More Social-Emotional Learning Hype

More Social-Emotional Learning Hype:

More Social-Emotional Learning Hype

Helping children with their emotions is something teachers have done for years. Certainly, assisting children and teens with appropriate, caring behavior is an important task. And, yes, there are ways to help children feel good about who they are and what they can contribute to the world.

Of course educators should address a child’s feelings and their emotional well-being. Schools should be beautiful settings with lovely activities that tell a child the adults and their community care about them.

But all of the new Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) hype is, unfortunately, simply an afterthought to Common Core. And it doesn’t work when you say, “Oops, we forgot to consider a child’s feelings, so, yep, let’s add some checklists and objectives and we will be good to go.”

It doesn’t work that way.

Last week I wrote about the relatively new social-emotional learning hype that is sweeping the states. SEL4MA is short for Social Emotional Learning (SEL) for Massachusetts, and they began following me on Twitter. I love that they did, because they present all kinds of issues to write about. But it is frightening too.

Like the fact that the two reasons they give for the need to work with children’s SEL are:

1. Increase academic achievement (up 11% universally and 17% for at-risk More Social-Emotional Learning Hype:

Author Matt de la Peña: Diverse Books Empower Students

Author Matt de la Peña: Diverse Books Empower Students:

Author Matt de la Peña: Diverse Books Empower Students

Matt de la Peña was a racially confused, working class kid who grew up to write books about racially confused, working class kids, but the universality and humanity of his characters will speak to young readers from any background. De la Peña is the first Hispanic winner of the 2016 Newbery Medal for his picture book Last Stop on Market Street, the author of several award-winning Young Adult (YA) novels, and this summer was honored with the National Council of Teachers of English Intellectual Freedom Award for his work to stand up to censorship after his YA novel Mexican WhiteBoy was banned from Tucson, Arizona, schools (along with several other Hispanic authors) when they terminated the district’s Mexican American Studies programs.

NEA Today spoke with de la Peña about what motivates his writing and inspires his characters.

What parts of you appear in your characters?

Matt de la Peña: I steal from myself all the time. I think my own racial confusion is always present. And the guilt I feel about not being as Mexican as my uncles and cousins. I found grace in a sport [basketball] when I was young, and I explore that idea a lot. But the part of me I mine the most is the pride I’ve always felt about growing up working class.

It seems we’ve finally entered an era where diverse books are sought out and celebrated. Why is that important?

MDLP: I do sense that things are changing. “Diverse books” are getting a little more attention from both consumers and award committees. But the most vital change is happening before the book even exists. Publishers seem to be making a concerted effort to highlight diverse titles. They’re even putting money behind them in some cases. It’s important for diverse reader, of course, but it’s also important for the viability of the book business. The country is changing. The demographics are shifting. We better get out in front of this shift is we want our business to remain viable. Otherwise smart young “diverse” readers and writers will take their interests elsewhere, as they should.

 What do you hope to contribute to the diverse books movement and ultimately to your readers?

MDLP: To be honest, I don’t come at it with a thought-out plan. When I sit down to write every new book, I’m focused on the same thing. I’m trying to explore some idea that personally interests me using characters that speak to me. I’m really interested in the mixed-race experience (as I’m mixed race myself). And I’m fascinated by working class stories (as I’m from a working class world). It’s only after the book comes out, and I get a sense of the response, that I begin to understand the work’s possible contribution. Mostly I just adore telling stories, and it just so happens that the stories I gravitate toward are relevant to readers who don’t often see themselves in books.

How can reading – especially books with diverse characters – transform the lives of young people?

MDLP: If you’re growing up in a homogenous, white neighborhood, exposure to Author Matt de la Peña: Diverse Books Empower Students:

The Eternal Narcissism of White Privilege | the becoming radical

The Eternal Narcissism of White Privilege | the becoming radical:

The Eternal Narcissism of White Privilege

The nomination of Donald Trump by the Republican Party has spawned a growing body of punditry seeking ways to explain Trump’s rise without directly addressing racism, bigotry, and xenophobia.

The explanation du jour cautions critics of Trump supporters, arguing that Trump is attractive to working-class whites who have legitimate fears.

Works such as Hillbilly Elegy by J.D. Vance have become representative of the serious reconsideration of the angry white voter, as Vance proclaims:

The simple answer is that these people–my people–are really struggling, and there hasn’t been a single political candidate who speaks to those struggles in a long time.  Donald Trump at least tries.

However, as a redneck son of the self-defeating South, I immediately had a different reaction to Vance and the scramble to attend to the eternal narcissism of white privilege:

The four-year-old Joel frets about his mother: “She’s not looking at me. No one ever looks at me.”

The histrionics of working class whites, to me, sound like arrested development, spurred by the longdeferred political and social recognition about racism prompted by the #BlackLivesMatter movement.

The consequences of white privilege include that privilege is both ever-present and thus invisible—much as we says that fish don’t understand water.

And thus, while working-class whites have suffered because of disaster capitalism and the vast majority of the policies implemented by the Republican machine they support, the narcissism of privilege among working-class whites in the U.S. blinds them from two powerful and damning facts:

1. White privilege buoys all whites in comparison to black and brown people in terms of socioeconomic opportunity and wealth as well as shielding whites from the negative consequences of the U.S. judicial system and policing. Just as two examples, whites who dropped out of high school have the same employment opportunities as blacks with some college, and blacks constitute only about 12% of the U.S. population, but mass incarceration impacts 2207/100,000 blacks compared to 380/100,000 whites.
2. Working-class whites have supported Republicans for ideological reasons linked to religious and racial bigotry—while disregarding how that commitment has been self-defeating to their own interests. As Neil Gross explains: “Union decline [as a subset of many economic factors, I want to add] has left the [white] working class politically and economically vulnerable, and it’s this vulnerability Mr. Trump has been able to exploit.”

This “O, crap!” moment for working-class whites isn’t without merit, but it comes with the same sort of false The Eternal Narcissism of White Privilege | the becoming radical:

Politicians Shift Blame to Chicago Teachers for a School Funding and Pension Crisis | janresseger

Politicians Shift Blame to Chicago Teachers for a School Funding and Pension Crisis | janresseger:

Politicians Shift Blame to Chicago Teachers for a School Funding and Pension Crisis

It is really, really hard to parse out the problems in the Chicago Public Schools less than a month from the beginning of the school year. What is clear is that all the years of financial shenanigans in the school district’s management including long-running borrowing from the teachers’ pension fund to pay for the district’s operating expenses, and the budget crisis in Illinois as Governor Bruce Rauner made the state go through last fiscal year without a budget, and the rapid expansion of a charter school sector that has sucked even more students (and state aid) out of neighborhood schools in a school district with an already declining population—all this—is falling on the backs of school teachers. They have been working without a contract for a year and they want a reasonable raise.  And 500 of them just got laid off because school budgets have been cut across the board.

Here is Chicago Sun-Times’ reporter Andy Grimm summarizing the problem: “The financial woes of the Chicago Public schools ha(ve) provided the city’s principals with a deep pool of experienced applicants for teaching jobs.  CPS last week sent layoff notices to 500 teachers as principals across the cash-strapped district cut their budgets for the (2016-2017) school year. Another 500-plus non-teaching staff were also laid off. Social studies teacher Robert DiPrima carried a sheaf of resumes—and a heavy heart—to a CPS job fair…. His talks with principals were encouraging, but DiPrima still was shocked at being cut from the faculty at Jane Addams Elementary after 16 years at the South Side school… District officials have said they expect many of the teachers who lost jobs at one school will find new spots among the 1,000 teacher vacancies expected across the district… The budget crunch in CPS makes DiPrima wonder if, despite his master’s degree and National Board certification, his experience wouldn’t be a liability when budget-conscious principals are weighing him against younger candidates who are lower on the CPS pay scale.”

Part of all this, of course, is a threat to make the Chicago Teachers Union agree to a contract with teachers’ accepting a major sacrifice to keep the district afloat. The union and the district are in the midst of contract negotiations. Juan Perez, writing for the Chicago Tribune, explained the implicit threat last week: “Chicago Public Schools CEO Forrest Claypool on Tuesday warned that cuts to the classroom would be necessary if teachers don’t agree to Politicians Shift Blame to Chicago Teachers for a School Funding and Pension Crisis | janresseger:

What Real School Choice Would Look Like – And Why What They’re Selling Isn’t It | gadflyonthewallblog

What Real School Choice Would Look Like – And Why What They’re Selling Isn’t It | gadflyonthewallblog:

What Real School Choice Would Look Like – And Why What They’re Selling Isn’t It

I can’t hear the words “School Choice” without thinking of Inigo Montoya from the classic film “The Princess Bride.”

I hear Mandy Patinkin’s voice saying, “You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.”

Because just like the constant cries of “Inconceivable!” from Sicilian boss Vizzini (portrayed by the inimitable Wallace Shawn), policymakers seem a bit confused.

You would expect School Choice to mean that parents would get to choose the school their children attend. However, the policy being pushed by corporate education reformers has nothing to do with that.

It’s about allowing schools to choose students, not the other way around.

Want your child to attend a charter school? Great! In many cases he needs to meet the requirements of admission – good grades, well behaved, no learning disabilities – otherwise they boot him back to the traditional public school he came from.

Want your child to use a voucher to attend a private school? Fine! The voucher will What Real School Choice Would Look Like – And Why What They’re Selling Isn’t It | gadflyonthewallblog:

NYC Public School Parents: On Tuesday, will CAP convince on testing? Will CCS rehabilitate its image? Doubtful at best

NYC Public School Parents: On Tuesday, will CAP convince on testing? Will CCS rehabilitate its image? Doubtful at best:

On Tuesday, will CAP convince on testing? Will CCS rehabilitate its image? Doubtful at best

City and State just announced their annual Education Forum, to take place on next Tuesday, August 16.  It has the usual cast of corporate types and establishment figures, but still there are some surprises.

The panel on "Standards and Testing: What works, What Doesn’t' doesn't include any representatives from anti-Common Core and opt-out groups.  The historic success of their grassroots movement caused the Governor and other NY officials to switch positions on high-stakes testing,  and led to 250,000 students opting out of the the state exams this year.

Instead, along with Betty Rosa, the Chancellor of the Regents, and Commissioner Elia, the panel features representatives of Gates-funded groups that are relentless promoters of the Common Core and high-stakes testing that parents have already rejected in huge numbers: the Urban League and the Center for American Progress.  (The National Urban League has received $1.3 million dollars from Gates since 2015; theNew York Urban League nearly $500,000 since 2014.  The Center for American Progress  has received $4.5 million  in Gates funds for its K12 advocacy since 2010.)

The discussion is supposed to center on CAP's "Testing Bill of Rights" which was released with much fanfare last March, but has since sunk like a stone.  Not surprisingly, it does not include the right to opt out of excessive, unreliable or flawed tests.

CAP along with City and State had planned a press conference in NYC on March 24, right before the testing season, but the event was mysteriously cancelled at the last minute. It was supposed to be co-hosted by another bunch of NY Gates-funded groups including Educators 4 Excellence ($4M) and High Achievement NY (which doesn't disclose the source of its funding, but has admitted the bulk of it comes from Gates.).

Instead, a press call was hurriedly scheduled with Governor Markell of Delaware and the President of the National PTA -- another Gates-funded organization, "to focus on the right of teachers, parents, and students to high-quality tests that accurately assess student learning and help teachers understand how to improve instruction" -- none of which is true of NY exams, of course, or likely any of the other Common Core tests around the country.

The day before the press call, CAP also released  a very unfunny video onUnfunny or Die, satirizing clueless parents who throw away all their daughter's books and put tinfoil on her head -- supposedly to protect her against the Common Core.   This condescending video was widely criticized from the rightand the left, and justly sank like a stone as well. As Peter Greene put it, "anyone who is familiar with Common Core or the criticism of it knows that CAP isn't just taking shots at a straw man, but a picture of a straw man pinned to the straw lapel of a straw suit being worn by a straw man." 

in an interview in the the Washington Post, Melinda Gates  said they will continue to "stay the course" but acknowledged the fight to save the Common Core and high- stakes testing will now devolve to the states.  She said their Foundation will have to focus more on "community buy-in".  Apparently not satisfied with the lack of success of all the other organizations the Foundation funds in NY,  last week yet another pro-Common Core organization was launched with Gates money: a NY chapter of the DC-centered Education Trust (EdTrust has received over $2.8 million from Gates in 2016 alone).

One has to wonder how much CAP (or really Gates) paid for their prominent position in this forum, to try to re-introduce their lemon of a NYC Public School Parents: On Tuesday, will CAP convince on testing? Will CCS rehabilitate its image? Doubtful at best:

New LGBTQ school joins battle for trans rights in America - CBS News

New LGBTQ school joins battle for trans rights in America - CBS News:

New LGBTQ school joins battle for trans rights in America

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 ATLANTA -- Josh Farabee's 14th birthday fell on the same day as his first day at a brand new school. For him it was a double celebration.

"For me, the Pride School is kind of like a safe haven," Farabee told CBS News on a recent sunny afternoon at his home in East Atlanta. "I don't have to worry about what names people may call me or what people would pull in the bathroom. It feels very much like a gift, like finally something amazing in the world."

Josh Farabee at home in East Atlanta.

 CBS NEWS

Pride School Atlanta is the first LGBTQ+ affirming school in the South. Spearheaded by Christian Zsilavets, an openly transgender educator, it will join just a handful of such schools in the U.S. specifically designed as safe spaces for LGBTQ+ youth. It's based on the "Free School" model and Zsilavets told CBS News he's particularly focused on transgender students.

"I firmly believe that bringing trans rights to the forefront -- that we're totally ready for it," said Zsilavets, the director and co-founder of Pride School Atlanta. "Now we can start taking care of our trans youth especially."

"We have created a school where everybody gets to be themselves!" Zsilavetz announced to a classroom-full of incoming students and parents.

Christian Zsilavets opening up a classroom on the first day of Pride school.

 CBS NEWS

Farabee was born as female and named Sabrina. In February 2016, he changed his name and his pronouns after coming out to his parents, mother Stacia and step-father Jason Oberweis. His biological father transitioned from male to female in 2011.

"I don't think gender is finite," said Farabee. "To me it's how I feel most comfortable as."

"The full acronym is LGBTQQIAA," added Farabee. "It stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, queer, questioning, intersex, ally -- and agender. Or asexual. I think it's like both."

With a multi-colored pixie cut and full face expertly-applied makeup, Farabee's five-foot-one slender frame solidifies an outwardly feminine appearance. He said he often gets called a girl and "she."

"I understand -- I look like a girl," he smiled. "I'm not really trying to "make myself" look like a boy, except for wearing baggy jeans and a binder, sometimes, to flatten my chest."

Farabee holding up a binder that he wears to flatten his chest.

 CBS NEWS

As yet, there is no data on how many trans students are enrolled in U.S. schools, or the specific risks they may face. According to a June 2016 report by the Williams Institute, about 1.4 million adults in the U.S. identify as transgender -- double a widely-used previous estimate.

The same week Farabee started at Pride School, the CDC released the first nationally representative study on the health risks of the estimated 1.3 million U.S. lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) high school students.

"I was bullied in school for a few years," said Farabee. "Most of my friends that are New LGBTQ school joins battle for trans rights in America - CBS News:

Harvard and Other Schools Are Abandoning Traditional Teacher-Preparation Programs - The Atlantic

Harvard Combats a Teacher Shortage By Easing Students Into the Classroom - The Atlantic:

Harvard's New Approach to America's Teacher Deficit

The school hopes reshaping how young people enter classrooms will keep them there longer.

When Kia Turner began college, she didn’t plan on a career as a public-school teacher. “I came into college thinking I was going to go into corporate law,” said 22-year-old Turner, who graduated from Harvard this spring. But after working at an after-school program, “I kind of realized I wanted to spend my time working for kids.”

So instead of heading to law school this fall, she’ll be teaching constitutional law to a group of 10th graders at Brooklyn’s Urban Assembly School for Law and Justice, one of eight recent Harvard graduates who will step into New York City classrooms as part of a teacher-preparation program launching this year.

That program, Harvard Teacher Fellows, is an attempt to reshape the way young teachers are trained to enter high-needs schools, and to avoid the pitfalls associated with asking inexperienced teachers to quickly take on the responsibilities of seasoned educators.

While there are similar teacher-preparation models around the country that offer individualized support as new teachers learn the ropes—often called residencies—the fellowship’s leaders hope it could be replicated across the country, potentially offering education schools a way to reinvent themselves as enrollment slides. “Nationwide, we’re in a teacher shortage, especially quality teachers,” said Eric Shed, the program’s director. “We really want to impact the field of teacher preparation.”

The fellowship is different from university models that include some student teaching, and programs like Teach For America (TFA), largely because fellows are eased into the profession and given significant mentorship and support as they acclimate to the classroom, according to Shed. During their first year, for instance, they are only expected to teach two or three classes each day after completing seven months of initial training and coursework. Once the training ends, fellows are expected to stay in high-needs classrooms for four to seven years.

TFA, by contrast, was launched in 1989, and offers five weeks of training and requests a two-year commitment from teachers. TFA has been criticized in the past for contributing to high teacher turnover at struggling schools, although theorganization has said its members have access to coaches and online support—and most of its alumni stay in the field.

Shed believes Harvard’s additional training and longer teaching commitment set it apart from other programs. He added that fellows are only sent to schools “where the administration [and] school culture is one that really supports and grows teachers.”

Harvard’s approach is supported by research that shows similar models may boost student outcomes and reduce teacher turnover, which can be a critical problem at Harvard Combats a Teacher Shortage By Easing Students Into the Classroom - The Atlantic:

Why Did Black Lives Matter and the NAACP Call for an End to More Charter Schools? | Mother Jones

Why Did Black Lives Matter and the NAACP Call for an End to More Charter Schools? | Mother Jones:

Why Did Black Lives Matter and the NAACP Call for an End to More Charter Schools?

"It's time to pause and take stock."

Students in a writing class at KIPP Memphis Collegiate Middle School in Memphis Alan Spearman/AP

A few weeks ago, the Movement for Black Lives, the network that also includes Black Lives Matter organizers, released its first-ever policy agenda. Among the organization's six demands and dozens of policy recommendations was a bold education-related stance: a moratorium on both charter schools and public school closures. Charters, the agenda argues, represent a shift of public funds and control over to private entities. Along with "an end to the privatization of education," the Movement for Black Lives organizers are demanding increased investments in traditional community schools and the health and social services they provide.

The statement came several weeks after another civil rights titan, the NAACP, also passed a resolution, calling for a freeze on the growth of charter schools. The NAACP had equated charters with privatization in previous resolutions, but this year's statement—which will not become policy until the National Board meeting in the fall—represents the strongest anti-charter language to date, according toJulian Vasquez Heilig, a professor of education leadership and education chair of the NAACP's California State Conference. "The NAACP is really concerned about unregulated growth of charter schools, and says it's time to pause and take stock," says Vasquez Heilig, who posted a copy of the resolution on his blog.

Such policy positions come at a time when parents, legislators, and philanthropists across the country—from Boston to Philadelphia to Los Angeles—are embroiled in fierce debates over the role of charters, particularly in poor, urban areas where most of these schools have been growing. Since 2000, the number of charters more thantripled, from about 1.7 percent to 6.2 percent of public schools.

Charter proponents—including prominent black educators like Secretary of Education John King Jr., Geoffrey Canada, and Steve Perry—argue that legislators need to continue this momentum for "choice" and competition among schools, citing the high test scores and college acceptance letters that many charter schools deliver. "We should not have artificial barriers to the growth of charters that are good," King told reporters at the recent annual National Association of Black Journalists–National Association of Hispanic Journalists convention, adding that "charters should be a part of the public school landscape and can be a driver of opportunity for kids."

Skeptics counter that charter schools contribute to racial and socioeconomic segregation, and that high percentages of charter school students in poor, urban districts can also contribute to the fiscal stress and the downward spiral of the traditional schools. Throughout the country, Vasquez Heilig noted, state charter laws vary dramatically: Some charter schools find ways to exclude disadvantaged children; others are created with explicit commitment to serve the most disadvantaged students. Vasquez Heilig argued that a moratorium would allow the public to investigate current practices, and promote those that work the best.

"It's time to pause and investigate: Should there be so many entities that are allowed to open them?" he said. "If you are not an educator, should you be allowed to open a charter school? Is there a due process for parents who feel that their kids were pushed out? How do charters schools make decisions about firing and hiring? How do they spend public money?"

Here are some of the most significant concerns charter school critics have cited over the years:

Some charter schools practice "skimming." There is growing evidence that some charters accept only the least difficult (and that means the least expensive to educate) students. Earlier this month, a report by the ACLU Foundation of Southern California and the public interest law firm Public Advocates found that 1 in 5 California charter schools practice restrictive admissions requirements or other exclusionary practices—even though charter schools are required by law to admit all students who wish to attend. Some of these practices included denying Why Did Black Lives Matter and the NAACP Call for an End to More Charter Schools? | Mother Jones:

California’s warring education factions dueling over federal rules | The Sacramento Bee

California’s warring education factions dueling over federal rules | The Sacramento Bee:

California’s warring education factions dueling over federal rules

 The newest front in California’s perpetual war over the direction of its public schools is in Washington, D.C.

State education officials have been battling a coalition of civil rights and education-reform groups over holding local schools accountable for academic outcomes.

The state Board of Education is on the verge of approving a “multiple measures” system that downplays academic testing, but critics say it’s too obtuse to be a meaningful tool for parents and the public.

The federal Every Student Succeeds Actlooms over California’s wrangling.

When the ESSA was passed last year, state officials hailed it as a complementary move away from top-down judgments toward more flexibility and local control. They talked confidently about designing a single accountability system that would meet federal and state standards.

However, ESSA still required schools to be ranked and the lowest-performing 5 percent of schools to be identified. The draft regulations issued by the U.S. Department of Education bolster that mandate, requiring states to “assign a comprehensive, summative rating for each school to provide a clear picture of its overall standing.”

Suddenly, state officials were disenchanted with what was coming from Washington, characterizing it as continuing the punitive attitude of the discarded No Child Left Behind program.

Conversely, however, the “equity coalition” of groups critical of multiple measures saw in the proposed federal rules elements of what they had been trying, unsuccessfully, to get the state to include.

This month, in a 10-page letter, Board of Education President Michael Kirst and Tom Torlakson, the state superintendent of schools, spelled out unhappiness with the federal rules, saying they “will derail the significant progress being made in our state towardsCalifornia’s warring education factions dueling over federal rules | The Sacramento Bee:

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/politics-columns-blogs/dan-walters/article95206222.html#storylink=cpy

Half of Latino population doesn't have high school diploma - Appeal-Democrat: News

Half of Latino population doesn't have high school diploma - Appeal-Democrat: News:

Half of Latino population doesn't have high school diploma

Nearly half of Yuba City's Latino population had less than a high school education in 2014, according to a report published by national nonprofit Jobs for the Future.

The data, sourced from American Community Survey (part of the U.S. Census Bureau), showed the state average in 2014 for those with less than a high school education was 19.3 percent, and the rate of the local Latino population was 47.4 percent.

The second highest came from the Asian population (which also includes those of Indian descent) with 29.1 percent, and the white population with 8.4 percent.

"We have a major issue and need to identify opportunities to improve educational attainment in our minority communities," said Darin Gale, economic growth manager for Yuba City, in an email. The workforce development report that included the statistics included recommendations to create career pathways that feed into the local agribusiness and health care sectors.

Nancy Aaberg, superintendent of the Yuba City Unified School District, said the district utilizes a two-fold approach in supporting its English-learning students, who make up about one in five students in the district.

"The state has a much better program designed for English-learners ... but it took a long time to develop," Aaberg said.

That program comes in two parts: The first is a designated portion, which can be replaced with an elective class, in which teachers with specialized training give a formal lesson in the English language, including grammar and syntax.

The second part is integrated, where the students apply what they've learned back in their general classrooms. Aaberg said all of the district's teachers are certified in English language development in the integrated part of the day. Each school has a number of teachers who are certified for the designated part. Aaberg said the approach is to help students "really interact with the academic language."

'Fear in these statistics'

Francisco Reveles, the new superintendent of the Yuba County Office of Education, said the Latino statistic is changing, but it's a work in progress.

"It's more than a language barrier," Reveles said. "You have to look at it from a macro perspective." Reveles recalled his childhood in Texas, being the quarterback of his high school football team and valedictorian and then going home to a shower of a bucket and a can.

"It's a constellation of factors," Reveles said. He pointed to inadequate housing, unemployment, unsafe living conditions, access to equal opportunities with education and careers and children having major responsibilities at home.

"There's fear in these statistics," Reveles said. "It reflects a survival way of looking at the world."

He said to change that outlook from survival to success, schools need a curriculum that is culturally relevant: students must have stronger literacy levels earlier on; and schools must raise educational dialogue to put college on students' agendas early on.

"It's a collective responsibility," he said, though that doesn't mean to issue blame. "It's not a lack of aspiration."

Aaberg said that while it is easier for elementary school teachers to get to know their students' parents because the classroom size is smaller, parents of middle and high schoolers are also receptive and active.

"Parents of Hispanic children are very supportive of their education and very supportive of the work we do," Aaberg said. "We are very fortunate for our parent community."

Although Reveles stressed the importance of parental involvement with their children, he echoed Aaberg's sentiment.

"I'm encouraged by the caring I've seen here by educators ... and parents," he said.

Aaberg pointed to a flaw in the statistic, saying the age of those represented would be more telling of the change in school district programs.

"The good news is graduation rates are up and drop out rates are down," Aaberg said. "The graduation rates at both of our high schools are above 95 percent. Twenty percent of those students are English language learners."Half of Latino population doesn't have high school diploma - Appeal-Democrat: News:

 Resources

Sutter County One Stop

Offers an Adult Education program to improve reading or math skills, in addition to preparation for the General Educational Development test or to complete an adult high school diploma. It also offers English as a Second Language classes that funnel into the regular Adult Ed classes. One Stop also provides career technical training. For more information, go to its website: sutteronestop.com.

Yuba Community College

Yuba Community College also offers a wide variety of ESL classes ranging in skill. See every course they offer at: tinyurl.com/htl2r65.

Alliance for Hispanic Advancement

This group of community members help provide scholarships to Hispanic students, as well as a wide range of activities and programs to combat issues faced by the local Latino community. For more information, go to its website:tinyurl.com/jpcmufg or visit its Facebook page.Half of Latino population doesn't have high school diploma - Appeal-Democrat: News: