. For example, a recent poll conducted by Harvard University researchers found that school choice reforms are popular among Hispanics. Sixty percent of Hispanics support providing school vouchers to disadvantaged students, and 54 percent support giving all children scholarships to transfer out of failing schools.

For far too long, parents have been waiting for government and politicians to fix our schools. Instead, government and politicians should give parents a chance by letting them choose the best school for their children.

From the Daily Grito: I agree with Dan that NCLB is an imperfect law, but I don't necessarily believe that NCLB and school choice are mutually exclusive reform strategies. Although parents should have more educational options (and children have the chance to attend better schools NOW, not ten years from now), I also see the accountability of NCLB as a positive measure to improve public schools. Certainly, NCLB can be improved, but I don't think that it should be abandoned. In an ideal world, America's public schools would be so phenomenal that they would satisfy every child's learning needs. But since they aren't there yet, let's work on improving them while we give children other options and a fighting chance.

* Please note that this has also been published in the Heritage Foundation's Education Notebook.

Amigos Por Vida In the News

2007-11-20T10:41:00.000-05:00

Amigos Por Vida Charter School, an affiliate organization of Hispanic CREO, made this morning's Houston Chronicle. Congratulations to them!

If you missed last week's exclusive interview with Carlos Villagrana, the school's director, you can find it right here.

FYI: Amigos Por Vida is a charter school in the Gulfton area of Houston, Texas, which is one of the poorest neighborhoods of the city. The school has triumphed over its initial mismanagement and the challenges of serving a largely low-income and minority student population to achieve great results with its children. The school serves mostly Latino students and has seen enormous success with its dual immersion language program.

IQ/Insanity Tests for Utah's Voters - So which is it?

2007-11-19T17:03:00.000-05:00

Patrick Byrne, CEO of Overstock.com and a tireless school choice supporter, published a strongly worded op-ed in Saturday's Salt Lake Tribune, sounding his own "grito" against Utah's declining education system. The rhetoric is strong and maybe off-putting to some, but his righteous anger is something to be admired.

Here's the problem, though: Byrne's argument is that Utah's schools are not working for low-income and minority students and thus, Utah needs school choice. While this is true, we already know that not even the voters who supported the vouchers did so because of a concern for poor/Latino/African-American children. Thus, we have a marketing problem on our hands. Byrne is missing an opportunity to connect with voters and tap into their value system as a way to motivate them to vote for vouchers.

There are better arguments. The Tribune's polls show that voucher opponents in Utah were largely frightened that the voucher program would take money away from public schools. I can affirm this; while I was in Utah, every Referendum One opponent that I spoke with cited the argument "Vouchers take money away from public schools." Every. single. one.

So while I understand that Byrne was speaking on his own behalf - and probably not thinking about how to best "market" the school choice cause - his words still raise some imoortant questions for those of us involved in school choice. It may seem ironic and counter-intuitive, but perhaps the best way to GET school choice for low-income and minority students is actually to focus less on those students themselves and more on the worries of the voters.

A Gap Here, A Gap There..

2007-11-15T15:58:00.000-05:00

Much news is being heard about yesterday's Achievement Gap Summit in CA, but I like the points that Philip of the Education Policy Blog makes in his post about the many other "gaps" in our society that contribute to the achievement gap. This is the first time that I have seen these "gaps" listed out in a concise yet effective way.

I agree with Philip - I think most would - and I'll also add my two cents as a former teacher. In the schools where I taught in Philadelphia and DC, I saw the impact of these gaps each and every day. They affected what I taught and how I taught it, how I related to my students and how they related to me; overall, they were a huge influence in my classroom. I would imagine that many inner-city teachers experience the same.

Yet despite this fact, these "gaps" were never discussed in my teacher training. My traditional education classes didn't address the issue and neither did my inner-city specific TFA training. If these "gaps" were discussed at all, it was in the most cursory way; for example, I remember being told "Your students might be too poor to afford food, so keep some pretzels in your room." But did we discuss that issue any further? Unfortunately, we did not.

On a classroom level, our current and future teachers must be better prepared to understand these "gaps" and how our society's general ills will affect themselves and their students. On a societal level, I see a real need for partnerships between educators and people from other industries and institutions. Teachers, who deal with these gaps every day, must be heard on these issues and their ideas for change must be taken seriously.

CEP on ELLs in AZ (abbreviation fun!)

2007-11-14T10:21:00.000-05:00

The Center for Education Policy released a report today on how Arizona's high school exit exams are affecting ELLs in that state.

CEP took a look at five AZ high schools to determine the challenges that ELLs face with the exit exams (lack of information, limited English proficiency, lack of resources, etc.) and includes a number of recommendations that AZ can use to improve ELLs' achievement on this test.

Unfortunately, the study presents no conclusions on how the exit exams affect graduation rates or post-secondary opportunities for ELL students. This is due, CEP states, to a lack of accurate data, as the exit exam was first administered in 1999 and the first diplomas were withheld only in 2006. So that's something to keep an eye on for the future - I'd like to see some follow up on how these exams affect ELLs future career and educational options.

Wednesday Interview: Carlos Villagrana of Amigos Por Vida

2007-11-14T09:58:00.000-05:00

In the Gulfton community of Houston, Texas, Mr. Carlos Villagrana is moving montañas as the principal of Amigos Por Vida/Friends for Life Charter School.

Amigos Por Vida serves a unique population of students. Of the 430 students in grades PreK – 7, 99% are Hispanic, 1% are African-American, 98% live below the poverty line, and 94% are classified as Limited English Proficient. While such numbers would present an impossible challenge to some schools, Amigos Por Vida has proven that it can beat the odds.

Last year, Amigos Por Vida produced impressive TAKS test scores and was awarded the Governor’s Excellence Award, a Financial Accountability Rating of Superior Achievement, and the State’s Gold Performance Acknowledgement in Math and Attendance.

I spoke with Mr. Villagrana this week to learn the keys to his school’s success and how Amigos Por Vida is helping its Latino students achieve excellent results.

1.) Tell me a little bit about the history of your school.

Amigos Por Vida is in the Gulfton community of Houston, which is an area that is known for being poor, young and Hispanic. In this neighborhood, 11% of the population are children under the age of five, so having quality schools is very important. Before we built our school, many children were being bused out of the area to attend school, because the schools here were so overcrowded.

Amigos Por Vida was founded in 1999 as a new option for parents who didn't want to send their children out of the neighborhood for school. Unfortunately, it was mismanaged during its first few years and didn't offer a quality education to its students. Luckily, this changed when the Board of Directors decided to turn the school around with major staffing and administration changes.

Now, Amigos Por Vida is a very successful school and we are fulfilling our promise to give the Gulfton community a good charter school option.

2.) Does Amigos Por Vida face any special challenges in educating its children?

At this point, our biggest challenge is our facilities. As a state charter school, we do not receive any funding for facilities. The apartment complex where Amigos is located cannot accommodate any more classrooms and we have to make room for 8th grade next year.

3.) What innovative techniques have you used to improve your school?

The implementation of our dual language immersion program has been instrumental in our school’s success.

4.) Why did you choose to implement the dual-language immersion program? ]
In trying to meet the needs of the community, we realized that most of our students came to us speaking only Spanish and that we needed to also focus on developing English from day one. When looking at bilingual programs, the research was very clear and showed us that dual immersion programs were what would help our students become successful.

5.) What kind of success have you seen with the dual-language program?

Our students have consistently achieved high scores on the TAKS (Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills) and the TELPAS (Texas English Language Proficiency Assessment System).

Blogger's Note: Click here to find out Amigos Por Vida's 2007 TAKS scores. Look for the abbreviation "Pct. Met Std." to see the percentage of students who passed each exam.

6.) How do you encourage parents and community members to be involved in your students’ education?

We offer night classes for parents and community members on Monday and Wednesday for them to complete GED and also receive ESL and technology applications courses. During the day, our counselor does a great job of offering volunteer opportunities to parents. As part of our 21st Century grant we also offer parenting classes, ESL and a women’s craft class during the day.

7.) Do you have any plans to expand Amigos Por Vida Charter School in the next few years?
Our primary goal right now is to find a permanent home for the school. After that happens, we are very interested in working with other communities in Houston and other parts of the state.

8.) What advice would you offer to other educators who serve Latino or minority populations?
My advice is to find ways to be an advocate for our students. One of the reason I came to work at Amigos Por Vida was to improve the quality of education our students were receiving and create a school where students and parents excel. I think if I was not here at Amigos, I would be getting involved in what ever way I felt I could empower our community.

School Choice and Hispanic Dropouts

2007-11-13T09:26:00.000-05:00

The National Center for Policy Analysis has a report out about how school choice can decrease the number of Hispanic dropouts in the US.

I certainly think that the report could be more thorough; for example, its mentions only charters and open enrollment public schools as "choice options" (no private schools, homeschooling, virtual schools, etc.). That said, it is a good and very basic primer for anyone interested.

Blog Roundup

2007-11-08T16:46:00.000-05:00

The Roundup is short this week, since most bloggers seem to be posting about Utah (and most saying about the same thing), so here you go!

Brian Shelley with an impassioned plea for choice.

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on school choice as pathway to Americanization

* It features our affiliate, St. Anthony School!

Whitney Tilson on teacher training.

Hispanic Journalists Weigh In on 2008 Race

2007-11-08T14:40:00.000-05:00

Home from Utah, recovering from the loss (and jet lag), and diving back into the game:

Juan Tornoe of Hispanic Trending reports on Hispanic PR Wire's recently released poll which reveals Hispanic journalists' "hot button issues" for the 2008 presidential election. Immigration tops the list, with 47% of respondents claiming it as the top issue for Latino voters, followed by the war in Iraq, health care and the economy, and all the way at the bottom....education, with a mere 11% listing it as a top issue.

A few months back, the National Council of la Raza and the Ed in 08 campaign conducted a similar poll, but found the opposite results. 89% of their poll respondents indicated that improving public education should be a "top priority" of our nation's next president and that education ranked higher on their list of concerns than health care and the war.

So what's the disconnect?

Of course, this could be simple demographics issue - the Hispanic PR Wire poll was obviously not random - but it could also signify more than that.

What is the disconnect between Latino voters from different socio-economic classes? What is the disconnect between the Latino media and the rest of the Latino population?

Maybe we need a little more exploration into what "The Latino Vote" really means - and how varied it can be.

T Minus 1 Day: Utah Voucher Melee

2007-11-04T09:44:00.000-05:00

Tomorrow, Utah's citizens will vote on one of the most controversial and innovative programs to be recently proposed in their state. Their collective "yay" or "nay" will determine whether or not a new universal voucher program will be created and opened to all the children in Utah.

With only one day to convince undecided voters, both sides are working in full-gear, frantically trying to win over the public. I should know this, because I've spent the past three days in Utah and I'm just not sure I can stand to watch another NEA-sponsored commercial while trying to enjoy my late-night "Meerkat Manor."

All joking aside, the media efforts of both sides are impressive. Salt Lake is literally covered in pro- and anti-voucher propaganda, from highway signs to flyers to radio and TV ads. The voucher yard signs are even competing for space with the mayoral candidates' signs. It almost seems as if there is no other issue on the ballot this year.

And while these PR campaigns seem to be well crafted for their main audience - the White, middle-class population of Utah - they are missing a critical segment of the state's population - Latinos. Hispanics comprise 13% of Utah's population and arguably, are the group that stands to benefit the most from the voucher legislation. All this adds up to a powerful vote. So why isn't anyone reaching out to Latinos?

Here are two possible obstacles (and some ideas on how school choice groups can work around them):

1.) A perceived language barrier.

School choice groups may reluctant to reach out to Latinos because of the time and resources involved in producing bilingual materials and advertisements. However, according to the US Census, only 3.5% of Utah's population speaks only Spanish (no English) at home. Therefore, choice groups could continue to produce materials in English and reach a large segment of the Latino population. However, their materials will have to be tailored to the Latino population - could I please get a single Latino face in a voucher commercial? It would be nice.

As a former teacher, I also have to add this: give your audience materials that they can actually read. Materials written at a college level may look sophisticated and thus, “credible,” but if the community can’t read them, they’re essentially worthless. You CAN write about school choice at a 5th grade level (I have!), but you’ll need to be creative with your style.

2.) Irrelevant outreach tactics.

Blogs, You Tube videos, and newspaper Op-eds are great, but they are not necessarily the best ways to reach a Latino audience. In this community, face time is still the best way to get your message across. The voucher debate is big in new and traditional media, but few groups are attempting any grassroots work. This is a critical strategy for the Hispanic community. Utah's Latinos need information about the issue, but they also need to know about the voting process, how to register to vote, and the impact of their vote. To truly convince Latino voters of their political power and get them to exercise that vote, you have to work in the community, get to know the voters, and be available (and able) to walk them through the process.

Any other ideas? I would love to hear them.

Note: Another interesting article to consider is yesterday's Salt Lake Tribune poll on why Utahans support or oppose vouchers. It's good data to consider when we're developing our marketing and outreach strategies.

So many blogs, so little time...

2007-11-02T05:23:00.000-04:00

Ever wish there was a way to catch up on the blogging you missed this week? Well, now there is!

At least, partially. Here's the Friday Blog Round-Up of the most interesting/provocative blog entries of the week.

Gabrielle at Fordham Fellows: The Teacher-as-Martyr Mindset

Megan McArdle at the Atlantic Monthly: Starts the Voucher Melee
Matthew Yglesias at the Atlantic Monthly: Joins the Voucher Melee

Phillip at the Education Policy Blog: Outlining Democrat/Independent Ed. Orgs.

Business Leaders Unite to Solve Latino Education Crisis in Utah

2007-11-01T14:52:00.000-04:00

Official report:

In Salt Lake City this morning, several business leaders joined with Competitive America to pledge their support in solving the Latino education crisis in Utah. Latinos, who comprise 12% of Utah’s population, drop out of high school at astounding rates – approximately 40 to 50 percent each year.

“This is a state crisis, which is why these Latino business leaders are coming together. Ask any business leader and they’ll tell you the negative impact an uneducated workforce has on their company,” said Julio Fuentes, vice president of Competitive America. “Failing so many Latino students by not getting them the education they need will be a drain on the state’s economy for decades to come.”

Despite the fact that college degrees have become increasingly necessary in the labor market, only about 12% of Latinos nationwide actually hold a degree in higher education. Competitive America is a national coalition of business leaders concerned about this crisis and its future effects on the workforce and the American economy.

In addition to Fuentes, other participants in the press conference included: Tony Yapias, former director of the state office of Hispanic affairs and a public school parent, Marco Diaz, former chairman of the Utah Republican National Hispanic Assembly and newly-elected vice chairman of the National Republican Hispanic Assembly, Antonella Packard, president of the Latin American Chamber of Commerce, Quiko Cornejo, founder of the Utah Minority Community Information and Education Center and Claudia Burnet, a Utah parent.

Unofficial commentary:

I like to see coalitions like Competitive America taking on the Latino education crisis, because it really drives home the fact that our education system - its failures and its successes - affects the rest of our society. Business leaders should be concerned about how our nation's schools are working, because the students sitting in today's classrooms will be their future workers. They should be especially concerned about the Latino population as the fastest-growing minority group in the country.

Involving groups like Competitive America in the ed reform debate helps us maintain a wide perspective on the problem - and its possible solutions. I'll be the first to admit that it's sometimes difficult to take a panoramic view on how different reforms affect our society - too often, I am primarily concerned with how a specific reform strategy will affect a group of kids, a school, or a district. It is a challenge (a daily and necessary challenge) to view these efforts in light of the positive results that they can offer to our country's economy, justice system, social services, etc. So that's what I take away from Competitive America - a challenge to keep a wide perspective.

And of course, in the interest of full disclosure, I should mention that Competitive America is a project of CREO, but were it not, I would be fond of it anyway.

The Daily Grito's Comment Policy

2007-11-01T09:18:00.000-04:00

We encourage comments and debate on the issues discussed in the Daily Grito, but please keep basic etiquette in mind as you leave your thoughts. Inappropriate comments – for example, any containing profanity, personal attacks or “trolling” – will be deleted. Please do not use this blog to advertise your company product either. If you have questions or concerns, please e-mail the Daily Grito.

Welcome to the Daily Grito!

2007-11-01T09:17:00.001-04:00

Hola and welcome to the Daily Grito! In Spanish, the word “grito” mean a cry or a call to action. This blog is Hispanic CREO’s daily call to action on the Latino education crisis. It will be a resource for the Latino community, the education reform community and other interested readers, offering timely, relevant information about how education reform efforts affect America’s Hispanic students.

The Daily Grito is written by Anne Guarnera, Membership and Communications Coordinator of Hispanic CREO. Guest bloggers will also contribute on an occasional basis. On Wednesdays and Fridays, the blog will host special features. Wednesdays will be Issue/Interview days, and will feature either an in-depth analysis of an education reform issue OR an interview with a Latino or education reform leader (and, of course, individuals who fit into both of those categories). Fridays will feature the Blog Round-Up of the best education blog posts from that week.

Hispanic CREO is a non-profit, non-partisan organization; thus, any opinions expressed here should be considered the standpoints of their writer(s) and not of Hispanic CREO.

I welcome your feedback on this blog and am always grateful for tips, links, comments, article suggestions and guest blogger suggestions. All correspondence is of, course, confidential. You can reach me at hcreoblog@gmail.com.

So welcome – or bienvenidos – and enjoy the Daily Grito!