Next year, students of Hispanic descent will be a majority in the public schools of Texas. Yet the voices of Latino parents, educators, and advocates are seldom heard in legislative hearings. Instead, it is usually business leaders calling the shots.
A new organization called the Latino Coalition for Educational Equality has emerged to express their views and to release the results of a survey.
What issues are at the top of their agenda: adequate funding and well-prepared teachers.
“School finance is, by far, the biggest priority the groups identified, and the report summary echoes a lot of what the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF) has argued in its piece of the everlasting school finance lawsuit: that Texas’ school funding is based on what lawmakers want to spend, not what a quality education actually costs, and that cuts in school funding have meant scaling back bilingual education programs.
“Interestingly, the teachers surveyed here are all bilingual teachers—either working in school districts or enrolled in teacher prep programs—and they were far more concerned with teacher quality, school accountability and access to books than school funding. Lopez says that’s a reflection of their more direct interaction with classrooms. “School finance obviously is intertwined in every issue,” she says. “You can’t advocate for more materials and more appropriate materials or resources without it being a school finance issue.”
“Teachers and advocates also agreed, according to the report, that “increasing the number of well-prepared Latina/o teachers” should be a top priority—a finding that squares with research suggesting that Hispanic teachers tend to stay in high-needs schools longer, bringing stability to classrooms as well as a cultural relevancy that helps students relate to lessons.
“It’s also worth noting what’s not listed among the top priorities: charter school chains, vouchers and full-time online schools, which the report dismisses as “privatization experiment efforts” that siphon money away from the schools most kids attend. In other words, if you ask Latino teachers and activists—and not Sen. Dan Patrick—there are plenty of “civil rights issues of our time” more pressing than school choice.
“It’s not that teachers and advocates were opposed to charter schools or any particular group of reformers, Lopez says, just those “who come in who have no historical participation in a community, and see it as a potential market.”
If you would like to see scientific evidence that Hispanic students can be developed into upper middle class solid contributors to society, look at the quarter century track record of the Hobart Shakespeareans developed by Rafe Esquith.
The fact that each of his fifth graders comes from broken homes which are usually non-English speaking and in the most dire poverty conditions in the nation become immaterial.
Rafe’s kids become well cultured hard working team members that thrive in society and pay a lot of taxes while building their respective communities.
It might make sense to consider emulating his successful protocols, which are fully disclosed in his several books, which eliminate the need for the curious to call him to ask questions. Rafe has no support staff other than his exceptionally effective wife, Barbara.
The expectation of graduating from high school at his school, Hobart Elementary in LA, is
30%. Rafe has one of the lowest salaries at Hobart Elementary School, one of the largest elementary schools in the nation.
Roughly half of Rafe’s kids are Hispanic, roughly half are Korean. Students are randomly assigned to Room 56, but each is offered an escape from poverty as they work so incredibly hard and act so nice to their peers.
Rafe’s protocols are effective and they eliminate poverty for those who comply with the protocols.
“The expectation of graduating from high school at his school, Hobart Elementary in LA, is 30%.”
Does this mean that 30% children who enter the school — at K, or some later grade — ultimately graduate from the school?
Based on the little bit I’ve read on the Internet about this school, I have a very hard time imagining that many commenters here would approve of its methods.
Your statement is probably true.
Rafe Esquith: Inspirational teacher! Doesn’t lose focus on the long-term affects of student outcome which he strives for in the presents of his teaching.
I would like to highlight the point that access to education is a civil rights issue. As to the matter of choices between public, online, private, charter, etc. – the matter draws many parallels to needing a court appointed lawyer. Stay with me here… Not only do you have a right to a court appointed lawyer, but if your court appointed lawyer i.e. sleeps through the trial, or clearly does not prepare a defense then that is the same as not getting a lawyer! Similarly – how can a poorly funded school with no ability to provide materials or professional development opportunities for its teachers provide the best possible education?
This is an unfair burden to place on the school, when they are given none of the tools necessary to follow-through.