“Three change strategies help schools, as systems, hold on to all students and secure their success: building community capacity to strengthen schools; creating coalitions that amplify parent and community voices and impact; and building school capacity to ensure that every child receives an excellent education.” – Dr. María “Cuca” Robledo Montecel, IDRA President and CEO

Published 10 times a year, each edition explores issues facing U.S. education today and strategies to better serve every student. This newsletter is published in print and on the IDRA website, in addition to this eLetter format.

by Bradley Scott, Ph.D.

We are in an era of great reform in public schools. We are all called to do more, to be more, and to reach for more to create great schools for every learner, whoever he or she may be and regardless of their defining characteristics.

We need great leaders in schools who understand the demands of the day for education that prepares all diverse learners for higher and higher levels of schooling, for college going and completion, and for life success. We need great teachers and we need powerful principals who know how to lead a school to academic excellence and high student performance.

This article speaks briefly to the need for dynamic principals who can exercise powerful leadership on school campuses to move all students to high academic outcomes, college completion and successful lives.

What kind of leadership is required to do this? – Keep reading

by Laurie Posner, MPA

Three Strikes

The third strike that would bring about the boy’s referral to an alternative school occurred in P.E. class. The students had been asked to take turns kicking a ball once. But Jake had started playing soccer, and he kicked the ball two or three times in a row. The disruption proved to be a tipping point for school staff. They wrote him up.

And this had followed the second strike, which also took place outside. The children were learning about plants and trees. Jake’s dad, who had a military background and was on the road often for work, had taught him about military airplanes. So when a VC-25 roared overhead, instead of focusing exclusively on the plants, he pointed it out to his classmates. This was exactly the kind of airplane his dad talked about! Second strike.

Jake’s first strike had occurred in class. He had a habit of tapping his pencil on the desk when the teacher led the class in group reading. She asked him to stop, but he had continued: tap. tap. tap. tap. Strike.

All in all, the disruptions had added up. In just 47 days, Jake netted a referral to a disciplinary alternative program. And he was only 5 years old.

Receiving the referral by email, his parents immediately felt that something had gone seriously awry with the school’s disciplinary system for Jake.

Research shows that he is not alone. – Keep reading

The number of unaccompanied immigrant children arriving from Central America has caused a flurry of media attention, protests, calls for assistance, and political posturing. Unfortunately, much of the attention has been driven by misinformation and rumor. One fact is certain, as stated in the school opening alert, all school-age immigrant children must have access to educational services as required under Doe vs. Plyer. And all means all – regardless of immigration, refugee or asylum status.

Despite the unique facets of the latest group of recent arrivals, delivery of educational services for these children is required. Moreover, while unique circumstances are driving this migration from certain Central American communities, it may be that such students will be considered as refugees like their counterparts from other countries in recent years.

Costs associated with providing required educational services should not serve as a basis for failing to provide education. Educational services should be aligned with the needs of immigrant students and provided in regular school environments, such as newcomer centers and holistic support services (academic and specialized counseling and social support services) that respond to the unique needs of this vulnerable student population. 

In Texas, for example, the Texas Education Agency issues an annual letter to school administrators that restates the requirement that all children between the ages of 6 and 18 attend school. The letter provides proof of residency procedures and provisions for homeless students, and states that “a student’s immigration status is not a permissible basis for denying admission to a public school.” IDRA has set up a web page with links to this letter, IDRA’s bilingual flier, and other resources at www.idra.org/immigrant_ed.

This alert is a reminder that public schools, by law, must serve all children. The education of undocumented students is guaranteed by the Plyler vs. Doe decision, and certain procedures must be followed when registering immigrant children in school to avoid violation of their civil rights.

The U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Department of Education published in May 2014 a letter advising school officials that activities that deny or discourage students to attend school are unlawful. The letter begins, “Under federal law, state and local educational agencies are required to provide all children with equal access to public education at the elementary and secondary level.”

In Plyler vs. Doe, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that children of undocumented workers have the same right to attend public primary and secondary schools as do U.S. citizens and permanent residents. Like other students, children of undocumented workers in fact are required under state laws to attend school until they reach a mandated age. – Keep reading

See the full bilingual (English-Spanish) school opening alert flier 

Listen to IDRA’s Classnotes Podcast episode on “Immigrant Children’s Rights to Attend Public Schools.”

Get other resources

Statement by Dr. María “Cuca” Robledo Montecel, IDRA President and CEO, on the Fifth Circuit Decision in Fisher vs. University of Texas at Austin on the University of Texas’ Holistic Admissions Program – July 16, 2014

In July, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals issued its ruling in the Fisher vs. University of Texas that upheld University of Texas’ holistic admissions program. The Fifth Circuit’s decision affirms the importance of striving for diversity in all state colleges and universities, stating “Universities may use race as part of a holistic admissions program where it cannot otherwise achieve diversity.” The ruling acknowledges that the Top Ten Percent Plan has contributed to improving access to Texas’ premier higher education institutions but that other factors with varying criteria including race can be used as well to improve broad representation of students from different geographic areas, family backgrounds and educational experiences. UT-Austin’s holistic admissions plan includes race as just one small factor in a complex set of admission criteria.

The Fifth Circuit’s ruling demonstrates once again that it is possible and constitutional to develop approaches that use race and ethnicity in a narrowly-tailored admissions process designed to increase student diversity. IDRA applauds the ruling and all those involved in the effort to ensure more equitable access to all students from prekindergarten through college.– Keep reading

In July at its business awards event, the San Antonio Hispanic Chamber of Commerce honored IDRA President and CEO, Dr. María “Cuca” Robledo Montecel, with its Advocacy Award. Upon receiving the award, she noted that the San Antonio Hispanic Chamber recently joined IDRA, MALDEF, Presente! and others to advocate for a San Antonio City Council resolution establishing college readiness as the gold-standard city-wide: “The resolution, adopted unanimously, signals that our city sees economic competitiveness and educational quality as inseparable.”

She added: “Research tells us that schools that focus on college readiness for all their students are best at reducing high school dropout rates. Education is, in fact, an indispensable economic strategy.”

Photo: Dr. María “Cuca” Robledo Montecel, with St. Mary’s University law professor Al Kauffman, who introduced her at the awards event.

National PTA President, Otha Thornton, visited the lower Rio Grande Valley in May to see first-hand IDRA’s Comunitario PTA effort that is spreading all over the lower Rio Grande Valley. He was invited by Lourdes Flores, co-founder of the first Comunitario PTA at ARISE. A Comunitario PTA is a community organization-based-PTA that gathers family leaders in Texas’ poorest communities to engage them on education policies and educational opportunities for their children. Unlike traditional PTAs, which play auxiliary or fundraising roles in schools, IDRA’s Comunitario PTA is a community-based parent teacher organization whose sole purpose is to collaborate with schools and Spanish-speaking, Hispanic, working-class families to improve children’s academic outcomes. With the support a federal i3 grant, IDRA’s Comunitario PTA approach to family engagement is spreading to develop parent leadership in education through community engagement, supporting college access and success for all students, especially those learning English.

Comunitario PTAs Awarded by National PTA President

At the National PTA Convention this summer, Otha Thornton, presented a Presidential Exceptional Community PTA Award to the Cesar Chavez ARISE Comunitario PTA for their work in the Spanish-speaking communities of south Texas and to all the other Comunitario PTAs. He stated: “They are doing a marvelous job of creating new PTAs and bringing in new members. They are a model to follow.”

Photo: Front (L-R): Ludivina Escalante; Martha Rodriguez, ARISE South Tower Comunitario PTA president for 2014-15; Faviola Santana, ARISE Cesar Chavez Comunitario PTA president; Lisa Holbrook, Texas PTA president-elect; Ana Maria Gonzalez, ARISE South Tower Comunitario PTA president; Lourdes Flores, ARISE South Tower Comunitario PTA co-founder; Eva Carranza, ARISE South Tower Comunitario PTA, first president. Back (L-R): Barbara Guerra, Texas PTA field service representative; Cecilia Ortiz, Texas PTA multicultural specialist; Otha Thornton, National PTA president; Lee Guerra, Texas PTA director-at-large

Ms. Lea Amber Borrego has been selected as this year’s Martha A. Hernández Scholarship recipient. During her life and in her work at IDRA, Ms. Hernández distinguished herself for exceptional professionalism, service and care of others. In her honor, IDRA set up a scholarship in her name through the San Antonio Women’s Hall of Fame. This year, all scholarships awarded by the San Antonio Women’s Hall of Fame were directed to graduating seniors at the Young Women’s Leadership Academy of San Antonio ISD. IDRA commends Ms. Borrego for reflecting these same characteristics in her scholarship application and wish her success in college and in life.

Photo: 2014 Martha A. Hernández Scholarship recipient Lea Amber Borrego, with Ms.  Hernández’ sons, Heriberto “Eddie” Hernández (far left) and Hector Hernández (center) and IDRA’s Mr. Rey Flores (far right)

IDRA’s Quality School Action Framework™ posits three change strategies to help schools and communities respond to the question: How do we make change happen. Those strategies are community capacity building, coalition building and school capacity building. In 1976, with support from the Carnegie Foundation IDRA studied school finance systems and provided information to the public. The project included training for local community members to study school finance issues and identify problems. Not long afterwards, IDRA developed A Citizen’s Guidebook to Property Tax Valuation Audits for community groups interested in sponsoring local audit projects or participating as citizen auditors.

Similar work has continued across the decades up to today with IDRA’s OurSchool portal that gives community, family and school leaders a new level of high quality, accessible data to see how their schools are doing and plan ways to improve them. The portal presents IDRA’s research results and data to promote community conversations and a framework that local, cross-sector partners can use to plan joint action to improve school holding power. More examples and resources from IDRA’s research work are available online, as are details about IDRA’s Quality Schools Action Framework™.

Encourage your friends to sign up for the IDRA Newsletter by email, IDRA eNews, Graduation for All and Classnotes Podcast notices.

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A Principal on Setting Expectations for College – Episode 126

A Principal on the Core Elements of School Transformation – Episode 127

A Principal on Supporting Teachers for Student College Readiness – Episode 128

School Change Strategies – Episode 53

Framing Systems Change for Student Success – Episode 8

Tool for Building Quality Schools – Episode 81

Latino and African-American Communities Leading School Reform – Episode 64

Videos

See video highlights from the National PTA president’s visit to Comunitario PTAs in south Texas, by PSJA ISD [10:09 min]

Fix School Discipline Videos