Class act: ‘Our Families’ opens doors for Hispanic students
Published: June 14, 2011
She was a high-achieving student at Castro Valley High School who was on track to graduate with all the credits she needed for admission to California’s prestigious state university system. But in the spring of her junior year, Tracy Aguilar was puzzled when her counselor, Connie A.W. Iglesias, insisted that her star student apply to U.C.
“When Mrs. Iglesias talked about ‘U.C.’, I didn’t know what that was,” recalls Aguilar incredulously. “I thought ‘college’ meant community college. I didn’t know there were different kinds.”
Today Aguilar not only knows a lot more about the University of California than she did a year ago, she’s looking forward to enrolling as a freshman at the Santa Cruz campus this fall—thanks, in part to a special program at CVHS—part of the Castro Valley Unified School District—aimed at expanding horizons and opportunities for Castro Valley’s Hispanic students.
“The program really opened my eyes and opened some doors,” Aguilar says.
CVHS counselor Iglesias began recruiting young Hispanic students like Aguilar to join her new “Mujeres” (Spanish for “Women”) group in 2008 in hopes of closing the achievement and opportunity gaps between those students and their classmates from other cultures.
She came up with the idea for Mujeres while earning her counseling degree in graduate school, after noting the huge disparities between what Hispanic students expect to do with their lives and the aspirations of young women from other backgrounds.
“Latinos are our largest student subgroup in California, and these students are most likely to drop out,” Iglesias says. “I am Latina myself and a former teacher, and I saw how many students didn’t realize there were options for them, and that they had choices for their lives. Part of it is a matter of culture and family expectations. I wanted to reach out to those kids and their parents so they get a better idea of all the opportunities out there.”
Mujeres is one of three district clubs; “La Esperanza” (“Hope”) is based at Creekside Middle School and PALMS (Post Secondary Access for Latino Middle Grades Students) is at Canyon Middle School. All focus on boosting Hispanic achievement. The clubs are part of the district’s expanding efforts under the Our Families program to involve and engage students and parents from all cultures in their school communities. The program expanded its focus this year from young Hispanic women by launching a club for young men at Creekside.
The clubs expose students and their families to an array of opportunities for pursuing college or vocational training. They also link older students with younger children as mentors and role models and emphasize the importance of giving back to their respective communities by teaching other students what they’ve learned. The Our Families program won a Golden Bell Award from CSBA in 2010 for its success closing the achievement gap.
“Once we had the data, we could see the big achievement gap between different student groups, and we knew where we needed to focus,” says Mary Ann DeGrazia, principal at Creekside Middle School. “We started with the girls and our club for the boys is just getting under way. We’ve had good luck getting families involved too.”
As Aguilar’s case illustrates, even Hispanics who grow up wanting to go to college often need help understanding the system, negotiating the practicalities of choosing a school and applying for admission and financial aid. These young students—and their parents—need role models, basic information and support, Iglesias says.
“I absolutely know that there are students who graduated from high school because of this program, who otherwise would have dropped out,” says Iglesias. “We emphasize the importance of holding onto your culture, but also of defying the statistics that predict you will drop out.”
Iglesias meets weekly with the Mujeres club and works with students on an individual basis. She visits her students at home, meets their families and hands out her cell phone number.
“Students and their families understand this isn’t just a job for me,” she says.
Castro Valley Assistant Superintendent Maggie MacIsaac says the district has boosted its Academic Performance Index numbers and credits the Our Families outreach for some of the improvement in test scores, attendance and the number of students and families who are involved in the high school community. She says she has been inspired to see so many students and parents turn out for Mujeres club events at the high school and hopes the program can be replicated at local elementary schools.
But organizing and supervising the clubs is a big responsibility.
“My hope is to have these programs ingrained in our schools’ culture and not just driven by a number of charismatic individuals,” MacIsaac says.
—Carol Brydolf
Who: Our Families program
What: campus-based student clubs that support Latino students
Where: Castro Valley High School, Creekside and Canyon middle schools, Castro Valley Unified School District
When: since 2007
Why: to broaden opportunities and provide support to Hispanic students and their families: with a special focus on Latina students