Giving Compass' Take:
- Stephanie Parra, executive director of Arizona Latino Leaders in Education, sheds light on the long-lasting education gaps for Latino students, specifically in Arizona, and how policies need to change to help them succeed.
- How can donors help ensure that all learners have equitable access to education?
- Read more on how to best serve Latino students.
What is Giving Compass?
We connect donors to learning resources and ways to support community-led solutions. Learn more about us.
After testing positive for COVID-19 back in June, I thought about my own responsibility to publicly share my diagnosis and struggles with accessing testing and adequate care. Any doubt I had quickly faded as I remembered that the voices of Black and brown families were largely being silenced and ignored as states discussed plans to reopen their economies. And despite the fact that Black and brown families are carrying the burden of this pandemic on their shoulders, their input has largely been absent from discussions about reopening schools this fall.
This isn’t just a trend that we are seeing during this pandemic. It’s something that happens all the time.
As a Latina who oversees one of the few non-white-led education organizations in Arizona, and as a school board member in Phoenix, our voice is critical not just to address learning loss during this pandemic, but to reimagine our education system altogether. It has taken a pandemic to reveal what we have known all along: Our education system is broken, and it’s students of color who are paying the price of this broken system.
In Arizona, it has been almost 20 years since we started discussing how the state’s education system is serving Latino students. It was clear back then that state leaders were failing Latino students, as the data pointed to a substantial and persistent academic achievement gap between Latino and White students. This year, we embarked on a project to collect our own data and measure the progress that has occurred for Latino students in the last 20 years.
Latinos are largely left out of education decision-making tables and Arizona’s teaching workforce. While 46 percent of pre-K-12 students in Arizona are Latino, less than 10 percent of state Board of Education members, who are appointed by the governor, and only 15 percent of the teaching workforce are Latino. We know that this lack of representation and inclusion has contributed to the growing gaps in achievement for Latino students.
Read the full article about education for Latino students by Stephanie Parra at The 74.