Hispanics and education

Support
parents to
improve
student
learning
Efforts are building to translate
traditionally strong family relationships
among Latinos into stronger
performance at school.
By Joanna Cattanach

t is 6 p.m. on a crisp winter night, and 30

parents are seated at long folding tables
covered in bright blocks of blue and yellow construction paper inside the cafeteria
at Lorenzo De Zavala Elementary School
in West Dallas, Texas. Soft Christmas music
plays on the sound system as the group waits
for the ceremony to begin. Hurried parents
rush through side doors and apologize for being late.
Has it started, they ask? Many carry containers of food
homemade tamales, tortillas, and rice. They place
their covered dishes and crockpots on tables pressed
against the back wall of the cafeteria and quickly take
their seats with the other parents.

Hispanic parents are a resource,

JOANNA CATTANACH (jrcattanach@gmail.com) is a

freelance writer who lives in Dallas, Texas.
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Ben Torres

not a problem.

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Instead of PTA fund-raisers to

support the schools, now schools
support the parents.

The atmosphere is eager and tense as parents

some in suits and church dresses, others in work
clothes tap their feet, look at the clock, and speak
softly to each other in Spanish while a singer croons
about a holly jolly Christmas in English.
Ten minutes later, the graduation ceremony begins with a train of children walking in a disjointed
single-file line past their now smiling parents to
the center of the cafeteria. They are excited, fighting over who gets to sit where, and waving at their
parents seated nearby. The children were asked to
gather in a separate room away from their parents.
This night is about mom and dad, but also about the
children. Soon the little ones begin cheering and
clapping as their parents step forward to receive certificates of completion.
Tonights graduation ceremony is one of dozens
hosted by The Concilio, a Dallas-based nonprofit
focused on helping Hispanic parents improve the
education and health of their families. Tonight is
about recognizing parents who completed a nineweek course focused on ways they can better navigate
the school system and be more actively involved in
their childs education.
For parent graduate Mary Ann Martinez, the program has helped her become a better mother. Im
here because of my daughter, Lauren, she tells the
audience. Like so many Hispanic parents, she wants
to see her child succeed in school, but Martinez, a
Mexican-American born in the United States who
speaks better English than Spanish and attended
public schools in America, admits she was not involved in her daughters education except to argue
with teachers. That has changed thanks to the program. It has really taught me and my daughter to
have a better relationship, she said.
Martinez and Hispanic parents like her are a key
part of efforts to close the achievement gap and this
program, like so many others around the nation, is
aimed and getting Hispanic parents more involved
with their childs school and ultimately more invested in their childs education.
Parent involvement is the key to improving
school culture, said De Zavala principal Lisa Miramontes. When The Concilio approached her about
partnering with the school, she readily agreed. Many
parents at the school were not attending activities,
and some would not come inside. Since the parent
program began, test scores are improving, parentteacher relationships are better, and previously uninvolved parents, including Martinez, are now volunteering and joining the PTA.
Challenges for schools, parents

As American schools adjust to the influx of Hispanic students, many from economically disadvan22

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Ben Torres

taged homes, schools and outside groups are increasingly faced with teaching not just the student but the
parent as well because, as research shows, how well
a child performs in school is based in large part on
family and outside influence. Hispanic parents tend
to feel most comfortable in small, group-based, bilingual programs.
The new engagement model has forced school
administrators and leaders to become more proactive in reaching out to parents, yet school programs
are often designed to address middle-class Hispanic
parents, not low-income parents or those with little
education. As a result, Hispanic parents, especially
non-English-speaking parents, feel alienated and
dont participate.
We had a segment of our parents who were intimidated to go on to campuses because of language
differences, said Sam Buchmeyer, a spokesman for
the Grand Prairie Independent School District, a
suburban Dallas school district with a large, predominantly poor Hispanic population.
But translating a flyer from English to Spanish
is not enough. Family engagement is more than
just addressing the language issue. It goes far beyond that, Buchmeyer said. The districts parent
involvement center offers classes on nutrition, computers, Zumba, and English as a second language. It
also offers dual-language programs for students, has
campus-based parent liaisons, and has social workers
on staff to handle immigration issues.
So far, Grand Prairies outreach efforts have paid
off. Science scores for 3rd-grade Hispanic students
in the district increased from 47% proficient in 2007
to 77% in 2010, and math scores went from 65% to
81% in the same period. From 2009 to 2010, Hispanic students outperformed their regional and state
counterparts in every tested area including math and
writing. The district said proactive, parent engagement is a major reason for the changes.
For recent immigrants, the idea of participating in
their childs school can be a new concept. In Mexico,
where most Hispanic parents in Texas originate, the
educational success of a child is left to the school, and,
because many parents are uneducated, they dont feel
they can be involved with their childrens education.
In the U.S., that often means Hispanic parents dont
enforce homework or study time at home, feel apprehensive about helping with schoolwork they dont
understand, and dont know to ask about tutoring at
their childs school (Schneider, Martinez, & Owens,
2006).
Were talking about parents who dont even realize their kids need to finish their homework and
turn it in, said Tara Dunn, The Concilios education director. New immigrant parents dont know
how to get involved with their childs school nor that

they should be involved. They are a separate challenge from parents already familiar with the American school system. For second- and third-generation
U.S.-born Hispanic parents there is often a lack of
buy-in: What difference does it make if I get involved
with my childs school?
Quality engagement

By all rights, Hispanic children should be performing better than test scores show. Strong parent-child relationships at home should equal student success, yet Hispanic students remain the least
educated minority group in the country (Ryan &
Siebens, 2012). The Hispanic family structure epitomizes the values normally associated with high
academic performance. Hispanic families typically
have clear boundaries and rules, and the sort of
open communication that allows parents to inquire
about school; they promote discussion about behavior and goals. Such families are engaged in activities
that build emotional maturity in their children, and
many parents have some contact with the school
all key factors necessary for student success (Jones
& Velez, 1997). So why, then, are Hispanic students
lagging?
The answer may be to focus on the quality of
engagement at home and for schools to take better advantage of the sociocultural capital inherent in
the Hispanic culture. Knowing your child has homework and goes to school and is passing and not in
trouble often constitutes engagement in many Hispanic homes. Seeing that the homework is finished,
offering to help, finding out from teachers how well
their student is doing compared to others, assessing where their children can improve, and how they
should be prepared for the future are not steps many
Hispanic parents see as necessary for their childs
educational success.
The argument for parent engagement

The Concilio, which has a 30-year history in Dallas and whose volunteers, coordinators, and staff are
primarily bilingual, works with schools and outside
groups to involve Hispanic parents in family-based
education and health programs. Other courses cover
how to handle adolescents, how to navigate life after
high school, and how to help parents understand
what it means to be college-ready. School-based outreach efforts, they have learned, are often ignored or
simply misunderstood.
If you have parents involved, children are going
to do better and your schools are going to do better,
Dunn said. You cant bypass the parents. Their own
data proves it. From 2002 to 2009, 90% of the students whose parents completed The Concilios parent education program graduated from high school,
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and 78% of students completed at least one year of

postsecondary education, according to a survey of
2,100 parents.
The idea that Hispanic parents dont care about
education is a myth, Dunn said. Parents do want
to know how better to help their children.
Indeed, in the 2009 National Survey of Latinos,
some 89% of young people said they believed a
college education was important to succeed in life,
yet Hispanic students continue to have the highest
dropout rates among minority groups in the country,
as well as the lowest high school completion rates
(Dockterman, 2011).
Districts work at it

If parents
are involved,
children and
schools will
do better.

24

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Despite difficult challenges, some school districts

are making strides. Irving Independent School District, another suburban Dallas school district, has
created a new office for Student and Family Engagement to help with school-based parent outreach efforts. Over 70% of the districts students are Hispanic, over 60% are considered at-risk students, and
over 80% of students live below the poverty line.
Irving ISD teachers and administrators go through
culture, language, and diversity training. The district
also offers dual-language classes to students, and it
has partnered with community sponsors, including
corporate, civic, and nonprofit groups, to send home
packages of books with students, including bilingual
books. Its goal is to distribute 1 million books to
students.
Adam Grinage, Irving ISDs director for student
and family engagement, said the district is on fire
for family engagement and notes that the parent
outreach centers in its 37 schools are among its most
effective initiatives. Open to all parents, but particularly geared toward Hispanic parents, the centers
offer various programs and literacy classes that are
often the gateway for new parents to become involved in their childs school. The district hosts parent academies, has created a Spanish language information TV program, partners with groups such as
The Concilio, and offers specific programs targeted
toward at-risk Hispanic teens.
Too often, parents dont know how to access information online, what to find or where to look to
check if their child attended class or completed their
work, Grinage said. Often, parents dont know the
language of the system. They are intimidated by it .
. . they dont know what curriculum means.
The initiatives of Irving ISD and other such districts amount to a significant change in the traditional school-parent relationship. Instead of PTA
fund-raisers to support the schools, now schools support the parents. It means more when school-based
personnel reach out to the family, Grinage said.

March 2013

In 2012, over 80% of Irving parents surveyed said

they were satisfied with both the personal communication they received from their childs teacher and
from school administrators just a few points shy
of the 90% approval rating the district wants.
Parents are very involved at Otis Brown Elementary School in Irving, where a group of mothers recently gathered in the parent center on campus. The
brightly colored classroom is where Maria Mancillas, a parent liaison, conducts a weekly literacy class.
Each week, parents are given a bilingual book with
vocabulary words in English and Spanish to take
home and read with their children. They read the
story as a group and then discuss ways to better engage their children at home and questions to ask their
children for increased comprehension.
Otis Brown Elementary strives to be a safe place, a
happy place, for parents. Apple cutouts line one side
of the wall next to a toddler kitchenette. When they
visit school, mothers are encouraged to bring their
nonschool-age children with them because childcare
concerns often are an obstacle to parental involvement in school activities.
The days lesson, Mancillas explains in Spanish, is
to read from letters each mother was asked to write
to her child as part of the previous weeks homework
assignment. Tissues are passed around the room as
mothers read aloud from handwritten letters. Me
gusta tu imaginacin (I love your imagination), one
mother said.
Part of the challenge with Hispanic parents, Mancillas explains later, is that parents do not know how
to connect with their children as students or how to
be involved in their life at school or at home. They
also do not understand the importance of engagement and view engagement as simply asking if there
is homework, visiting the school only when there
is a problem and viewing themselves primarily as a
disciplinarian, not their childs first teacher.
Mancillas recruits parents at the beginning of
each semester with the same message, Give me this
opportunity to show you this is important for your
school and your family.
It took a while for Mancillas to recruit Laura
Morales who was educated in the U.S. and is bilingual. Before entering the literacy program, the once
shy and depressed mother of three was embarrassed
to read to her children. Her own mother told her
she was wasting her time volunteering at school.
But Morales persisted and slowly came out of her
shell. Now, I can read to them without being embarrassed, she said. A volunteer at the school, she
also serves as PTA vice president. When either of
her two children at Otis Brown see her in the hall
at school, they scream, Thats my mom! They are
proud, she said. And their behavior and test scores

also have improved since she became involved at

the school.
Mancillas, a former kindergarten teacher in Mexico, said the literacy class helps breakdown barriers. And while some mothers struggled with words
from the weeks take-home book, Thelma La Hormiga (Thelma the Ant), they pushed forward. They
know that soon their children will surpass them in
knowledge, but the objective is to create a culture
of involvement, accountability, and learning in the
home, said Grinage. That means following up with
homework assignments, turning off the TV, making
sure their child is reading, asking follow-up questions, and becoming more involved with their childs
school, not just being a curbside parent at pickup
time.
We need for parents to feel connected and engaged, said Grinage.
The road ahead

Thirty years ago, experts said more rigorous

schoolwork was the answer to improving test
scores and decreasing dropout rates. In the transformational A Nation at Risk report, a blue-ribbon
commission of experts, policy makers, educators,
and administrators said educational institutions
had lost sight of the basic purposes of schooling (Gardner et al., 1983). A lack of competent
teachers, less rigorous coursework, poor completion rates in core courses such as Algebra I, and
an overall acceptance of mediocre student performance were some of the main concerns the panel
cited. The report, which focused primarily on
teenage students, suggested that more emphasis
on improving the content, expectation, time, and
quality of teaching in the classroom would improve educational outcomes.
The report gave only a nod to outside factors such
as parent educational achievement, community support, and the familys health and welfare, and it did
not link parental involvement at school with student
success.
While school districts have since embraced the
engagement model, there is still an emphasis at
the state and national levels on improved student
test scores and student learning outcomes. Despite
some successes, the dropout rate among Hispanic
students remains high, students are still graduating
unprepared for college, and there remains a large
achievement gap between white, black, and Hispanic
students.
Its easy just to focus on the academics and not
the (noncognitive side of learning), Grinage said,
but the affective side has a strong effect on academic
success.
At Irving, the engagement process is a three-

step approach. First, Irving asks parents to volunteer at school, then to join parent education
classes, and finally to empower themselves by becoming leaders in their school. The districts goal
is to increase participation in parent education
programs by 10%.
Grinage attributes the districts success to having a proactive school board focused on parent and
student engagement, which has allotted funds for
outreach, placing parent outreach centers on campuses. He also said connecting with outside groups
and community partners, and creating an environment of engagement in school and education
at home have helped the effort. As a result, since
2003, the district has seen double-digit gains in all
five testing areas across the board, and the district
is ranked academically acceptable; no schools are
ranked failing.
In its 2009 policy brief, the National Family,
School, and Community Engagement Working
Group, a leadership coalition of community stakeholders, said engagement is a shared responsibility
with the parents, the school, and the community.
It must be continued across a childs educational
journey and carried out everywhere a child learns:
at home, in the classroom, and in the community.
Proactive school districts such as Grand Prairie and
Irving offer access to parents and reach out to them.
Now is the time we need to make parent education programs mainstream, said Dunn from The
Concilio. Hispanic parents are a resource, not a
problem.
K
References
Dockterman, D. (2011). Statistical portrait of Hispanics in the
United States, 2009. Washington, DC: Pew Hispanic Center.
Gardner, D., Larsen, Y.W., Baker, W., Campbell, A., Crosby, E.,
Foster, C., . . . Wallace, R. (1983). A nation at risk. Washington,
DC: U.S. Department of Education.
Jones, T.G. & Velez, W. (1997, March). Affects of Latino parent
involvement on academic achievement. Paper presented at
the annual meeting of the American Educational Research
Association, Chicago, IL.
Ryan, C. & Siebens, J. (2012). Educational attainment in the
United States, 2009. Washington DC: U.S. Census Bureau.
Schneider, B., Martinez, S., & Owens, A. (2006). Barriers to
educational opportunities for Hispanics in the United States.
In M. Tienda & F. Mitchell (Eds.), Hispanics and the future of
America (pp. 179-227). Washington, DC: National Academies
Press.
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