Latino Parent Involvement

One of the greatest indicators of student success is the involvement of parents in their child's education.  There is a broad range of parent involvement from very passive strategies, like showing encouragement to more engaged strategies, like assisting with homework and being actively involved in the PTA.  Moreover, there is evidence that parent mobilizing--based off of traditional community organizing models--have been effective in changing school, district and even statewide educational policies. 

Recent focus groups that my colleague and I conducted with Latino high school and college students suggest that Latino parents tend to be involved with their child's education in a more passive way.   Most of the responses we received from students indicate that parents are passively involved by showing encouragement to their students--meaning that parents give positive reinforcement when their children are performing well and give tough love to their children as a way of corrective action when they are not performing well.  When asked if (Latino) parents were providing help with homework or involved in a more engaged way the most typical response was "no."  So, what is the reason behind a general lack of engaged parent involvement?  The language barrier.

Most of the students we interviewed had monolingual, Spanish speaking parents that had difficulty interpreting homework assignments and correspondence sent home by the school. However, the most significant barrier to engaged parent involvement cited by students was the absence of Spanish speaking teachers and administrators at their schools.  One student suggested:  "My mom really would like to be involved at my school, but she has a hard time communicating with the teachers there.  They don't understand what she is saying, so she just stopped going (to the school)."  

Obviously, there are many other barriers to engaged parent involvement, such as stricter district-level school security measures; overwhelmed parents working 2-3 jobs to support their families; a failure of some Latino parents to learn English; and parental apathy.  However, the issue underscores the need to have more bilingual educators and administrators, specifically in schools with traditionally large populations of Latino students.  In line with President-elect Obama's plan at merit-based teacher pay, we need to look at providing incentives for bilingual educators and administrators to work in high-density Latino schools.  Even further, we need to promote bilingualism for incoming teachers entering our post-secondary institutions.  The Latino population in America is growing at an astounding rate.  This coupled with a global economy, places greater need for bilingual and multilingual workers.

So, hopefully we do not lose sight of the need for more bilingual educators as we seek to reform our public education system.  

    

Joe's Kids Need an Education

The latest diversion on the campaign trail these days is Joe the Plumber, otherwise known as Jose el plomero here in the southwest.  Another empty attempt at diverting from one of the most critical issues of our time.......our nation's education crisis.  The stock market roller coaster ride we have been on for the last month (maybe this is not a good metaphor since roller coasters do go up) has prompted us to veer off the path of education reform that is needed to make America competitive in the global market.

Education and our economy are linked tighter than George and Weezie or Bush and failed policies.  Without a competitive education system, the disparities between those prospering and those living in poverty will continue to grow.  On the campaign trail, the candidates have feigned the issue for the most part.  Sen. Barack Obama has been the more vocal of the two, focusing on parental involvement, rewarding good teachers and the growth and expansion of the charter school movement.  Sen. McCain glances over this issue speaking primarily about what has been done in Washington D.C. with vouchers.  First of all, as a macro-level strategy, vouchers will invariably create a problem of supply vs. demand.  

In our current context, most of our nations schools-- particularly inner city schools-- are underperforming under the guise of No Child Left Behind. These schools often times are also the most densely populated.  So, if young people attending these schools decide to transfer to a higher performing school, we face a challenge of bandwidth since higher performing schools will probably not have the capacity to take on increased numbers of students.  Thus, vouchers at best can be a small part of the solution.  

We have to take action on education reform by setting higher standards for our students.  We also have to look at this issue holistically by focusing on empowering families; engaging students using multiple intelligences approaches; making teaching a valued profession in American culture; creating smaller learning communities where students have more individualized attention from teachers; and extending the learning day whereby students can participate in engaging educational opportunities before and after school. 

Joe the Plumber may not have anyone to pass the family business on to if his children are not prepared for an evolving global economy.