NSBA President: Conference celebrates Hispanic achievement

The state school boards associations of Arizona, California, New Mexico, and Texas developed the Celebrating Educational Opportunities for Hispanic Students Conference in 1992, “when they realized the dramatic increase in the enrollment of Hispanic students created some special challenges for school board leaders in the Southwest,” says Panfilo Contreras, executive director of the Arizona School Boards Association.

ASBA hosted this year’s conference, which was held in Tempe, Ariz.

The Celebrating Opportunities Conference is a perfect example of the kind of successful programs I plan to highlight this year as part of my “snapshots of success” theme.

These annual conferences are always inspiring and full of ideas that school leaders can take back to their own districts.

Showcase sessions at this year’s meeting featured such programs as the Phoenix Union High School District’s Future Nursing Academy; the use of state data to raise student achievement in the Cobre (N.M.) Consolidated School District; the bilingual education program in the West Oso Independent School District in Corpus Christie, Texas, which resulted in 100 percent of second graders passing the state test; and the San Bernardino County (Calif.) superintendent of education’s initiative to teach literacy through the performing arts.

Conference attendees heard from such well-known speakers as National Public Radio education correspondent Claudio Sanchez, school consultant Donna Beegle, and author Stella Pope Duarte. And we were entertained by the talented youths of the Ballet Folklorico Guadalupano.

Every year, each of the participating state associations presents a $500 scholarship to a student who has overcome obstacles to achieve academic success.

This year’s scholarship recipient from Arizona, Israel Franco Sanchez, a senior at Tempe High School in the Tempe Union High School District, told the audience that his greatest goal was to be the first member of his family to attend college.

Beginning at age 4, Israel milked the cows and tended the crops on his father’s farm in the state of Nayarit, Mexico. When he was 8, he told the audience, his family moved to the United States “in search of a better life.”

At his elementary school in Arizona, Israel was named “Student of the Month” twice because of his accomplishments in learning English. By the time he was a sophomore in high school, he achieved a 4.0 grade point average and was named “Most Valuable Player” and “Best Player of the League” for his achievements on the soccer field. Israel says his goal now is to “make his family proud when he completes his college education.”

We can all be proud of the accomplishments of Israel Sanchez, as well as the other scholarship recipients: Esthela R. Aguirre of Austin, Texas; Daniel Acosta of Las Cruces, N.M.; and Norma Edith Garcia of El Monte, Calif.

“Since Hispanic students are the fastest-growing segment of our student population in the Southwest, it is particularly important that school boards increase their awareness of and support for this important group of children,” says Jim Crow, executive director of the Texas Association of School Boards. “We are proud of our 15-year association with this innovative conference that features creative programs and new strategies for success for Hispanic students and the educators who serve them.”

“The idea is to create a forum for discussion and examination of the success stories of educating children of Hispanic heritage in the four states on the Mexican border, including such issues as the best instructional strategies for English-language learners,” adds Scott Plotkin, executive director of the California School Boards Association. “Every four years, we try to change the focus of the conference to make it more interesting and more meaningful for school board members and superintendents.”

“It’s a great example of collaboration among the four state associations,” Plotkin says.

One of the keynote speakers at the conference was Donna M. Beegle, who, against all odds, left behind a background of “generational poverty” to become an academic researcher. Today, she is president of the consulting firm Communication Across Barriers and also is the founder and CEO of PovertyBridge, a nonprofit organization dedicated to changing lives.

Beegle came from a family that, for generations, subsisted on menial-wage employment and migrant work and where no one was educated beyond the eighth grade. Beegle dropped out of school at age 15, and by 25, she was divorced, homeless, and had two children.

She eventually earned a GED, enrolled in a community college program aimed at helping women, found subsidized housing, and after years of struggle, earned a PhD in educational leadership. Along the way, she was helped by her mentor, Prof. Robert Fulford, who convinced her that getting an education was the best way she could help her children.

Beegle’s background -- and her own research into the culture of poverty -- enabled her to advise education leaders on the best way to work with students from lower-income families.

“Many people from generational poverty backgrounds get their information verbally, creating an ‘oral culture thought process,’” Beegle says. “Most students and families from middle and upper-class backgrounds gain their information from reading, creating a ‘print culture thought process.’”

Beegle urges educators to learn how to “build on the assets of oral-culture students and families instead of only seeing problems.” And she says teachers should understand “how to include oral culture learning styles in the classroom.”

“Opportunities for education success are enormous when these concepts are understood and incorporated into every aspect of the education process,” she says.

Beegle’s message to conference participants -- “find ways to highlight students’ strengths and believe in the learning potential of each child” -- reflects the overriding objective of the Celebrating Opportunities Conference.