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This month's focus: College Bound
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This issue of the IDRA Newsletter has stories on the Texas Top Ten Percent Plan and seven ways we can ensure all qualified students gain access to our public universities, five strategies for creating college readiness for students of color and immigrant students, strategies for schools to protect Muslim students, IDRA's alert for registering immigrant students for school, and news about the upcoming Annual IDRA La Semana del Niño Parent Institute™.
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Since When are Good Grades and Diversity a Bad Thing? -
7 Recommendations and the Texas Top Ten Percent Plan
by David Hinojosa, J.D.
As Texas continues to graduate a more diverse group of students from its public high schools, competition for limited seats at the state's most popular flagship university, the University of Texas at Austin (UT-Austin), grows tighter and tighter each year. Over the years, the state's Top Ten Percent Plan has helped ensure a greater racial and geographic diversity of qualified students admitted to and enrolled at UT-Austin.
Nevertheless, some policymakers see this growing diversity as "problematic" and are calling for further reforms. While the Top Ten Percent Plan is not a stand-alone solution to achieving equal access to the state's universities, the facts show that the plan has been an effective race-neutral measure at increasing racial, geographic and socioeconomic diversity.
Rather than further scaling back on the Top Ten Percent Plan, state policymakers should instead explore how other equitable policies can complement it and support increased enrollment and completion at our public institutions (Hinojosa, 2016).
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Keep reading
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5 Strategies for Creating College Readiness for Students of Color and Immigrant Students
by DeShawn Preston, Ph.D. Candidate, & Amanda E. Assalone, Ph.D.
In order to meet the nation's goal for leading the world in college completion by 2020, schools must provide multiple pathways to college in an effort to meet the needs of all students. The entire school community, e.g., administrators, teachers, and students, must commit to maintaining a college going culture for a student population that is becoming increasingly diverse (Martínez, 2015).
Listed below are successful strategies to consider for creating college readiness for students of color and students from immigrant families
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Relational Youth Violence - Protecting Muslim Youth in School
School-age children in the United States are growing up in an environment that is increasingly hostile toward the Muslim community. Analyzing the most recent FBI data available, the Pew Research Center (2016) finds that hate crimes against Muslims in 2015 had risen to similar levels as those committed shortly after 9/11, which was a 67 percent increase in incidents from the previous year. Although 2016 numbers from the FBI will not be available until late this year, it is unlikely that this number will have decreased.
The Southern Poverty Law Center (2016) has been gathering unofficial counts of hateful harassment and intimidation. In the five days after the 2016 election, it documented more than 40 anti-Muslim incidents. Furthermore, of the total 437 total incidents collected, 99 (23 percent) occurred in a K-12 setting; this was the most frequently-cited location for harassment incidents
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Immigrant Students' Rights to Attend Public Schools - Alert for Registering Students for School
As schools are registering students for the next school year, this alert is a reminder that public schools, by law, must serve all children. The education of undocumented students is guaranteed by the Plyler vs. Doe decision, and certain procedures must be followed when registering immigrant children in school to avoid violation of their civil rights.
Recent executive orders issued by the Administration do not alter the right of undocumented students to receive a free public education. -
Keep reading
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Updated eBook in
English and Spanish on supporting immigrant students
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College Bound and Determined
See IDRA's report showing how the Pharr-San Juan-Alamo school district in south Texas transformed itself from low achievement and low expectations to planning for all students to graduate from high school and college. In PSJA, transformation went beyond changing sobering graduation rates or even getting graduates into college. This school district changes how we think about college readiness.
This transformation has resulted in the district doubling the number of high school graduates, cutting dropout rates in half, and increasing college-going rates. In fact, half of the district's students are earning college credit while still in high school.
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Supporting the Success of Every Student
Apoyando el éxito de cada estudiante
Bilingual Parent Institute * April 27, 2017
Special event for families, community groups and educators
This annual institute offers families, school district personnel and community groups from across the country the opportunity to network, obtain resources and information, and receive training and bilingual materials on IDRA's nationally-recognized research based model for parent leadership in education.
This year's institute, funded in part by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, will highlight family engagement as it relates to the new
Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), which replaced the
No Child Left Behind Act.
This institute is interactive and participatory. All presentations are bilingual (English-Spanish).
Date: April 27, 2017
Time: 9:00 am - 2:00 pm
Place: Whitley Theological Center, 285 Oblate Drive, San Antonio
Highlights coming in 2017
- Bilingual presentations on successful family engagement
- Roundtable educational presentations
- Parent interviews
- Breakout sessions on education topics
- Refreshments and lunch
- Exhibitors, including service providers, college and universities and non-profit agencies
Event Registration
The fee is $60 per person (includes presentations, materials, exhibits, refreshments and lunch). For more information, contact Ms. Jocellyn Rivera (e-mail contact@idra.org; phone 210-444-1710).
Also see photos, videos and articles to find out why IDRA's parent institute is so powerful!
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Classnotes Podcasts on Student Voice
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