A Publication of
the University
of New Mexico
Foundation, Inc.
| The University of New Mexico |
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A Publication of the University of New Mexico Foundation, Inc. |
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By Ellen K. Ashcraft
When residents of arid Albuquerque think of losing precious resources, water readily comes to mind. Yet, like water seeping from a faulty pipe, the community has been losing another valuable resource-an educated population for Albuquerque's future. The pipeline that carries Hispanic students through the public education system has sprung a few serious leaks. The first leaks occur in grades 9 and 10, when Hispanic students are most apt to drop out of the Albuquerque Public Schools (APS). Forty-seven percent of APS students are Hispanic, and of those who begin high school, 43 percent drop out before graduation. Additional leaks in the pipeline occur between the first and second years of post-high school education. That's when both the University of New Mexico and Albuquerque Technical-Vocational Institute (TVI) most often see Hispanic students leave school. At UNM, 27 percent of all students and 31 percent of undergraduates are Hispanic. Thirty-nine percent of TVI students are Hispanic. ENLACE in Albuquerque can mend the leakage. With UNM as its lead institution, this coalition of community groups is seeking to help Albuquerque build a better future through a productive educational experience for Hispanic students. Primary partners are APS, TVI, the City of Albuquerque, the Hispano Chamber of Commerce, Public Service Company of New Mexico, Sandia National Laboratories, Catholic Charities, New Mexico MESA, Inc. and the Hispanic Roundtable. An acronym for Engaging Latino Communities for Education, ENLACE is related to the Spanish word enlazar, meaning to link or to weave together. Its three components are a common vision of a brighter future for Latino youth, collaborative work in coalitions and strengthening public school-university-community partnerships. The W.K. Kellogg Foundation recently awarded ENLACE in Albuquerque nearly $2 million of a $4.9 million grant made to ENLACE in New Mexico, a statewide coalition for which UNM is the fiscal agent.
According to the grant application, ENLACE in Albuquerque's vision is to create a new paradigm for Hispanics in the community for the purpose of improving student outcomes, increasing students' engagement in their education, and keeping families in the forefront of the education system. But what does this mean in terms of the nuts and bolts required to fix the leaks? Thanks to the Kellogg Foundation, ENLACE in Albuquerque is able to implement a threefold repair focusing on family and community education, retention and increasing the number of Hispanic teachers in APS through the Pathways to Teaching program. Family
and Community Education
Open at times convenient for families, the EAR will feature cable, Internet, phone and fax connections, an audio/video room for distance learning programs, a tape library, 15 computers, a teaching area and childcare. At the EAR, students will learn at their own pace with individual lesson plans and the support of mentors and technology. "Students, particularly those who have been suspended or dropped out, may receive assessments and custom curriculums to help them get back on track in school," explains Christine Kozojet, director of foundation relations at the UNM Foundation. The EAR will serve up to 20 Hispanic students and their families each month, referred by high school counselors. "Students will be able to receive academic credit for their studies at the EAR or they can build skills in the short term before returning to regular class," says Kozojet. AmeriCorps VISTA Volunteers, citizens from the nearby senior center and other community volunteers will help students hone their knowledge. "This community-based resource is a place where families can get extra help," Kozojet stresses. "It will offer classes for parents, too, to teach them their legal rights and responsibilities within the school system. They can learn to be advocates for their kids." English as a Second Language, math, GED and other classes will assist parents in their own education, helping them to set an example for their children and to communicate education as a family value. The EAR will serve at least 200 parents each year. Retention Sixty students with low reading scores from three target middle schools will receive credit toward graduation by participating in a Summer Bridge program emphasizing literacy skills. They will receive four hours of customized instruction each day for three weeks on the high school campus that they ultimately will attend. This way, students will become familiar with their future high school, eliminating a degree of uncertainty for them when they advance to that level. The students will visit UNM and TVI each week for computer-based instruction and a UNM faculty member will talk with them about the need to begin preparing for college in 9th grade. The hope is that students will begin seeing college as a long-range goal. In addition, ORALE (Offering Resources and Learning Empowerment), a mentorship program started at UNM in 1994 to retain at-risk high school students, will expand its services to middle school students. Six mentors will each meet with 10 students twice a week. Through increased offerings of Chicano Studies courses at the three APS high schools with the largest minority populations, Hispanic students will learn about the history and literature of their own culture, making their education more relevant to them. John Lopez, a Chicano Studies teacher at Albuquerque High School, underscores the value of the course. "After 28 years of teaching I have seen the difference in students after they take a Chicano Studies course. . . They become determined to make something of themselves. They develop a whole new self-esteem. They become active in their community because they see the need for activism." In the past decade, lack of funding has kept APS from consistently offering Chicano Studies. The Kellogg grant will allow each high school to offer two yearlong sections, serving 146 students each year. Through the pipeline leaks in post-high school education, nearly 1,000 first-semester freshmen at UNM and more than half of TVI's 2,500 entering students are at risk of dropping out. ENLACE in Albuquerque is addressing this in several ways. First, through an Early Identification System, at-risk Hispanic students will receive enhanced, individualized support via summer bridge programs, counseling and classes that offer structured, collaborative learning, to help them reach graduation or succeed in transferring from TVI to UNM. Next, junior and senior level Hispanic students will be trained to serve as role models and peer counselors to all first-year Hispanic college students. Nearly 500 UNM freshmen will be helped in this way each year, and program organizers anticipate a 10 percent increase in successful transfers from TVI to UNM. Pathways
to Teaching A program called Pathways to Teaching, a collaboration of APS, TVI and the UNM College of Education, seeks to expand the number of Hispanic teachers receiving licensure by an average of 18 percent a year. To do this, 20 education assistants already working in APS classrooms will receive financial and professional support to pursue state teaching licenses. In return, they will commit to teaching in New Mexico for at least three years after placement with APS. "These people are already committed to education in the public schools and will help to lessen the teacher shortage," says Kozojet, pointing out that New Mexico will face a shortage of about 1,500 teachers annually for the next five years. Pathways to Teaching also will nurture middle and high school students' interest in becoming teachers. Pathways will select Hispanic Champion Teachers to mentor them, arrange for them to shadow Hispanic teachers or tutor younger students in regular classroom settings, and establish Future Educators of America chapters in the schools. Chapter activities will include visits to TVI and UNM, participation in statewide youth leadership activities and interaction with students already in education programs at the college level. "The whole project embraces and empowers a cohort of people who care about education," Kozojet remarks about Pathways to Teaching. Appropriately, her comment also applies to the entire repair effort for the community's Hispanic Education Pipeline. Because of ENLACE in Albuquerque, more Hispanic students will achieve educational goals, preserving one of Albuquerque's most precious resources.
UNM
Foundation Inc. 505-277-4503 Copyright
© 2006 The University of New Mexico. |
Spring 2001
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