This blog on Texas education contains posts on higher education, as well as preK-12 policy accountability, testing, bilingual education, immigration, school finance, race, class, and gender issues at both the state and national level. It also represents my digital footprint, of life and career, as a community-engaged scholar in Texas.
Susana Almanza, Jessica Ochoa & Rosa Tupina Yaotonalcuauhtli
Drs. Emilio Zamora, Pauline Dow, Juliet Garcia and me
Saturday's inauguration of Academia Cuauhtli at Austin Isd Performing Arts Center was so very special. It was
wonderful having our inaugural cohort of children and parents in
attendance—all from either Metz, Sanchez, or Zavala.
Rosa Tupina Yaotonalcuauhtli
Our event—which
had incidentally been postponed to this weekend following bad weather
last weekend—happened to coincide with our beloved Martha Cotera's
birthday. After a press conference, the Travis High Alumni Mariachi
with Zeke Castro directing surprised her with their singing of Las
Mañanitas (traditional Happy Birthday song in Spanish) with such a full,
lush sound. As you can see from the photos, Martha was truly surprised
by this. The mariachi and ballet folklórico performers were all great.
Tejano musicians Joel Guzman and Sarah Fox were outstanding. The danza
Mexica ceremony by Rosa Tupina Yaotonalcuauhtli and El Grupo Xochipilli
was also very moving and sincere. We had a number of elected and
appointed officials present and our community was present in full force.
All in all, a great success! Thanks, everybody for coming out. All of
us in Nuestro Grupo/Academia Cuauhtli are off to a great start! #ATX#Cuauhtli#Eagle#CulturallyResponsiveEducation#Tejas#indigena#NuestroGrupo#AISDProud#keepaustinbilingual @vlnzl
A surprised & happy Martha Cotera
We
are very grateful to the following sponsors for their support of
this event: The UT Division of Diversity and Community Engagement, the
UT Center for Mexican American Studies, and the Austin Area Association
for Bilingual Education. Thanks, as well to the Texas Center for Education Policy and the National Latino/a Education Research and Policy Project, our fiscal agent.
Pan dulce galore!
Martha Cotera, Herlinda Zamora, Mariaelena Martinez, Tina Carrillo, Dina Flores and me
All of this sounds important. Based on my own experiences with my own children, family, and friends of family, I can only imagine what the unintended consequences are of technology for children. Here is another word of caution: Constantly Staring At Your Phone Is Bad For The Spine, Says Study -Angela
Stress about a meeting that is still a
week away, handwringing before talking to the cashier in the grocery
line, worrying about seeing an acquaintance on the street—for people
with social anxiety disorder, even the simplest task can prove
challenging. The symptoms of social anxiety often set in around
adolescence, when people place a new emphasis
on social interactions and their place in their peer groups. But some
academics fear that greater access to technology could exacerbate social
anxiety among teens, particularly as smartphones, tablets, and
computers become omnipresent in and out of the classroom. And even
though teachers are increasingly exploiting the devices as learning
tools, they also play an integral role in stemming the tide of social
anxiety.
“If we are glued to technology 24/7, it’s going to have an effect on social skills—it’s just natural,” said Tamyra Pierce,
a journalism professor at California State University, Fresno. The
clear link between technology and social behavior makes it all the more
important that teachers who embrace these devices need to keep students’
social skills in mind.
Check out this fantastic story on us in the Austin American Statesman by Anjanette Gautier titled, "Program will teach Hispanic Students about their Roots" http://tinyurl.com/oj64myq Here are all the pertinent links:
• Center for Mexican American Studies, University of Texas at Austin
• Austin Area Association for Bilingual Education
• Division of Diversity and Community Engagement, University of Texas at Austin
• Tejano History Curriculum Project
• Texas Center for Education Policy
• National Latino/a Education Research and Policy Project
PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENT*
We are happy to announce the inauguration of Academia Cuauhtli / Cuauhtli Academy—a language and culture revitalization project—at the Emma S. Barrientos Mexican American Cultural Center (ESBMACC). Students from three nearby east Austin elementary schools—Metz, Sanchez, and Zavala—get taught in Spanish a Mexican American and Tejano history curriculum on Saturdays throughout the Spring, 2015 semester. We are very grateful to our partipcating principals, Ms. Azucena Garcia (Sanchez Elementary School), Ms. Martha Castillo (Metz Elementary), and Mr. Sean Fox (Zavala Elementary) and their parent liaisons and support specialists for agreeing to do this.
This effort is born out of a partnership involving Nuestro Grupo (our community based organization organized by the Texas Center for Education Policy and the Tejano History Curriculum Initiative [that grew out of the Tejano Monument inititive], both at the University of Texas at Austin and NLERAP, our fiscal agent), the Austin Independent School District (AISD), and the City of Austin Parks and Recreation ESBMACC. (Note: We are not a charter school.)
University faculty have been invested in this effort for some time now, including Dr. Cinthia Salinas and former UT Professor and current University of Utah College of Education Dean Dr. María Franquiz when they—together with UT History Department Dr. Emilio Zamora—focused on curriculum development with a grant that Dr. Zamora secured from WalMart that was in turn related to the development of curriculum as part of the unveiling of the Tejano Monument itself on Texas State Capitol grounds. Thanks to the efforts of this collective effort, called the "Tejano History Curriculum Project," curricula are already accessible at this website: http://ows.edb.utexas.edu/site/tejano-history-curriculum-project
With a new grant from Humanities Texas, the curriculum will expand from it current focus on civil rights, migration and local history to indigenous heritage, women, and the cultural arts. Even if so many of us individually—or as small families or collectivities—similarly held just such a dream, the expressed dream for a Saturday academy in the Austin community—according to its originating documents—goes back to the years leading up to the founding of the ESBMACC(see http://tinyurl.com/qx5jcx8).
Thanks, as well, to the fantastic AISD team of curriculum writers as part of the Curriculum Writers Cadre, and most especially to our committed AISD dual language teachers who because of their efforts, the curriculum is TEKS-aligned (i.e., adapted to state standards) and is currently available in grades 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 11 district wide. Also worthy of mention is that this has involved the participation of faculty from the following five universities: The University of Texas at Austin, Huston Tillotson University, St. Edwards University, South University, and Texas State University.
AISD's Chief Academic Officer Dr. Pauline Dow and ESB-MACC staff, especially Tiffany Moreno, and Laura Esparza from the Parks and Recreation Department have been awesome partners, as well.
This has been a labor of love. Our team is so talented and passionate about the whole initiative. It is quite a beautiful thing. Here is who we are: Dr. Angela Valenzuela, Dr. Pauline Dow, Martha Cotera, Oralia Garza de Cortes, Dr. Emilio Zamora, Brenda Rubio, Laura Esparza, Tiffany Moreno, Brenda Ayala, Noreen Rodriguez, Martha Sanchez, Olivia C. Hernandez, Dr. Isabel A. Millán, Larissa Davila, Alonzo René Mendoza, Anthony Martinez, Modesta Trevino, Dr. Christopher Milk, Gina Tillis, Patricia Núñez, Dr. Manuel Xavier Zamarripa, Jessica Ochoa Zamarripa, Julia Hernandez, Kristina Gutierrez, Jesse Gainer, Nancy Valdez-Gainer, Randy Bell, Juan Ramirez, Dr. Ramon Martinez, Dr. Luis Urrieta, Dr. Arcelia Hernandez, Belinda Jiménez, Manuel Martinez, Luis Ramirez, Julia Hernandez, Yvette Cardenas, Fernando Rios, Joanna Sanchez, Juan Oyervides, Kathy Mariscal, Maria Vaso, Dr. Beatriz Gutierrez, Dr. Deb Palmer, Dr. Delia Montecinos, Paola Ferate, Dr. Haydee Rodriguez, A.J. Hope, Jennifer Ross, Beatriz Hernandez, and Clarissa Riojas.
Our Academia Cuauhtli (Cuauhtli Academy) inauguration takes place at the new AISD Performing Arts Center located at 1500 Barbara Jordan Blvd., Austin, TX 78723 (see map here) on Saturday, January 17, 2015 from 11:00AM-3:15PM. Tamales and pan dulce will be served with performances by Tejano music master Joel Guzman, McCallum High School Ballet Folklórico, Crockett High School Mariachi, Martin Middle School Ballet Folklórico, Bedichek Middle School Mariachi, and El Grupo de Danza Mexica Xochipilli.
All are welcome to attend this joyful and historic celebration of a broad-based community effort that is also a dream come true here in Austin, Texas!
Sinceramente,
Dr. Angela Valenzuela *Do
note that this event was originally scheduled for January 10th but was
postponed until the 17th because of a bad weather forecast.
What started as a dream 40 years ago will finally become a reality: The Emma
S. Barrientos Mexican American Cultural Center on Saturday will launch
Cuauhtli Academy, weekly sessions on Mexican-American and Tejano history
for Austin elementary school students.
The program offers free language, cultural, history and art instruction to fourth-graders. It
was first proposed in 1974 as a way to celebrate and preserve local Hispanic culture and historical roots.
+
Cuauhtli Academy committee members: Standing, from left,
are Larissa Dávila, Olivia Hernández, Refugio Orozco, Tiffany Moreno,
Brenda Rubio, Cristina Gutiérrez, Julia ... read more
“We envisioned a space and programming for children to learn about
their roots and language,” said Martha Cotera, one of the organizers of
the academy.
Cuauhtli means eagle in Náhuatl, the language of
central Mexico’s indigenous Aztecs, and organizers say it reflects the
spirit and mission of the project. Nuestro Grupo, the primary organizer
of this effort, was started by members of the Texas Center for Education
Policy and the Tejano Monument Curriculum Initiative, both based at the
University of Texas.
Cuauhtli “connotes strength, grace and spirituality, as well as a mental and physical capacity,” said co-founder and UT professor Ángela Valenzuela. Cuauhtli seeks to “honor our community’s cultural heritage, foster a social justice consciousness and reclaim our collective identities in pursuit of educational freedom.”
UT professor Emilio Zamora, an organizer of the Tejano
History Curriculum Project and Valenzuela’s husband, devised the
program’s curriculum. With help from Austin school district
administrators and language teachers, Zamora aligned it with the Texas
curriculum standards, so it could be easily replicated by other groups
in other school districts, Cotera said.
“This has been a true community effort,” said Larissa Dávila, a volunteer who will be teaching parents in parallel courses.
“The Austin school district has even made buses available, so we can take
the children on field trips to learn about the history of their
ancestors in Texas,” Cotera said. The district also will provide
teachers and administrative assistance for the program.
The academy begins with 35 students nominated by dual language teachers from
Metz, Sanchez and Zavala elementary schools. They will participate for
three hours every Saturday until May. Classes will be in Spanish and
will include topics not often taught in depth at the elementary level,
such as the various indigenous groups of Texas, the role of Tejanos in
the Texas revolution, the Chicano art movement, and the traditions and
cultural heritage of their ancestors.
“We want them to understand their mestizaje,” said Cotera, referring to the process in which
indigenous and Western cultures and people mixed to produce what many
now refer to as Mexican-American, Chicano or Tejano culture.
The idea, organizers say, is for students to develop a strong vision of where they come from and where they are headed.
If you go … The Cuauhtli Academy’s inauguration ceremony is open to the public. It will be from 11 a.m. to 2:15 p.m. Saturday at the Austin school district’s Performing Arts Center, 1500 Barbara Jordan Blvd. It will include performances by accordionist Joel Guzmán, Mariachi and Ballet Folklórico groups from Austin schools, and a Mexica ceremony by the Grupo de Danza Mexica Xochipilli. Tamales, pan dulce and hot chocolate will be available. For more information, call Larissa Dávila at 512-636-6381 or visit www.facebook.com/AcademiaCuauhtli.
Important, if grim, sobering report on Child Protective Services in the state of Texas. A shocking close to 800 children died in Texas in less than five years of abuse or neglect. This is the first of a three-part series about those deaths and CPS' responsibilities therein.
"Texas is not publicly reporting hundreds of abuse- and neglect-related child deaths each year. Between 2010 and 2014 the Department of Family and Protective Services did not publicly report 655 child abuse-related fatalities, even though the department confirmed that those children had been mistreated prior to their deaths. Nearly half of the children who died were already on CPS’s radar. Of those 380 fatalities, 144 families — more than a quarter — had been the subject of a CPS investigation at least 3 times. In 12 instances, CPS had seen the family 10 or more times. CPS had contact with one family more than 20 times before the child died."
A constructive response to this should save lives. -Angela
Missed Signs. Fatal Consequences.
How Texas missed deadly patterns and key pieces of information that could have helped protect vulnerable children.
In 2009, the Legislature ordered Child Protective
Services to publicly record every abuse- and neglect-related death in
the state in hopes of identifying patterns and discovering ways to
prevent abuse deaths. But the Statesman has learned that CPS has not
systematically analyzed those reports, meaning that in important ways,
Texas’ child protection workers effectively have been operating with
blinders, missing deadly patterns and key pieces of information that
could help protect kids.
For the last six months, Statesman reporters Andrea Ball and Eric
Dexheimer analyzed each of those 779 reports and uncovered a series of
troubling findings:
Texas is not
publicly reporting hundreds of abuse- and neglect-related child deaths
each year. Between 2010 and 2014 the Department of Family and Protective
Services did not publicly report 655 child abuse-related fatalities,
even though the department confirmed that those children had been
mistreated prior to their deaths.
Nearly half of
the children who died were already on CPS’s radar. Of those 380
fatalities, 144 families — more than a quarter — had been the subject of
a CPS investigation at least 3 times. In 12 instances, CPS had seen the
family 10 or more times. CPS had contact with one family more than 20
times before the child died.
In 125
instances, a child had been previously separated from the home prior to
his death because of safety concerns. In 41 cases, the child who
eventually died was the one removed from the home.
Even though the
agency has a unit dedicated to finding missing families, at least 15
kids died after they dropped off CPS’s radar.
Since 2009, more
than 50 CPS workers have been caught lying to prosecutors, ignoring
court orders, falsifying state records or obstructing law enforcement
investigations, according to an American-Statesman review of state and
court documents. At least four former CPS employees are currently facing
criminal charges for their alleged misconduct.
Of the nearly
300 child abuse homicides and suspected homicides analyzed, some cases
unaccountably drug out for years. The paper also found that one of every
five child abuse beating or strangulation deaths — the way most
children are killed — has been left unsolved, leaving relatives, law
enforcement and local communities bereft of closure or justice.
DUE TO WHAT ARE PROJECTED TO BE ICY WEATHER CONDITIONS TOMORROW, WE ARE
POSTPONING OUR INAUGURAL EVENT TO NEXT SATURDAY, JANUARY 17, 2015. SO
NO FESTIVITIES TOMORROW. SEE YOU NEXT SATURDAY, WE HOPE AS PER OUR
RE-ISSUED INVITATION (see below)—SAME PLACE BEGINNING AT 11AM.
For more information, please contact Larissa Davila at davilaly@live.com (email) or (512) 636-6381 (phone).
You are cordially invited to the inauguration of Academia Cuauhtli
(Cuauhtli Academy) that takes place on Saturday, January 17, 2015 from
11:00AM-3:15PM at the new AISD Performing Arts Center located at 1500
Barbara Jordan Blvd., Austin, TX 78723 (see link to map below). Tamales,
chocolate, and pan dulce will be served with Performances by Tejano
music master Joel Guzman, McCallum High School Ballet Folklórico,
Crockett High School Mariachi, Martin Middle School Ballet Folklórico,
Bedichek Middle School Mariachi, and El Grupo de Danza Mexica
Xochipilli.
Academia Cuauhtli is a language and culture
revitalization partnership project for AISD fourth graders attending
Metz, Zavala, and Sanchez Elementary Schools that takes place every
Saturday at the Emma S. Barrientos Mexican American Cultural Center
located at 600 River St. from January 10, 2015 through May 2, 2015.
Instruction will take place exclusively in Spanish in the context of a
TEKS-aligned, culturally and linguistically relevant Mexican American
and Tejano history curriculum in the areas of local history,
immigration/migration, and civil rights—soon to be expanded to women,
indigenous heritage, and the cultural arts. All of the curricula
developed out of this initiative is (or will be) available to students
at multiple grade levels throughout the entire district.
Originating from our community, the Saturday academy is a collaboration
between Nuestro Grupo (a community organization), the Texas Center for
Education Policy at the University of Texas at Austin, the Tejano
History Curriculum Project (an Initiative of the Tejano Monument
Project), the Austin Independent School District and the City of
Austin’s Emma S. Barrientos Mexican American Cultural Center.
• Center for Mexican American Studies, University of Texas at Austin
• Austin Area Association for Bilingual Education
• Division of Diversity and Community Engagement, University of Texas at Austin
• Tejano History Curriculum Project
• Texas Center for Education Policy
• National Latino/a Education Research and Policy Project
Cultural Arts & Literacy Cuauhtli Academy
The Austin Independent School District (AISD) is a diverse, urban
district that is making great progress in student academic achievement.
AISD is the fifth largest school district in Texas, and serves
approximately 86,000 students at 124 schools.
Guidance Released: Equal Access for English Learner Students
U.S. Department of Education sent this bulletin at 01/07/2015 12:43 PM EST
Dear Stakeholders,
Today
the U.S. Departments of Education and Justice released guidance
reminding states, school districts and schools of their obligations
under federal law to ensure that English learner students have equal
access to a high-quality education and the opportunity to achieve their
full academic potential.
The guidance explains schools' obligations to:
identify English learner students in a timely, valid and reliable manner;
offer all English learner students an educationally sound language assistance program;
provide qualified staff and sufficient resources for instructing English learner students;
ensure English learner students have equitable access to school programs and activities;
avoid unnecessary segregation of English learner students from other students;
monitor students' progress in learning English and doing grade-level classwork;
remedy any academic deficits English learner students incurred while in a language assistance program;
move
students out of language assistance programs when they are proficient
in English and monitor those students to ensure they were not
prematurely removed;
evaluate the effectiveness of English learner programs; and
provide
limited English proficient parents with information about school
programs, services, and activities in a language they understand.
In
addition to the guidance, the Departments also released additional
tools and resources to help schools in serving English learner students
and parents with limited English proficiency:
A fact sheet in English, Spanish, and in other languages
about schools' obligations under federal law to ensure that English
learner students can participate meaningfully and equally in school.
A fact sheet in English, Spanish, and in other languages
about schools' obligations under federal law to communicate information
to limited English proficient parents in a language they can
understand.
A toolkit
to help school districts identify English learner students, prepared by
the Education Department's Office of English Language Acquisition. This
is the first chapter in a series of chapters to help state education
agencies and school districts meet their obligations to English learner
students.
The press release can be found below and online here.
The Chinese are among top test performers in the world, but at tremendous cost as this piece illuminates an not only to individuals, but also to society. However,...
“China is caught in a prisoner’s dilemma,” says Yong Zhao, a professor
of education at the University of Oregon and the author of “Who’s Afraid
of the Big Bad Dragon?” “Nobody is willing to break away, because the gaokao is still the only path to heaven.”
The
main street of Maotanchang, a secluded town in the furrowed hills of
eastern China’s Anhui province, was nearly deserted. A man dozed on a
motorized rickshaw, while two old women with hoes shuffled toward the
rice paddies outside town. It was 11:44 on a Sunday morning last spring,
and the row of shops selling food, tea and books by the pound stood
empty. Even the town’s sacred tree lured no supplicants; beneath its
broad limbs, a single bundle of incense smoldered on a pile of ash.
One
minute later, at precisely 11:45, the stillness was shattered.
Thousands of teenagers swarmed out of the towering front gate of
Maotanchang High School. Many of them wore identical black-and-white
Windbreakers emblazoned with the slogan, in English, “I believe it, I
can do it.” It was lunchtime at one of China’s most secretive “cram
schools” — a memorization factory where 20,000 students, or four times
the town’s official population, train round the clock for China’s
national college-entrance examination, known as the gaokao. The
grueling test, which is administered every June over two or three days
(depending on the province), is the lone criterion for admission to
Chinese universities. For the students at Maotanchang, most of whom come
from rural areas, it offers the promise of a life beyond the fields and
the factories, of families’ fortunes transformed by hard work and high
scores.
‘If you connected all of the practice tests I’ve taken over the past three years, they would wrap all the way around the world.’
Yang
Wei, a 12th grader at this public school, steered me through the crowd.
A peach farmer’s son in half-laced high-tops, Yang had spent the
previous three years, weekends included, stumbling to his first class at
6:20 in the morning and returning to his room only after the end of his
last class at 10:50 at night. Yang and I met at this precise moment,
after his Sunday-morning practice test, because it was the only free
time he had all week — a single three-hour reprieve. Now, with the gaokao
just 69 days away — the number appeared on countdown calendars all over
town — Yang had entered the final, frenetic stretch. “If you connected
all of the practice tests I’ve taken over the past three years,” he told
me with a bitter laugh, “they would wrap all the way around the world.”
Yang
and I had communicated on social media for weeks, and the 18-year-old
seemed almost giddy to be hosting an American expatriate. Yet there was a
crisis brewing. Even with all the relentless practice, Yang’s scores
were slipping, a fact that clouded over the lunch I ate with his family
in the single room that he and his mother shared near the sacred tree.
We were joined by Yang’s father, visiting for the afternoon, and his
closest friend from his home village, a classmate named Cao Yingsheng —
all squeezed into a space barely big enough for a bunk bed, a desk and a
rice cooker. The room’s rent, however, was high, rivaling rates in
downtown Beijing, and it represented only part of the sacrifice Yang’s
parents made to help him, their only son, become the first family member
to attend college.
In Gadsden and other communities, the challenge moving forward will
be to build bilingual programs that strike the right balance between
acceptance and support—valuing non-English speakers while also
recognizing that they might need extra help and resources. In a somewhat
ironic twist, the primary responsibility for ensuring this happens in
majority-Hispanic communities falls to teachers who often received
little language acceptance and support themselves. But they may be in
the best position to reinvent bilingual education precisely because they
know the high stakes of failure, including both the crippling effects
of not speaking English and the devastation of losing a linguistic
heritage.
Our bilingual/dual language teachers merit more support and respect. -Angela
One afternoon last fall, I watched as a group of young Hispanic
students trained to become the best Spanish-language spellers in
America. Their thick practice packet for the fourth annual National
Spanish Spelling Bee began with examples of the easiest words students
might expect to encounter in the bee’s first round, like esperar (to wait for), cuidar (to take care of), and peluca (wig); it extended to much harder 20th-round samples, like fisioterapeuta (physical therapist), otorrinolaringologo (ear, nose, and throat specialist), and nenufar
(water lily). The students, many of whom attended Sunland Park
Elementary School in southern New Mexico, located just feet from the
Mexican border, beamed with pride when they nailed words.
At Sunland Park and across the country, the Spanish language is
enjoying a cultural renaissance among a somewhat counterintuitive group:
Hispanics. For years, middle- and upper-class English-speaking families
have clamored for more dual language programs where their students can
learn both English and Spanish. By contrast, many Spanish-speaking
families have been opting out, believing their children needed to learn
English, and only English, as quickly as possible.
But in predominantly Hispanic communities like the Gadsden
Independent School District, where Sunland Park is located, this
reluctance is fading. As a result, bilingual education is coming closer
to fulfilling what arguably should have been its primary mission all
along: helping non-native speakers become proficient in English while
also preserving—and strengthening—their first languages.
In Gadsden, a sprawling district that hugs the border with both Texas
and Mexico, 96 percent of the students are Hispanic. Nearly
three-quarters come from homes where Spanish is spoken at least part of
the time. An uncounted number of students regularly travel between New
Mexico and Mexican border towns like Juarez, where extended family
members still live.
Here and elsewhere, the Spanish language resurgence didn’t happen overnight.
During much of the 20th century, many public school
districts systemically attempted to obliterate the language—at least
among Hispanics, who were at times barred from speaking Spanish at
school and brutally punished for even minor missteps. Gadsden
superintendent Efren Yturralde grew up near El Paso during that era. He
recalls a teacher striking him with a wooden paddle when he momentarily
slipped into Spanish. Other children had their mouths washed out with
soap.
With the passage of the Bilingual Education Act in 1968 and other
developments during that decade, Spanish speakers were, for the most
part, no longer punished. But many bilingual programs still aimed to
teach students English as quickly as possible, with too little priority
on maintaining Hispanics’ native language. Truly “bilingual
education”—which aims to help students become, and stay, fluent in
multiple languages—was too often perceived as a luxury only privileged
native English speakers could afford.
Sensing this prejudice and the obstacles their children faced without
a working knowledge of English, many Hispanic families preferred
bilingual programs that prioritized English instruction above all else.
And some remained skeptical of dual language programs’ emphasis on Spanish, which middle-class, English-speaking parents began to embrace in the 1980s.
Hispanic parents haven’t lost sight of the stigma and obstacles faced
by non-English speakers, but they may feel more confident embracing
their native language for a few reasons. The American population has
become more diverse and multilingual, making it harder to justify
English dominance from a pragmatic and political standpoint. For the
first time this year, the country’s public schools enroll
more “minority” students than non-Hispanic white ones. Also, a growing
number of middle- and upper-income families recognize the economic
advantages to mastering multiple languages in an era of globalization;
many have clamored for more dual language schools and programs as a
result, helping to legitimize and popularize the approach. And a growing body of research
suggests that dual language education does not hinder a non-native
speaker’s progress in English and may actually accelerate it over time
if the programs are designed well.
Robert Linquanti, the project director for English language learner
evaluation at the education research company WestEd, says the surging
interest in dual language schools has, somewhat coincidentally,
contributed to a “linguistic recuperation for Hispanic families,” who
are now more valued for their knowledge of Spanish than in prior
generations. There’s also been a subtle shift away from treating English
language learners like special needs students. In Gadsden, for
instance, the schools now gauge new students’ abilities based on how
well they read, write, and comprehend their strongest language—whether
or not that language is English.
New Mexico students at the state Spanish Spelling Bee in April 2011.
New recognition for Spanish language mastery also helps. The National
Spanish Spelling Bee, for instance, has nurtured Spanish speakers’
pride. And, last year, New Mexico became one of a growing number of states
to approve a seal of bilingualism or biliteracy for its high school
graduation diploma, following other states, including California and New
York.
When Gadsden began expanding its dual language programs years ago,
many Hispanic families opted out of the classes, according to Yturralde.
Far fewer families make those requests today. Gadsden parent Lisa
Rodriguez initially felt skeptical of the dual language program at
Chaparral Elementary School, where her son now attends first grade. She
worried his grades might suffer. Rodriguez grew up in an
English-speaking home, while her husband grew up in a Spanish-speaking
one. Both attended schools where English prevailed and assumed it would
be the same for their children.
Rodriguez decided to give dual language education a try, partly
because she wants her son to be able to communicate with his paternal
grandmother, who speaks only Spanish. So half of her son’s instruction
comes in Spanish, and half in English. “He’s reading in both languages,”
she said. “I’m pretty proud.”
Increased acceptance alone does not produce bilingual and biliterate
schoolchildren, however. And Gadsden and other districts across the
country continue to face a big challenge: how, with limited resources
and staff, to teach students of varied linguistic backgrounds and
abilities not one language, but two.
Experts disagree over whether dual language programs require roughly
even numbers of English- and Spanish-speaking students to work well. In
an era of entrenched school segregation,
that’s an elusive target for many schools. Regardless, schools hoping
to implement dual language successfully usually need duplicate sets of
materials and textbooks and a ready supply of multilingual instructors.
Strong teacher buy-in and training are also essential. At Chaparral,
most of the students spend half their time with English-speaking
teachers, and half with Spanish-speaking instructors. This requires an
unusual degree of cooperation and collaboration between the partner
teachers. “It’s like a marriage,” said Susan Yturralde, the district’s
director of bilingual instruction. “You see some really powerful
teaching when it’s going well.”
Rachel Sepulveda spent years teaching the English half of a dual
language class at Chaparral before deciding that she wanted to do it
all. Sepulveda struggled to get to know her students well enough when
she taught them only half the time. “I wanted to be my own partner,” she
says. So Sepulveda went back to school to acquire the training and
language skills she needed to teach Spanish. (Sepulveda’s father spoke
Spanish in the home but, like most students of her generation, she
received mostly English instruction at school and lost much of her
father’s native language.)
Yturralde, the superintendent, says he would like single, instead of
paired, teachers to lead more of the district’s dual language classes.
But even in a community with a rich diversity of linguistic backgrounds,
this can be challenging, given the legacy of the monolingual approaches
that have persisted in American schools for so long.
In Gadsden and other communities, the challenge moving forward will
be to build bilingual programs that strike the right balance between
acceptance and support—valuing non-English speakers while also
recognizing that they might need extra help and resources. In a somewhat
ironic twist, the primary responsibility for ensuring this happens in
majority-Hispanic communities falls to teachers who often received
little language acceptance and support themselves. But they may be in
the best position to reinvent bilingual education precisely because they
know the high stakes of failure, including both the crippling effects
of not speaking English and the devastation of losing a linguistic
heritage.
Sarah Carr is editor of the Teacher Project at Columbia’s Graduate School of Journalism and the author of Hope Against Hope, about New Orleans schools after Katrina
As one of his final actions as head of Arizona’s public schools,
outgoing Superintendent John Huppenthal (R) announced on Friday that the
Tucson Unified School District could be stripped of some of its funding
in March unless it abandons courses that allegedly violate the state’s
ban on “ethnic studies.” Though Friday was Huppenthal’s last day in
office, his replacement, Diane Douglas, is a Republican with close ties to several conservative organizations.
Huppenthal reportedly objects to “an introductory course on hip-hop from the African-American perspective
and lyrics from the rock band Rage Against the Machine.” The legal
basis for his threat to deny funding to the school district if they do
not suspend the courses he finds objectionable is a 2010 law
placing several limits on what kinds of instruction may be offered in
Arizona. That law bans course work that promotes “resentment toward a
race or class of people,” that is “designed primarily for pupils of a
particular ethnic group,” or that advocates “ethnic solidarity instead
of the treatment of pupils as individuals.”
School districts that violate this law risk losing “up to ten per
cent of the monthly apportionment of state aid that would otherwise be
due the school district or charter school.” The law, however, requires
school districts to be given sixty days notice before they lose funding,
which explains why Huppenthal was not able to take immediate action in
this case.
In 2013, a federal district court struck down the provision of the law
prohibiting courses “designed primarily for pupils of a particular
ethnic group,” holding that it could “chill the teaching of legitimate
ethnic studies courses.” Yet, while Judge Wallace Tashima’s opinion also
criticized the law for “evincing a misunderstanding of the purpose and
value of ethnic studies courses” and for “suggesting an insensitivity to
the challenges faced by minority communities in the United States,” he
ultimately upheld the bulk of the law, citing the “considerable
deference that federal courts owe to the State’s authority to regulate
public school education.”
Tashima’s decision is currently on appeal to the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, which is scheduled to hear oral arguments on the case on January 12.
Indigenous reciprocity is much more complex than a
two-way exchange of favors…while the word reciprocity is not used often
in our daily lives, it is deeply embedded in most Indigenous cultures.
Where reciprocity remains strong in many respects, we must acknowledge
that in other respects the serious erosion of our worldview has
consequently caused damage to our systems of reciprocity. But we
continue to have strong philosophical continuity.
— Roberta L. Jamieson, Canadian lawyer, First Nations activist,
and keynote speaker at the opening of the IFIP World Summit on
Indigenous Philanthropy
[photo credit: Cultural Survival]
Reciprocity, the practice of exchanging with others for mutual
benefit, is the basis for relationships in many Indigenous communities
and was the buzzword characterizing the International Funders for
Indigenous Peoples (IFIP) World Summit on Indigenous Philanthropy. The
summit took place September 24–26 in New York City, dovetailing with the
UN World Conference on Indigenous Peoples, the UN Climate Summit, and
the People’s Climate March. It brought together funders, NGOs, and
Indigenous leaders to foster a deeper understanding of Indigenous
philanthropy by allowing them to create relationships without the
constraint of the funder-recipient dynamic, working as equal partners.
UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Vicky
Tauli-Corpuz, spoke at the World Summit on the important role that
Indigenous philanthropy has in the future of climate change. Her remarks
highlighted the importance of the climate march, particularly for
Indigenous Peoples: “Indigenous Peoples did not contribute to climate
change, but we are asked to solve the crisis. Controlling climate change
requires the respect and protection of Indigenous Peoples’ rights. I
like to believe that our funders have the same passion and commitment as
Indigenous people to leave a better future for our next generation,”
she said.
Currently, less than one percent of philanthropic giving benefits
Indigenous Peoples. International Funders for Indigenous Peoples is a
nonprofit organization that aims to transform philanthropy globally
through encouraging and facilitating partnerships with
Indigenous Peoples to further vision, imagination, and responsibility to
tackle the challenges of our times. Its members include foundations and
individual donors who are focused on funding opportunities for
Indigenous Peoples.
Conference speakers provided a closer look at philanthropy and
reciprocity as it operates in Indigenous communities. One panel
considered the role of youth in continuing the work of philanthropic
leaders in their communities and the necessity of educating them for
the future. Neydi Juracan Morales (Kaqchiquel Maya), a youth leader from
the Comite Campesina del Altiplano, shared that “young
Indigenous women in many communities experience discrimination four
times: one for being a woman, two for being Indigenous, three for
being young, and four for being a leader.” Morales spoke of the struggle
to bridge the generational gap between her elders and her peers, more
so to prove to her family that being a woman should not limit her work
in advancing the political and social movements in her community. “Women
are a vital resource to Indigenous communities because we know what
our families need. Women play a huge role in maintaining the household;
it only makes sense that we have a vote in decisions,” she said.
Also discussed at the event were the rights of Indigenous people with
disabilities and their role in Indigenous philanthropy. Diana
Samarasan, founding executive director of the Disability Rights Advocacy
Advocacy Fund, spoke of the underrepresentation of Indigenous people
with disabilities in both political and social realms. She highlighted a
different angle of reciprocity—one between movements—in discussing
the necessity of acknowledging these members of our communities for the
progress and equal representation of Indigenous communities. “We have
been funding cross-movement work between the Indigenous Peoples movement
and the disability rights movement. Indigenous people with disabilities
have been invisible in both movements,” she explained. “The
disability community globally [as well as the Indigenous movement] has
the slogan, ‘Nothing about us without us.’ And that’s how we, as a
funder, have tried to build what we do around that concept… the the
structure that we use for funding is to incorporate the voices of
persons with disabilities at all levels of what we’re doing.”
Conference participants were encouraged to ask questions and actively
participate in the discussions in order to gain broader perspectives.
One such question asked how Indigenous funders are incorporating the
concept of reciprocity within their respective organizations. Mirna
Cunningham, a Miskita leader and activist on the Reimagining Resources,
Reciprocity, and Relationship in Grantmaking panel said, “Our concept of
reciprocity is a concept of sharing…so our vision at FIMI [Foro Internacional de Mujeres Indigenas]
is that we provide the funds and the various groups provide their
traditional knowledge. That’s how it works, we share and we
exchange.” The panel discussed the funders’ responsibility to view
Indigenous philanthropy as mutually beneficial. As Cunningham expressed,
the idea is that each side provides their resources to bring about
sustainable and culturally sensitive change.
“In traditional Indigenous communities you are aware of what your
neighbor has; that is, we know if he has one or two camels. That is how
we know what they need in hard times. But the modern economy makes us
put our money in the bank where we don’t see it. How then do we know
what we have and don’t have? We can’t share that way,” said Dr. Hussein
Isack from the Kivulini Heritage Trust.
Participants repeatedly underscored the idea that protecting the
environment protects resources for all, including future generations—and
that this is the highest form of reciprocity. “Remember that water is
our first food, and that food is water. We must conserve our land and
our water at the same time,” said Melissa Nelson of The Cultural
Conservancy during the Food Sovereignty, Indigenous People, and the
Future of Agriculture: a Global Strategy panel. Sustainable land use was
also a recurring theme. “Now that we control over 40,000 hectares (150
square miles), the challenge is how to manage it without destroying it.
We can’t just continue with the colonial way,” said Abdon Nababan of the
Indigenous Peoples Alliance of the Archipelago.
Change must happen at several levels for reciprocity to blossom;
changing the culture of funding is essential and needs to respect the
way Indigenous communities operate. Tauli-Corpuz explained, “Some donors
want to see big impact in very little time, but it doesn’t work that
way. It took 25 years to draft and pass the UN declaration, so it takes
that long.” Sandra Macias del Villar of the Global Fund for Children
offered a donor’s perspective, saying that funders too often restrict
what the community wants to do. She argued that communities need
flexible funding, money that can be spent on anything from
transportation to meetings to Internet access. “Too many funders fund
short term for just a year or two. That is just not enough time to
accomplish anything,” she said.
Reflecting on the event as a whole, Atama Katama, conference panelist
and nonprofit leader, commented, “I feel that the summit is very
important to not just Indigenous people, but for funders themselves to
know more about the new level of working with Indigenous Peoples,
especially after the outcome document of the world conference. In the
same way, we Indigenous Peoples who are empowered by the process of the
world conference now have in mind, can think about, can strengthen the
passion to work with philanthropists who are here today.” Maori Grantmakers Recognized
The recipient of the 2014 IFIP Award for Indigenous Grantmaking went
to the JR McKenzie Trust. Founded in 1940, it is one of the oldest
organizations in New Zealand that supports the well being and
development of the Maori people. This is the first time an award was
given to a foundation that has appointed Maori tribal and community
leaders on its Board to share in the decision making. Executive Director
Evelyn Arce said, “JR McKenzie Trust is a model for the future of
Indigenous philanthropy which places community leaders at the center of
the decision making process.”
To learn more about International Funders for Indigenous Peoples, visit: internationalfunders.org. Cultural Survival
helps Indigenous Peoples around the world defend their lands,
languages, and cultures as they deal with issues like the one you’ve
just read about.
I
count myself among the many who are very happy to see that Texas A & M
History professor Dr. Carlos K. Blanton produce this important work on
legendary figure, University of Texas at Austin Professor George I. Sánchez (1906-1972), originally from New Mexico (scroll down to read the FoxNews Latino report on the publication of this book).Through his work at the Mexican
American Archive located at the Benson Latin American Collection at UT Austin,
Dr. Blanton was able to rescue his memory for the generations.
The
College of Education where I work at the University of Texas at Austin is named
after him. It's actually amazing that— except for folks
in the community in Austin and others that have researched his writings—very
few people know very much about him.
I
remember one published piece that I read by him where he referred to Anglos as
suffering from cultural indigestion because they cannot digest the Mexican. By
this, he alluded to not only the cultural and linguistic differences that were
the target of Americanization education policy of this time period, but more
poignantly, to the complete othering
of the Mexican at the time (1940s and 50s).
Because
of my parents’ experience with Jim-Crow-like, de facto segregation growing up
as Mexican Americans in West Texas—together with their families’ struggle to
counter this (particularly my grandparents who were Presbyterian ministers at
the time; later, as Baptist clergy), I can very easily imagine the particularly
bigoted time period within which Dr. Sanchez labored and with such courage.
As
someone active in the community and dedicated to the important role that
research can play in the policy making, legislative, and judicial process at
local, state, and national levels, the data that he gathered and the stories
that he told and heard about severe poverty, stagnant social mobility, and the appalling
conditions of the schools, I am confident that this stirred his conscience as a
relatively “privileged” professor at UT though he also didn’t walk on a bed of
roses.
Dr.
Sanchez’ memory this evening inspires the thought and memory of one of his
contemporaries, with whom he also worked, namely, the late Attorney Gustavo
“Gus” Garcia (July 27, 1915 – June 3, 1964) another legend in his own right (here's
a helpful link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gustavo_C._Garcia).
His
phrase, "cultural indigestion" stuck with me not only because it was
a visceral expression, but also because it appeared in the context of a
serious, official publication (that would, of course, end up finding its way
into his merit evaluations and thusly, impacting his salary). He was an “uppity Mexican" who “didn’t know
his place.”
My
friend and colleague, Dr. Doug Foley, who worked with and knew Dr. Sanchez
quite well shared with me that he was an extraordinary scholar, intellectual,
activist, and human being. He was very passionate about all that he did. Yet he
passed away in serious economic straits.Hopefully, we can get a full rendering of how his departure from this world played out
in Blanton's biography.
No
doubt that in life, he led it quite triumphantly.He nevertheless paid a dear price for his commitments.
Us faculty of color at UT are indebted
to Dr. Sanchez' offering and sacrifice—and those of others, as well, like Drs.
Américo Paredes (1950-99), founder and director for many years of the Center
for Mexican American Studies; Carlos E. Castañeda (1896-1958) after whom the “PCL”
library is named alongside that of Ervin S. Perry (1935-70), first African
American to be appointed to the rank of full professor; and John L. Warfield, first
Director of the Center for African American Studies.
Where
would we be without these elders—our
elders? And what about society as a whole? Our society has a long history now
of benefiting from an expansion of "others'" rights—that of course,
comes with responsibility. Minimally, these responsibilities include making sure
that the next generation knows what was so painfully fought for—together with
what was won and lost. And how was it all experienced in the process? It is
important for us to know these things.
The
legendary late African-American civil rights attorney and legal scholar, Dr. Derrick
Bell (1930-2011), spoke of what his experience of breaking down segregation in
the Deep South meant to him. I think it is in his book, SILENT COVENANTS, where
he asserted that the simple act of standing up to injustice was triumphant in
itself. That resonates with me.
This
is going to be a very tough legislative session here in Texas, my friends. We—all hands on deck!—very much have to use our research like Dr. Sanchez would have us do to educate
the vote on the committees, in and across the two chambers, and the public at
large. Now, more than ever.
Praise again to Dr. Carlos Blanton for this important contribution to Texas history. And yes, we are still definitely in an "age of discovery" with respect to Mexican American/ Tejano History. What readers can locate immediately are resources related to the Texas State Historical Association Handbook Online. http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/lct06 (I happen to know that they get a million "hits" a month, by the way.) Currently, History Professors Emilio Zamora from the University of Texas at Austin and Andrés Tijerina from Austin Community College are working to expand the number of entries on Mexican Americans in Texas.
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) – George
I. Sanchez regularly is left out of books on the civil rights movement.
His role is seldom mentioned in studies on desegregation cases. Even
people in his birth-state hardly know his name, though his imprint on
New Mexico's educational system still is felt today.
A new biography seeks to change that.
This month, Carlos Blanton released "George I. Sanchez: The Long
Fight for Mexican American Integration." He's hoping the biography
finally places the Latino scholar in his proper place among civil rights
giants.
A project that took more than a decade, Blanton wrote the book after
combing through previously unknown letters, writings and materials to
reconstruct the life of a man who was at the center of some of most
important civil rights moments in history.
"I started this book only thinking of him as a cultural scholar,"
said Blanton, a history professor at Texas A&M University. "Then, I
found a civil rights activist."
Sanchez was born in Albuquerque in 1906. At 16, he worked as a public
school teacher at a small rural school in Yrisarri, New Mexico. He
became superintendent of the Bernalillo County school district six years
later.
That experience sparked his mission to reform the state's educational
system, particularly IQ testing of Latinos and American Indians, which
he viewed as racially biased. Eventually, Sanchez became what would be
equivalent to the state's deputy secretary of education.
His 1940 classic "Forgotten People" was one of the first studies to
document how Hispanics were losing land and influence to poverty and
white encroachment. The book drew attention from the University of
Texas, which eventually offered Sanchez a job as an education professor.
There, Sanchez wrote other books, became a national president of the
League of United Latin American Citizens and corresponded with lead
NAACP attorney and future Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall on
desegregation strategy. He wrote presidents, challenged politicians and
spoke out against discrimination of blacks and Latinos.
"He did not shy away," Blanton said. "He knew that he was sacrificing a lot but he kept at it because he knew it was important."
The biography is the first detailed account of Sanchez, who died in
1972. Often called the "dean of Mexican American studies," there are a
dozen or so schools in Texas and California named in honor of Sanchez.
However, there is none in his birth-state of New Mexico.
His granddaughter Cindy Kennedy, 51, a Santa Fe teacher, believes the
book will introduce her grandfather to a new generation who unknowingly
benefited from his work.
"He has been forgotten and I think it's about time he gets recognized," Kennedy said.
And maybe, she said, a school in New Mexico soon will be named in his honor.
The Sanchez book follows last year's release of a biopic on
farmworker union leader Cesar Chavez. The books come at a time when some
Latinos writers are calling for more biographies of Latino civil rights
icons such as lawyer John J. Herrera or labor leader Emma Tenayuca.
"We are still, in a lot of ways, in an era of discovery," Blanton said. "There is so much more material for us to uncover."
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