2008 Woodie Awards
Education Summit seeks success for Hispanic students
JENNIFER SAWMILLER
News Journalist
Issue date: 7/30/08 Section: News
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“It’s Latino students reflected in the drop-out rate and in test scores,” Margie Gonzalez, director of the Idaho Commission on Hispanic Affairs, a department of state government initiated in 1987 to help air concerns of Hispanic citizens said. “We’re not asking for special standards, we’re asking for equality for all students. We need to start to look at solutions.”
Through workshops and presentations from state leaders in education, the summit (which took eight months of planning) examined three issues: closing the achievement gap between Latino students and their peers, drop-out prevention and retention and access to and equity in higher education.
“It is our goal this summit will set the stage for a statewide network of state, public and private organizations that provide Hispanic families with the knowledge and tools needed to help them prepare our children for academic success,” Gonzalez said in a written welcome.
During the 2006-07 school year, almost 36,000 Idaho students were of Latino heritage. Of those, more than 14,000 were considered to be Limited English Proficient, a population considered at risk for academic difficulties and dropping out.
The President’s Advisory Committee on Educational Excellence for Hispanic Americans found that nationally, one of three Latino students fails to finish high school.
Troubling statistics about students from the fastest-growing minority group in Idaho led to the creation of the summit with cooperation from both the public and private sectors.
“INL, State Farm, Partners for Prosperity – they … jumped on board before we asked,” Juan Saldaña, technical records specialist for the Idaho Commission on Hispanic Affairs, said.
Speaker Mary Gutierrez, an ESL/Bilingual consulting teacher for the Nampa School District, touted the success of a new dual-immersion program for kindergartners in which Spanish speakers learn English and English speakers learn Spanish.
“We’re talking about how to help English language learners succeed in this conference,” Gutierrez said. “We’ve assessed them in both English and Spanish and they’re succeeding. Eventually they will be able to succeed in higher education and in the job market.”
Speakers included Executive Director of the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for Hispanic Americans Adam Chavarría, President of Excelencia in Education Sarita E. Brown and other local leaders and educators.
“They had statistics showing there is a problem, and we can solve it,” Magaly Carrillo, who graduated from Caldwell High this spring and will attend Boise State in the fall said. “There were a lot of people who were interested in helping.”
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