To our Friends and Partners:

This is an exciting time for public education in Boston as students, teachers, officials, and community members work together to create a just and equitable school system for all of Boston's diverse students. As Youth Community Organizers at Sociedad Latina, we started our campaign to reform education in Boston four years ago. It has been a long road, but today we are happy to share our progress with you and invite you to join our ongoing work.  

Youth Community Organizers at an education rally with the Boston United for Students Coalition. 

First, we would like to publically thank the Boston School Committee for hearing our concerns and addressing them in the most recent efforts to reformulate the BPS budget to better meet student needs.

Last year, we advocated against per pupil cuts, noting the inequity in this system, especially  in larger schools, which tend to have the highest concentrations of English Language Learner (ELL) students who require additional resources and supports. Most of us attend these large schools and we wanted to make sure that all BPS students have the resources they need to be successful. The new weighted student formula is a more equitable way to assess school needs, based on the students there. Thank you for hearing us!

Second, we would like to thank the ELL Task Force for acknowledging the importance of cultural proficiency in our education: that it is a key factor supporting the success of all students in the 21^st century, especially in a diverse city such as Boston.

We, Youth Community Organizers, and the entire Sociedad Latina community have been busy over the past year pushing our Initiative to Build Cultural Proficiency in Boston Public Schools forward. We are happy to see that through our organizing and presentations to the School Committee and Boston City Council, Boston's school community has recognized the need to address the diversity of BPS. Working with Dr. Carroll Blake, Executive Director for the Achievement Gap, we are very pleased to announce that teachers in 12 schools in BPS are beginning trainings and professional development on cultural proficiency.  Again, thank you for hearing us!

Third, Sociedad Latina's continuing partnership with the Office of English Language Learners (OELL) has proven this year to be invaluable in providing ELL students and families the resources and opportunities they need to succeed in BPS.

In February, Sociedad Latina expanded our Saturday ELL Academy, which was first piloted in June 2010, to provide additional educational supports to 60 ELL students and families. The program is offered in partnership with BPS and the OELL. With support from the district, we have also been working closely with the Maurice J. Tobin School K-8 School to develop a school-based model for professional development on cultural proficiency. Our model is based on more than 40 years of experience working with Boston's Latino community and is supported by researchers and educators from Brown University and the Maurcio Gaston Institute at UMass Boston.  We look forward to working with the district to continue to expand resources for ELL students and families.

There is still work to be done.  

Youth Community Organizers testify regularly in front of the School Committee.  

At the March 2 school committee meeting, testimony on our behalf introduced two new requests to the Boston School Committee:

1. We request a seat on the ELL Task Force to provide oversight for the implementation of their recommendations. We would like to participate on the Task Force given our expertise in working with English Language Learner students and families and our commitment to this community of students.

2. We request the School Committee prioritize the issue of cultural proficiency for all schools in the district by forming a committee of students, parents, teachers and community organizations to participate in the process. Sociedad Latina is well positioned to lead this committee with support from the School Committee and the ELL Task Force.  Among its tasks, the committee would develop an audit tool for schools to evaluate their needs and capacities around cultural proficiency. The tool would be used each year to create a community conversation around cultural proficiency and ways to improve our school community. This committee would also work to establish standards of cultural proficiency in education that the district can adopt and implement.

We at Sociedad Latina see these steps as crucial to closing the Achievement Gap for Latino students, especially the English Language Learners among us. We need a more culturally proficient district with a curriculum that teaches us about our own cultures and the cultures of other students. We want teachers that understand our backgrounds and take the time to celebrate who we are. We want our cultures to be present in our schools, and be seen as an asset rather than a point of assimilation. We will be following up with the members of the School Committee, City Council and Mayor's Office to continue this work.

Thank you all for your support this far. We invite you to join our campaign and be a part of a better BPS.

1. Attend the April 6 forum on the Boston Teachers Union contract, hosted by the Boston United for Students Coalition and featuring a community dialogue with Superintendent Carol Johnson and Richard Stutman, President of the Boston Teachers Union. 

WHEN: April 6, 5:30

WHERE: Twelfth Baptist Church, 160 Warren St., Roxbury 

2. Contact Community Organizer Samantha Calero at 617-442-4299 x147 or samantha@sociedadlatina.org and tell her you want to get involved! 

3. Text "POWER" to 62571 to receive text message updates and action alerts from Sociedad Latina. Text "PODER" to 62571 to receive messages in Spanish.

4. Follow Sociedad Latina on Facebook, Twitter, and our new website!

Sincerely,

Youth Community Organizers of Sociedad Latina