Celebrating opportunities

Hispanic student achievement will be topic of March 23-25 conference in New Mexico

This year’s Celebrating Educational Opportunities for Hispanic Students conference will include presentations from at least five California school districts—and one former gang member who went on to Harvard University.

Those speakers, appearing March 23-25 at the Hotel Albuquerque in the 400-year-old Old Town section of New Mexico’s largest city, will be in good company; they’ll be joined by CSBA President Kathy Kinley, her counterparts from Arizona, Texas and New Mexico, and E. Jane Gallucci, president of the National School Boards Association.

Their presentations, and others at the 16th annual conference sponsored by the four southwestern state school boards associations, will explore ways to promote academic achievement among Hispanic students. More than 300 school board members and other local education leaders attended last year’s conference in Tucson, Ariz.

Model programs that are producing solid results with Hispanic students will be discussed in breakout sessions that allow participants to learn what works, share experiences and trade ideas about community and parent involvement, language and achievement, technology, and data-driven analysis and accountability. California educators and governance team members who will present their model programs include:

• Barbara C. Ybarra, principal of Rio Rosales Elementary School in the Rio School District in Oxnard, speaking on “Mythbusters: Debunking Remediation and Targeting Acceleration”

• Robert Martinez, of the Salinas Union High School District, discussing “A System for Improving Student Achievement”
• John M. Nelson and Sandra Villegas-Duvanich, of Chula Vista Elementary School District, on “Data Driven Analysis: An Essential Tool for Improving English Learner Performance”
• Jennifer Elbert-Rasmussen, of Escondido Union High School District, on “Spanish for Spanish Speakers”
• Earl Shore, principal of Mead Valley Elementary School in Val Verde Unified School District, on “Strategic Schooling”

Keynote speakers will include “Señor Chocolat,” who graduated from gangs to go to Harvard, New Mexico State University professor and futurist Lowell Catlett, and Southwestern author Rudolfo A. Anaya.

Conference registration costs $305 until March 1, when it rises to $330. The deadline for hotel reservations is March 5. 

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4For conference registration and more information, visit the New Mexico School Boards Association Web site at www.nmsba.org or call
505-983-5041.