CABE Corner April/May Newsletter

April/May 2023 • Issue 67 • California Association for Bilingual Education

Biliteracy, Multicultural Competency, and Educational Equity for All!

Important Upcoming Dates in this Newsletter:

TODAY! May 3—Deadline for CABE Board Elections Nominations

May 9 & 16— CABE ELD Virtual Series

June 28-30—CABE Summer Spanish DLI Institute

June 30—Submission deadline for Multilingual Educator magazine

2023 CABE Board election nominations closes today at 11:59 pm...

View/Download Flyer in English

Ver/Descargar folleto en español

Help us spread the word...

Learn more about CABE job openings

What's new in Sacramento that impacts education? Find out here...

CABE Legislative Advocate Report

by Jennifer Baker

CABE 2023 Sponsored Legislation
CABE Takes Bill Positions

Read Report

Don't miss the last component of this series...

Viiew/Download Flyer

Meet Dr. Lettie Ramírez...

Born in El Paso, Texas, Dr. Lettie Ramírez grew up in Ciudad Juárez, México with her parents and twin brother Andrés (Andy). Her father owned a gas station in the US and commuted across the border daily. She and her brother attended the same elementary school where her mother taught. When they were in 7th grade, the family returned to the US, and her mother became the commuter, traveling every day to teach in Mexico. She remembers that learning English was a bit of a struggle, but with her strong foundation in Spanish, she picked it up quickly. In high school, she was placed into a non-challenging, non-academic track, but enjoyed the tennis team and dance class. As an adolescent, she noticed she was treated quite differently than her twin brother—he had a car and did not need a chaperone to attend dances! Lettie remembers taking his car to go out for lunch in high school.

Her parents made clear the expectation of higher education, and Lettie became a first-generation college student. She started out as a business major and knew she didn't want to be a teacher because she saw how much work it was for her mother. However, doing community service in schools opened her to the idea of helping others. She saw the needs of students like herself and wanted to help non-English speakers succeed in school. This changed her mind about teaching, and she decided to pursue a degree in Education, earning a BS in Bilingual Education at the University of Texas, El Paso and landing her first teaching job as a bilingual second-grade teacher.

After getting married and moving to Fort Worth, Lettie started her master's in special education because she was concerned about English learners being incorrectly placed in special education classes. She enrolled at the University of North Texas to become a school psychologist in order to test students properly. She became a diagnostician, taking the fastest track, which led to a doctoral scholarship at UT Austin. She always taught or worked while going to school, and toward the end of her doctorate, she worked at Southwest Educational Development Laboratory, where she provided professional development and support to districts across Texas. After obtaining her doctorate, she taught at UT Pan American, then moved to California, where she spent the next 27 years at CSU East Bay as a professor in the Department of Teacher Education. There, she held several titles, such as the special assistant to the university president and then later to the provost, as well as the director of international programs for all CSU students in Mexico. During her tenure, she wrote and managed multiple grants to support ESL and bilingual education teachers totaling over $75 million.

In her retirement, Lettie has kept busy writing and promoting the award-winning "No Estás Solo" book series. The first book, No Estás Solo: Recetas Para Obtener Éxito, De Padres Para Padres (later translated to English), was co-written with parents, and the profits are donated to CABE. Two years later, a second book was published by and for university students, with a third version coming out this summer by and for high school students. What's next? A book written by and for undocumented students!

When Lettie moved to California, she joined CABE and attended her first CABE conference—the largest she had ever seen, with over 12,000 teachers and parents! She has served on the CABE Board as the Director of Community Affairs from 2011 to 2013, and the Director of Secondary and IHE Affairs, from 2013 to 2017, and currently. She is honored to serve CABE and support communities, parents, families, and students. "I think CABE does an amazing job of supporting teachers and parents equally with the goal of supporting students. I can't imagine any other place I'd love to volunteer my time and energy." She believes that we can all help each other and that even small steps can open doors for others.

In her free time, Lettie recruits like-minded people to support her favorite projects. She enjoys walking on the beach daily with her dog, Mocha, a mixed chihuahua breed, riding bikes, and traveling. She has visited almost 90 countries, most recently, Ireland.

Meet CEO Jan Gustafson-Corea...

Jan Gustafson-Corea, a 3rd generation educator, was born in northern Minnesota to a family of educators. Her father was a teacher, principal, and administrator, and her paternal grandmother was a one-room schoolteacher in the early 1900s in rural Minnesota, where she met Jan's grandfather when he was on the local school board. Her great-grandparents, immigrants from Sweden, Norway, and Germany during the late 1800s and early 1900s, were farmers and homesteaders sparked by the idea of more opportunities during depressed economic times in northern Europe. While hard to verify, there is hope and a sense by Jan and her family that her ancestors were not aware that the Homestead Act was part of the US plan to push out, isolate, and annihilate Native American communities. It’s a conflicting part of her family history and difficult to know if, as new immigrants to the US, her great great grandparents had awareness of the role that they and thousands of other immigrants played in this dark part of US history. She shares that “hopefully, in some small way, my passion for social justice, the development of multilingualism and education was, and continues to be, a priority and seen as a way to move beyond farming, rural life, and basic subsistence on both sides of my family. Their immigrant languages were maintained by the first generation through church and community activities but sadly and regrettably lost by the second generation (my parents) as English prevailed. The English-only movement was sadly alive and strong more than a hundred years ago!"

The youngest of four siblings, Jan grew up in a small town and attended a small K-12 school where her father, Don, taught science, became the school AV (audio visual director), and eventually the principal. Her mom, Winnie, became a nurse, obtained a master's degree, and worked toward a doctorate while Jan was in high school and college. She was strongly influenced by the Women’s Lib movement of the 70s and found a sense of freedom and new self-identity through continuing her education, traveling, and becoming more aware of the broader world. Jan, rather predictably, always wanted to be a teacher, played "school" a lot as a young child, and had a love of the outdoors, reading, art, and music. Small-town life, while comfortable and inviting, fomented her love for living in larger urban areas, and today she loves living in southern California but still enjoys her visits back to Minnesota and the Midwest.

She earned her B.A. in Elementary Education and Spanish at Bethel University in St. Paul, and after college, she worked for two years in Quito, Ecuador, and Cuautla, Mexico, through church-sponsored programs. By living and working there, she acquired a higher level of proficiency in Spanish and became bilingual and biliterate. Jan's first teaching job was as a bilingual designated 5th-grade teacher in Chandler, AZ, where she became aware of the Sanctuary Movement or "underground railroad" assisting Central American immigrants fleeing war and poverty as they sought political asylum and other opportunities in the US. This work opened her eyes to politics and discrimination and prompted her to become involved with a non-profit that supported Central American immigrants in the Phoenix area. After finishing her M.A. in Bilingual Education at Arizona State University, she decided to move to L.A. to get more involved in the Sanctuary Movement, working for a non-profit called CARECEN (Central American Resource Center) where she became even more aware of the journey and plight of thousands of Central American families and children.

After working in support of political asylum and immigrant processes, Jan shares that she returned to teaching, where she found that she could apply her knowledge and passion for supporting immigrant communities and families within the field of education. Jan's career in education took her from working as a bilingual resource teacher in Pasadena to CSU Long Beach at the Center for Language Minority Education and Research (CLMER). She later became Coordinator and Director of Educational Technology and EL/Bilingual Services at San Bernardino County Superintendent of Schools, where she led a five-year program across five counties to support the needs of ELs called the PROMISE Initiative.

Then she worked for two and a half years as a Senior Executive Director in San Francisco USD's Academics and Professional Development division, commuting between Northern and Southern California. After many long hours of commuting back and forth, she transitioned back to Southern California and was selected as the principal of the Norton Science and Language Academy, a K-6 dual language immersion charter school in San Bernardino. Having spent several years in district and county administration, she says, "It was refreshing and rewarding to be back at a school site to work with students, families, educators, and staff every day. It grounded me in the 'why' of being in education and energized me around instruction, accountability, and the importance of the home-school-community connections that helped create a successful DLI school, bringing policy into practice. We worked to create the kind of school community we wanted to see reflected in the larger society—multilingual, inclusive, rigorous, engaging, and loving. The experience brought my heart back to the students we serve and reminded me of how challenging, yet powerful, working at a school site can be."

During all these career pathways, Jan was a member of CABE, serving as the Education Conference Coordinator from 1996 to 1999. She also served on CABE's Board of Directors for multiple terms as the Director of Finance and was eventually inspired to apply for the CEO position that opened in 2012. "I was attracted to coming back because CABE has always been my professional learning community where friends and colleagues with the same vision became a close professional familia. CABE opened my eyes to how extensive the world of education is at the local, regional, state, and national levels. It really changed my views on education and how we can work within that system, and how important it is to advocate and speak out for the needs of all students, particularly those of diverse language and cultural backgrounds. CABE became a place of inspiration for my parents, Don and Winnie, as well, who volunteered for many years at the CABE annual conference, where you would find them helping in the CABE Store and enjoying, conversing, learning, and sharing with educators and parents from all over California and beyond. CABE has always been a place of heart, of home, of commitment—where we are all working together to truly make a difference in the lives of our students, families, and communities. Becoming CEO in 2012 was something I had never even imagined, but I felt it was a natural, seamless step back into the world of the CABE vision."

Looking back over the past 11 years, Jan notes, "how we've grown as an organization and how we've rested on the foundations of leaders many decades before, giving us the push to continue to grow, advance, and expand our vision. I have so many amazing memories, and I am extremely proud and inspired by our CABE Board of Directors, our members and chapters, and, of course, our CABE Team that has grown from 10 employees in 2012 to now over 50 full- and part-time employees. I have served with six CABE Board Presidents, dozens of Board members, a growing staff, and wonderful partner organizations, and together, we've been able to expand the reach and impact of CABE through our legendary conferences, our powerful parent and family engagement, our impactful professional learning services, our publications, our highly effective policy and advocacy work in Sacramento, our cross border and binational partnerships, and our strong membership and support programs. After 11 years as CEO, I reached the challenging yet, in the end, a natural decision that I felt that it was time for CABE to continue its growth and leadership to open doors and possibilities for new styles of leadership to continue this legacy in impactful and innovative ways. Just as we have grown over the past 11 years upon the foundation of past leadership, I'm excited to see new and continued leadership at CABE to continue that growth. After nearly 40 years in education, I feel it's time for me to encourage and build continued leadership to take us to the next step. I truly look forward to supporting the transition of the new CEO and working as a Senior Consultant on special projects to continue the vision of CABE on a part-time basis. Thanks to our board and staff for being the community we are and for enriching and impacting my life in so many ways."

In her free time, Jan loves to spend time with her husband Roberto and their family—Robert and Rachael—and their extended family in El Salvador and Minnesota. She also enjoys walking, traveling, going to the beach, and gardening and is now looking forward to enjoying more reading, music, plays, and concerts. When asked if there is a quote that inspires her work, she cites two sayings—one by Margaret Mead: Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has! And the other by the Spanish poet, Antonio Machado: Caminante, son tus huellas el camino y nada más; Caminante, no hay camino, se hace camino al andar. Al andar se hace el camino, y al volver la vista atrás, se ve la senda que nunca se ha de volver a pisar. Caminante, no hay camino sino estelas en la mar.