Newspaper helps Direction of Research

Media Evidence gives Direction

After reviewing several news articles, two from the New York Times and another from the Daily Herald located in Arlington Heights Illinois I’m seeing how cultural communication difficulties are keeping Hispanic parents away form schools. The evidence on how different barriers are embedded in the public school system goes back to its creation. When searching the New York Times historical data base I found as far back as 1980s different coalitions created to help Hispanic parents with involvement in American public school system. The Hispanic Student Advocacy Project is just one great example. With the purpose of “Training adults to be ‘advocates for their own children’ in schools” the program recruits community members and trains them to be advocates in schools. They basically become liaisons between schools and families that need help. This example which is based in New York, recruits from all Hispanic cultures. The principle purpose of their project is to focus on kids that are at risk to drop out of school. Due to social economic hardships and cultural disparities the research has shown that Hispanic children are at risk to drop out. (Coalition for Helping Hispanic Parents, New York Times, Sunday, Dec. 16, 1989)

The crucial thing that I got that is useful today from the Coalition article was when helping/teaching Hispanic parents it is imperative they know their rights. In Mexico the rights of the parents are limited, so this is why the Hispanic cultures are more trusting of the system, or in other words they have to accept it. Another important fact that came from the same reading was the recruitment process of Hispanic parents. The organization went into cultural based food markets, laundry mats, and churches to argue their plea. The biggest opposition to helping was the families were to busy earning money to survive. But the Coalition was resourceful; they allowed parents to help in non-typical types of involvement. They didn’t come to the schools and do active participation. They worked phone trees and organized different cultural functions that inspired community based activism.

Another way to think about the bond between schools and Hispanic parents is holistically. Using a great reading by Linda Chavez in the N.Y. Times dated Aug. 3, 1986 titled Encouraging Hispanic Students to Stay in School. Chavez uses examples from Chicago, New York and Texas to examine why there is such a high drop out rate among Hispanic students. The nation average in 1985 for students dropping out of high school was 29%, but in the Hispanic’s it was over 37%. Her examination produced several alternatives that are holistically developed to connect or bond the Hispanics to the schools. It seems like it gives them their own place in the school system. One good example is a tutor program in San Antonia where high school kids tutor primary kids. The point is giving the high school kids self worth. The parents are involved because they are the liaisons. Another program offers Hispanic only sports teams, in this example it was baseball. Allowing the community to support a cultural based team really connected the community as a whole.

Finally I found evidence that would be helpful in teacher/Hispanic parent relationship because as the article states “We don’t need to campaign the importance of education to Hispanic parents. The task of educators is to help all parents to translate their caring into actions” (Dornbush, S. N.Y. Times. May 8, 1990) and I think this is the most powerful thing I have read since starting this journey. This article points out that due to less education, lower social economical status and lack of English language skills; Hispanic parents are less likely to criticize American teachers. This is a problem, because as we have seen from our class work, parent involvement is crucial to student success.