Introducing our 2021 Academia Cuauhtli Summer Camp — Aztech Kidz Code team!

So proud of our students, teachers, and volunteers organizing for organizing our first annual AzTECH Kids Code Summer Coding Camp at Academia Cuauhtli (meaning "Eagle Academy" in Nahuatl) that combines teaching kids how to code, gaming, and Aztec dance/ danza Mexica at the City of Austin's Emma S. Barrientos Mexican American Cultural Center (ESB-MACC).

Our students, families, and community-based organization, "Nuestro Grupo," are very appreciative of support we have received for this initiative from the Austin Independent School District, as well as from Grantmakers for Girls of Color. AISD has been a faithful long-term partner and we cannot be more pleased of their willingness to take our work to new places. Thanks, Dr. David Kauffman, for your unflagging support of Academia Cuauhtli.

 

The Academia Cuauhtli-AzTECH Kids Code camp is a project-based, culturally sustaining STEM program for second to sixth grade students attending Academia Cuauhtli and AISD schools. Through this program that runs for the entire week, our students are learning the following: coding, video game design, digital monetization via application store, Danza Mexica, (Aztec ceremony or dance) and Nahuatl mathematical systems. 

 

Comprised of 16 Latina girls and four Latino boys, all of our students are immigrant or first generation, immigrant bilingual learner students. Due to COVID-19 regulations set in place by the City of Austin, we had to cap our class size to 20 students this summer, taking all the precautions and abiding by all the protocols laid out, of course. One class of 10 is taught in Spanish. The other class of 10 in English. Next year, we hope to double our students and make it a two-week summer program. 

A special shout out to AzTECH Kids founder, Azteca Sirias and head organizer, Maria Unda, for their hard work, initiative, and vision. Thanks to all the teachers pictured below, as well. 

It's no small thing to think big like this in the throes of a pandemic and bring much happiness to young students whose lives we touch—and whose lives touch ours.

Thanks, as well, to Emma S. Barrientos Mexican American Cultural Center Director Michelle Rojas, Olivia Tamzarian, Lori Navarrete, Ulises Garcia and all the staff at the ESB-MACC where the camp is happening and where our Saturday school, Academia Cuauhtli, is located.  

Our AzTECH Kids are a joy and this work, a labor of love. 💗

-Angela Valenzuela

#AcademiaCuauhtli  | #AztechKidzCode

Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AcademiaCuauhtli

Studies show lack of Latino teachers in the U.S. is a growing issue

Here is the key point of this March 13, 2018 article that underscores the depth of the current crisis.  

"The percentage of Latino teachers nationwide lags far behind the fast-growing percentage of Latino students in the nation’s public school system."  

Many of us are working to address this through Grow Your Own educator projects. Academia Cuauhtli, which is now entering its 6th year, is one such project. 

By "grow," we mean both creating pathways into the teaching profession and growing teachers' critical consciousness.  That is, as community-based organizations, colleges and universities, we work closely with schools and school districts to establish partnerships, provide professional development opportunities for K-12 teachers, as well as offer curriculum and pedagogy at the higher education level that is social justice, community-centered, place-based, and interdisciplinary in ways that map onto the burgeoning movement for Ethnic Studies—locally, as well as nationally.

Very exciting work.  More on all of this in the weeks and months to come.

Sí se puede!  Yes we can!

-Angela Valenzuela

#GYOteachers

Studies show lack of Latino teachers in the U.S. is a growing issue

Despite comprising a quarter of the student population in U.S. schools, Latinos account for just eight percent of teachers. Schools across the country want to know: How can that be changed? 

By Emily Neil | March 13, 2018 | Al Día Education

Emily Neil

According to a recent study from the Center for American Progress released in February, the percentage of Latino teachers nationwide lags far behind the fast-growing percentage of Latino students in the nation’s public school system. Though Latino students make up almost a quarter of the student population in schools nationwide, and that number is expected to grow, only about eight percent of teachers throughout the country identify as Latino. 

The study shows that California has the widest gap between the percentages of Latino students and teachers, at 36.4 percent. Pennsylvania is in the lower half of state rankings, with a gap of 7.9 percent. 

The disproportionate lack of Latino teachers causes problems for both Latino teachers and students, a report from the Education Trust, also released in February, found. Of the sample of 90 teachers from five states and the District of Columbia who were participated in focus groups as part of the Education Trust study, many reported that they are relied upon in their school communities to spend additional time and effort providing translation and interpretation for parents and staff — a role which on top of teaching responsibilities makes for a heavy workload, especially if they might be one of only a few bilingual teachers and staff members at a school where the majority of parents are Spanish-speaking. 

For students, the gap means that they are not often able to see themselves represented in teaching positions and positions of authority. Latino students currently lag behind other groups in graduation rates from both high school and institutions of higher education. Studies have shown that for students of color, having teachers that reflect their identities has the benefit of providing them with role models, higher standards for their own efforts, and a deeper cultural understanding of the context of their lives and backgrounds.

The gap could grow even more. According to some reports, an estimated 20,000 teachers are eligible for DACA or are current DACA recipients, and of these 20,000 about 90 percent are Latino. If, barring congressional legislation, the Trump administration’s injunction to end the program is upheld or enacted, the loss of these already certified and experienced Latino teachers would be a blow to creating a more diverse teacher population. 

The CAP study concluded with recommendations for continuing to address the diversity gap for Latino teachers by recruiting more and maintaining those Latino teachers that are already working in the system. The recommendations include: passage of a clean Dream Act; increasing federal funding to attract more Latinos to teaching; and developing high-quality alternative teaching certification programs that would attract more Latinos. 

“Grow Your Own” programs are pointed out by the Education Trust report as one example of a successful effort to put that last recommendation into action. School districts in Texas, Illinois, California, and other states have begun to implement these programs, which support paraprofessionals, classroom aides, and other support staff in schools — a group shown to be more representative of Latinos and other populations - with tuition assistance and other services in order to attain their teacher certification.

Local Education Leaders Meet to Discuss Growing Our Own Educators Today at UT's College of Education

Friends,

Great news!  We had such a productive meeting today at UT involving leaders from the Austin Independent School District (AISD), Austin Community College (ACC), and our own College of Education at the University of Texas at Austin (UT).

We took the first step in exploring possibilities in forming a partnership to Grow our Own (GYO) educators in order to address teacher shortage areas in our district and in so doing, to help forge a national model that could get replicated elsewhere.  Among other things, we are envisioning pathways for bilingual/dual language teachers from both high schools and paraprofessional ranks to ACC and UT. 

Photo Credit: Claire Bush

Pictured here from left to right in the front is Dr. Nora Comstock, ACC Trustee; Dr. Lorna Hermosura, who recently earned her doctorate from the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy (ELP); yours truly, Angela Valenzuela; Delina Zapata, second-year doctoral student in ELP; Norma A. Castillo, Director of Talent Acquisition in AISD; Dr. Molly Beth Malcolm, Executive Vice President of Campus Operations and Public Affairs at ACC; and ACC Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs Charles M. Cook. Standing in the back are UT College of Education Dean Charles Martinez and ACC President Richard Rhodes.

A very special shout out to all the folks in NLERAP (pronounced "nel-rap"), namely, the National Latino Education Research and Policy Project where I serve as director of a consortium that involves universities and GYO efforts throughout the country.  Dr. Barbara Flores, Cal State San Bernardino, and Dr. Margarita Machado-Casas, at San Diego State University, serve as chair and vice-chair of our NLERAP non-profit. It makes a difference to have GYO as our singular initiative and to lead nationally in this regard.

NLERAP's vision for growing our own equity-based, critically conscious educators is what has motivated so much of our work at Academia Cuauhtli (Nahuatl for "Eagle Academy"), our Saturday school, in Austin, Texas.  Our school is located at the Emma S. Barrientos Mexican American Cultural Center (ESB-MACC) and is itself a formal-legal partnership, involving AISD, the City of Austin's ESB-MACC, and Nuestro Grupo, our community-based organization that operates it.  

Unless we hear otherwise, Academia Cuauhtli is the only Mexican American Studies program at the elementary school level in the state of Texas, with mostly UT graduate students from the College of Education donating their time and efforts to it—primarily on a volunteer basis.  Thanks to AISD's Dr. David Kauffman, Executive Director of Multilingual Education, and Superintendent Paul Cruz for their many years of support of this initiative. 

Special thanks to Nora Comstock, Dean Charles Martinez, and Dr. Victor Saenz for their unflagging support and shared vision.  Thanks, as well, to AISD's Norma Castillo for her excellent grasp of what we can do locally that is promising of great success. Our colleagues at ACC were equally welcoming and excited about working as partners to create educator pathways for high school students and paraprofessionals. 

Delina Zapata also merits recognition for her hard work in pulling materials together in preparation for this meeting.  Finally, none of this would have gotten done without Claire Bush, Dean Martinez’ Senior Administrative Associate, who pulled off this mid-Summer convening of very busy people together while making it all seem so effortless.

This long-awaited meeting was nothing short of historic in what already has the earmarks of a veritable dream team.  Now the real work begins!  I’ll keep everybody posted as things progress.

-Angela Valenzuela