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Posts Tagged ‘Education’

Pew research reveals Latino attitudes toward English

3:18 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Immigration| language · Comments Off

8 Jun 2006

Contrary to the argument that a lot of anti-immigrant people tend to make — that Latino immigrants “don’t want to learn English” — some new data from the Pew Hispanic Center.

Hispanics by a large margin believe that immigrants have to speak English to be a part of American society and even more so that English should be taught to the children of immigrants, according to recent surveys conducted by the Pew Hispanic Center.

The endorsement of the English language, both for immigrants and for their children, is strong among all Hispanics regardless of income, party affiliation, fluency in English or how long they have been living in the United States.

Florida gets an “F” in History

1:54 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Education| Florida| history · Comments Off

6 Jun 2006

The Miami Herald has an article today about how, despite the very strong Latin American and Spanish origins of the state of Florida (and it’s huge Latino population), the state’s educational system is flunking out on teaching kids about Latin American history — and any other history:

Despite the state’s burgeoning Hispanic population, an education think tank gives Florida an F when it comes to teaching students about the history of Latin America — or any other civilization.

The failing grade comes because the state’s standards for teaching world history are so vague, concludes the study by the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation, which didn’t hesitate to castigate the state.

”Florida’s approach is so superficial that it is, for all intents and purposes, worthless,” said the report, which was released Monday. “There’s nothing glowing in the Sunshine State’s standards, and little worth redeeming.”

Student unrest in Chile continues

6:45 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Activism| Chile| Education| Politics · 1 Comment

5 Jun 2006

Unrest in Chile’s schools rages on after weeks of sit-ins and protests. The Latin Americanist rounds up a few stories about this ongoing saga on their site today. QuePasa reports on recent incidents which they say mark the “first crisis” of Bachelet’s presidency:

Faced with the first major crisis of her three-month old term, President Michelle Bachelet proposed amending Chile’s constitution to guarantee quality education.

But as her proposal was made, police fired water cannons and tear gas on about 1,000 high school students and some adults at a barricade blocking public transport in downtown Santiago.

Leaders of the protests said more than one million students and their supporters would take part in the latest nationwide strike. They are demanding efforts by the government to close the gap between public

Bachelet is calling the protests

“…’unnecessary’ but said that by Tuesday “I will send to Congress a bill to reform the constitution, to confirm the right of all citizens to a quality education.”

She added: “The students have made felt their demands, which I have described as just and legitimate, for a better quality education, and they did it peacefully.”

See some amazing photos about all of this on Flickr.

Via / Que Pasa and The Latin Americanist

Photo via JP’s Flickr page

Racist teacher canned in Chicago

5:34 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Controversia| Education| chicago · 1 Comment

11 May 2006

An art teacher who allegedly erupted in racial slurs towards her students — among them “all Mexicans are criminals” — has been fired by the Chicago charter school where she works. U.S. press has been reporting on this in bits and pieces, but Spanish daily 20 Minutos sums it up quite well:

According to witnesses, the teacher became angry last Friday during an art class when someone stained her jacket with paint.

It was then that she said, according to the same sources, “all Mexicans are criminals” and “you were born to scrub floors”.

The article points out the school was advised by its attorneys that the best thing to do was to fire the teacher. When this was announced last night at a PTA meeting the attendees burst into applause.

According to CBS2 Chicago, all teachers at the school will now have to undergo “sensitivity training”.

Watch a report on this case on CBS2 Chicago’s website

Via / 20 Minutos and CBS 2

Latino segregation in Denver?

12:47 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Education| children| race · Comments Off

20 Jan 2006

It appears that in 2006, school segregation is back in style in Denver. Or that desegregation of schools effectively ended when the government stopped forcing the busing issue:

The study says white students re-segregated rapidly after the desegregation order was lifted, reports the Denver Post.

The study done for Denver’s Piton Foundation says individual schools no longer represent the city’s demographics. Denver’s student population is 57 percent Latino, 20 percent white and 19 percent black, reports the Denver Post.

“You have white students who are concentrated in schools with other white students,” said the study’s researcher Chungmei Lee. “Latino students are especially isolated.”

I guess we have to be forced to live among each other, robbing our children the gift of being surrounded by people of different backgrounds, enriching their learning process. Incredible that we still can’t do it on our own.

Via / UPI

Met Offers Art in Spanish

11:54 am By Maegan La Mala · Arts| Events| Family| New York City| children · Comments Off

9 Jan 2006

The world famous Metropolitan Museum of Art, located in New York City, to make sure that children and their families have access to the world of fine arts regardless of what language is spoken. The Education Department of the Met is sponsoring a Spanish language program named El primer contacto con el arte. The lectures and activities are being held every Saturday from 11:30 a.m. a 1:00 p.m. in the Uris Education Center and are open to children between 6 and 12 years of age accompanied by one adult. Each month a new artistic theme or time period is studies. In January the theme is The Renaissance in Europe. The program is scheduled to run through May and is free with paid admission to the museum. For more information regarding these and other programs call (212) 650-2833 or visit www.metmuseum.org.

Via / El Diario NY

Send Us Your Students

11:00 am By Maegan La Mala · Education · Comments Off

2 Jan 2006

Educators from public and private colleges and universities from across he U.S. and Puerto Rico are meeting to figure out how to attract more foreign students. The meeting to be held at the end of this week and sponsored by the U.S. Department of State will determine strategies to boost sagging international enrollment numbers. Some notable Latino leaders have taken advantage of educational opportunities here in the U.S. including Chilean president Ricardo Lagos, Colombian President Alvaro Uribe and Dominican president Leonel Fernandez.

Via / Univision.com

Colombians the Most Educated Immigrants

9:12 am By Maegan La Mala · Colombia| Education| Immigration · 1 Comment

14 Dec 2005

According to a study conducted by the Center for Immigration Studies released on Monday, Colombians represent the largest number of immigrants entering the United States with the highest levels of education. 32.1% of Colombians over the age of 25 entering the U.S. have a college degree. Overall across various age categories that come into the U.S. have an average of 13. 3 years of education under their belt. 16.4% of the Colombians surveyed had not completed their high school education.

The study looked at immigration into the United States over the last five years, which has recorded the highest numbers of new people entering in history. The study also includes information on health care access and rates of entrepreneurship.

You can access the entire study at the Center for Immigration Studies website.

Via / Telemundo 47

High Demand for Latino Technology Professionals

5:34 pm By Maegan La Mala · Education · 1 Comment

13 Dec 2005

In order to remain competitive in the world economy the U.S. Department of Labor states that 1.5 million technology professionals will be needed here in the U.S. Furthermore, IBM states that in this decade “…one out of four jobs will be in information technology.” Strangely enough there has been a decline in technology related course enrollment. Of all students graduating from computer science programs in the U.S., Latinos represent 3.9 percent.

Friday, IBM, Florida International University and the University of Miami are to launch a program to encourage young people, especially Hispanics, to consider careers in engineering and information technology.
Called “LA Grid,” the initiative is to work to increase number of Hispanic students entering the technology industry by pairing them with IBM mentors and providing opportunities to work on research and development projects with Armonk, N.Y.-based IBM.
“Currently, there is a great opportunity for Hispanics in the technology industry,” IBM said.

Via / Bizjournals.com

Hispanic Alumni Club Gives Back

9:10 pm By Maegan La Mala · Education · Comments Off

9 Dec 2005

With its annual scholarship dinner tonight, the University of Arizona Hispanic Alumni club celebrates 20 years of contributing to students, now giving nearly $300,000 a year. The club has an endowment of $1.2 million and from that, spends about $80,000 a year on cash awards for 50 students, ranging from $500 up to $2,500. From money raised each year, the group gives full-tuition awards to another 50 students, spending about $200,000.

It’s great to see that this Alumni club is providing opportunities to future Latino college students. Aside from providing scholarships, the club also provides networking opportunities for students as well as a support system to assist students. I can just imagine how this club impacts the students that they help. It must be very comforting to Latino students, when they know that there is someone there to help them in their time of need. It also goes to show that as college graduates we have the responsibility to help facilitate higher education for others.

Via / Arizona Daily Star

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