“There has been notable progress in Hispanic educational achievement, and it is due to the efforts of these Bright Spots in Hispanic Education, programs and organizations working throughout the country to help Hispanic students reach their full potential,” said Alejandra Ceja, Executive Director of the White House Initiative.

To learn more about the Initiative and to view the Bright Spots in Hispanic Education national online catalog visit www.ed.gov/HispanicInitiative.

For Katherine Del Monte, the director of the Project and publisher of Lectura Books, the national recognition “is a testament to all the parents who attended the weekly program, the dedicated teachers who taught the program over years, and the district leaders who provided support for staff. It speaks loudly and clearly about the investment that everyone makes day in and day out to improve the lives of children and families in our school systems across America. Everyone involved with the Project deserves this wonderful accolade.”

The whole aim of The Latino Family Literacy Project is to prepare teachers for successful parent involvement with Spanish-speaking parents in their schools. As Del Monte notes, schools “need to provide a foundation for family literacy that compliments Hispanic parents and helps teachers understand the acculturation process.”

That means helping teachers understand how socioeconomic influences affect education, how to meet parents at their knowledge level, and how to work with diverse language and literacy skills in one classroom of parents and their children. At the end of the Project’s workshops, teachers leave with a renewed understanding of parent involvement and with a stronger sense of cultural competency as an organic component of engagement with Hispanic families. They are also equipped with a specific step-by-step curriculum for use with Spanish-speaking parents. For these reasons and the tremendous outcomes, The Latino Family Literacy Project is a Bright Spot in Hispanic Education in the United States.

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Research shows that parent involvement in their children’s education is one of the most important barometers for academic success and increasingly seen as an essential element of a school’s programming, and there is 30 years of support research.

The most important skill that a student can learn is how to read in English. Learning to read becomes the avenue to all other academic skills and successes. Becoming a reader is an easier process when parents are involved. This is especially true for English language learners whose parents are primarily Spanish speakers. In essence, the key to parent involvement for English language learners is to embed family reading in the educational process.

-Create an inclusive and welcoming environment. Parent involvement is an interactive process and is best accomplished by involving the parents in the learning process as much as possible. It’s best to start with informing Hispanic parents about the activities in the classroom and the events at school. Keep in mind that Hispanic parents may sometimes feel left out due to language differences.

-Two-way Communication. It’s good to listen and observe before reaching out. Get a sense of the Hispanic family home culture before communicating. Conveying a sense of respect and interest by listening to parents’ concerns, signals your sincere interest. Once you have a good sense of the home culture and the parents’ hopes and dreams for their children, then begin to communicate with parents every chance you can through bilingual and translated flyers, meetings (both formal and informal), using interpreters, and encouraging an atmosphere of excitement about learning. If the parents are excited about the learning process that enthusiasm will be transmitted to their children.

-Provide instruction and meaningful engagement. It will help to offer instruction, coaching and tips to parents about how they can be involved in their child’s learning process. For educators and teachers the goal is to support parents in their home. Providing meaningful material and coaching with effective strategies, and then discussing the importance of the home environment is crucial in this process.

–Make it a family experience. This method allows parents who speak Spanish to read the same books at the same time with their children who are learning English in school, and provides children the opportunity to practice reading to their parents in English.

Parent involvement and family reading go hand in hand and it only happens when the school is committed to real engagement with Hispanic parents and their children. It’s a two-way process and given the immense amount of research regarding the importance of parent involvement and the fundamental role of reading in education, reaching out to Hispanic families is a must to ensuring academic success for their children.

Still not sure? Contact our office for an information kit at info@Latinoliteracy.com

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