Involving Latino Families in Schools

Raising Student Achievement Through Home-School Partnerships

Concha Delgado Gaitan

• Publisher: Corwin
• Year: 2004
• Print ISBN: 9780761931386, 9780761931379
• eBook ISBN: 9781483360300
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

"Anyone involved in preservice training for future and present classroom teachers should read this book. Both the content and context of the book are practical, timely, and necessary as our country and classrooms become more diverse."
Michele Dean, Principal
Montalvo Elementary School, Ventura, CA

Raise school attendance, reduce dropout rates, and improve academic performance of Latino students!

Often marginalized by poverty, linguistic isolation, or prejudice, Latino students face many academic obstacles. And while research has shown that parental involvement plays a key role in academic achievement, most schools have failed to modify their parent involvement programs to address social and cultural realities of Latino families.

Involving Latino Families in Schools provides tools and strategies for including Latino parents in developing sustained academic improvement. Sharing numerous first person success stories, author Concha Delgado Gaitan stresses three conditions of increased parental participation: connecting to families, sharing information with parents, and supporting continued parental involvement.

Offering easily applied techniques for cultivating communication, this practical handbook examines

• Latino families and their educational aspirations for their children
• The communication systems needed between schools and Latino families
• How Latino families can assist their children at home
• Techniques to foster Latino parent involvement
• How to organize schoolwide parent involvement programs

Through suggested activities, case examples, and vignettes, the author provides insights and instruction for planning, designing, and implementing parental participation programs that enhance the classroom curriculum and effectively engage Latino students.

Designed primarily for elementary and secondary school principals and teachers, this innovative text is also an indispensable resource for district-level administrators.

1

Life in Latino Families

As is true in all cultures, there is no single Latino family type. Latinos are as varied as any other ethnic group. Mexican immigrant, Mexican American, Chicano, Central American, Latin American, Puerto Rican, and Cuban: All these are identities within the Latino population in the United States. Like the cultural heterogeneity of Latino groups, the social class and socioeconomic standing also vary (Delgado-Gaitan, 1994a, 1994b). Some Latinos are U.S. born and English speaking, with heritage and history in the United States for many generations. Others are immigrants and are primarily Spanish speaking. Geographically, Latinos reside in almost every state of the union, from Florida to Alaska to Hawaii. But large concentrations of Latinos live in California, New York, Texas, Florida, Illinois, Arizona, New Jersey, New Mexico, and Colorado. About two-thirds of Latinos reside in the southwestern United States, but other states, including Wisconsin, Illinois, and Michigan, report a sizeable Latino population, while many other states have seen a growing Latino group. In some states, the Latino population is largely migratory, working in agriculture and living in temporary, substandard housing camps.

While many highly visible professionals of Latino heritage work and reside across the United States, innumerable Latinos remain relegated to working-class status as agricultural workers, factory workers, and paraprofessional service providers. Recent immigrants are most likely found in these entry-level jobs. They immigrate with high hopes of expanding educational opportunities for their children, which can lead to economic betterment. It is imperative to note that Latino workers in the United States are not just “the help” and “the leaf blowers.” They are judges, architects, professors, university presidents, journalists, doctors, business owners, governors, athletes, and scientists. Latinos are Rhodes scholars and Nobel Prize winners, including Adolfo Perez, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Octavio Paz, Rigoberta Menchu, Sergio Robles, Mario Molina, and many others. They speak not only Spanish but also English, and many speak numerous other languages as well. Officially, Latinos are the largest minority population in the United States at 37 million and 13% of the population (U.S. Bureau of the Census, 2000).

Latinos also differ with regard to the places that they call their original homeland. Although Latinos share a common heritage of language, history, and culture, differences exist within each ethnic group, ranging from the time of arrival in the United States to their socioeconomic standing. For example, both Chicanos and Mexican immigrants may be U.S. citizens, but Chicanos consider their identity a form of political consciousness and trace their ancestry to those who lived on the land that is now the Southwest, which was ceded to the United States after the Mexican-American War in 1848. The ancestors of Mexican Americans originally emigrated from Mexico during the Mexican revolution in the early 1900s. Still others with roots in Mexico are more recent immigrants.

Puerto Ricans, of course, are citizens because Puerto Rico is a U.S. territory. Three major currents of migration to the United States from Puerto Rico categorize the Puerto Rican experience. The need for workers in the United States attracted a major migration during the 1940s. An even larger migration occurred in the 1950s. Most migrated with their young families. These Puerto Ricans were skilled workers and literate in Spanish and entered the manufacturing and service industries. The third migration has been a steadier, more fluid flow of Puerto Ricans who continue to travel back and forth to Puerto Rico to work and to visit family.

Many immigrants from Central America arrived as refugees from war-torn countries including Nicaragua, El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala. Costa Ricans have also immigrated to the United States. Other immigrants from Latin American countries may have fled economic and social distress. Cubans arrived in two main waves from Cuba. The earlier immigrants were wealthier people fleeing the Cuban revolution, while those who came in the 1980s were people from lower socioeconomic groups in Cuba (Fuller & Olsen, 1998).

Educational attainment also differs across the Latino groups. Latino educational experience in the United States spans the continuum from low literacy to postgraduate professional education. Many complete college and graduate school; however, a large percentage of Latino students have difficulty completing high school and getting into college, especially Spanish-speaking Latinos from lower socioeconomic ranks. In some communities, Latino students drop out of school at the rate of more than 40% (National Center for Educational Statistics, 2002). Latinos have encountered prejudice and lack of access to educational resources because of their low-income status and linguistic differences.

Regardless of the Latino families’ social, educational, or economic standing, they all have strengths. As in other ethnic groups, the family is the primary social unit among Latinos. Latino families also exist in many different forms, including two-parent families; extended families with grandparents, uncles, or cousins; and single-parent families. The family as a social unit holds a valued place as a resource for coping with the pressures life brings. Its preservation is critical to the continuity of social, political, religious, and cultural order. The extended family plays a very strong role. Aunts, uncles, grandparents, cousins, and family friends are frequent visitors in a Latino family household. Whether extended families live in the same home, around the corner in the same community, or in Puerto Rico, Mexico, Cuba, or Central American countries, where extended travel is required to visit, families stay close. Traditional values and practices are transmitted in families that maintain strong ties. Schools can tap these values.

Elementary and Secondary

POINT

Latino Family Values

• Respeto. Respect for education and educators

• Respetar a otros. Strong sense of mutual respect in relationships

• Ser buen educado. An emphasis on discipline and proper behavior

• Compadrazgo. The relationship between parents and godparents, translating into co-parenting

Parental authority and respect are highly valued and considered a form of love. Children are expected to take instruction from parents without questioning. Questioning parental authority is sometimes considered disrespectful, yet in some homes with high verbal deftness, it is a common practice. Latino families also expect children of all ages to learn how to maneuver successfully within the social system involving extended family members in settings where they live, study, and work.

CONNECTING

Connecting across the home-school border requires educators and Latino parents each to know the culture of the other. This happens through clear and deliberate communication. It also involves a willingness to understand and learn others’ culture. The word educación (education) in traditional Latino families is more comprehensive than the generally accepted American usage. Although success in school becomes a valued expectation for Latino parents, the word educación means more than mere schooling. As used in Latino families, the term considers that the educational process is more than getting good grades in schools. It is used to describe how people comport themselves politely, how they are willing to act collectively with others, how they support and respect everyone, and how they are deferential to authority.

One Latino parent expressed it in these words: “Ignorance makes one believe that strength is in the body, not in the mind. When they think that way, they do not stop and think and negotiate with others” (translated from Spanish). In essence, the emphasis is on relationships with others in the process of achieving in school. Education is viewed as a vehicle to move children out of poverty. The desire for children to have a better life than that of the parents accounts for the sacrifices that parents make on behalf of their children.

Although their parents may be living, some Latino children have other family members as guardians, including grandparents, uncles, aunts, cousins, or older siblings, who are not the biological parents. Educación is part of Latino culture, and children are held to this expectation by various family members. When reaching out to Latino parents, educators need to include the students’ guardian or members of the extended family who may also take charge of the children’s schooling.

In Mexico and other Latin American countries, the school curriculum is very centralized. There is little choice of books, uniforms are typically required, and the school rules are firmly and uniformly set. Parents are involved in maintaining the schools and pay close attention to how well-behaved their children are. A great deal of respect is accorded to the teachers, who have a strong presence as professionals in Latino societies.

Secundaria (secondary) school is not mandatory. But for those students who can continue school after the seventh grade and don’t have to drop out to work and help support their families, the first part of secondary school lasts 3 years. Following the initial secundaria years begins the last 3-year segment of secondary school, called Media Superior. It is the last 3 years of public education. Students attend for 7 hours a day and are 18 years old when they receive their diploma. Only about half of the students who complete secundaria continue a professional career at a university or “normal school” for teacher preparation.

Elementary

POINT

Latino Parents Expect to Be Involved in Elementary Schools

• In wanting to help their children in their homework

• In staying informed about their children’s academic progress

• In setting school behavior rules

• In having input in the children’s discipline program

• In making decisions about their children being retained or placed in a special program

Often, parents’ vision of schools and education is based on their experience in their former country if they are immigrants. Part of what parents believe is necessary to suppo...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Dedication
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Preface
• About the Author
• 1. Life in Latino Families
• 2. Connecting Latino Parents to the Classroom
• 3. Sharing Information With Latino Parents
• 4. Instructing Parents to Teach at Home
• 5. Involving Families in the Life of the School
• 6. Preparing Latino Students for Higher Education
• 7. Designing Schoolwide Parent Involvement Programs
• 8. Forming School-Family-Community Partnerships
• Educational and Cultural Informational and Support Resources
• References
• Index