For decades now, whenever the words ‘Latinos’ and ‘Education’ are woven together in a sentence, the information that follows is usually not the most encouraging. Latinos consistently rank lower than any other demographic when it comes to academic attainment, higher education completion, and many other outcomes. At the heart of these are factors like higher poverty rates, inequity, lack of school resources, faulty policies, and many others.
At the same time, student demographics across the country are changing at a vertiginous pace, with one-quarter (25%) of public elementary school children being Latino as of 2011. So can this the tide be turned? What’s being done to change these outcomes?
This coming week, on October the 27th at 7pm ET, I have the pleasure to welcome not one but TWO of the most eminent Latina leaders in Education in the United States.
• Lily Eskelsen-Garcia, the first Latina President of the National Education Association (NEA)
• Alejandra Ceja, Executive Director of the White House Initiative for Educational Excellence for Hispanics (WHIEEH)
We’ll be discussing how Latinos are driving the changing demographics in America and the policy and political implications of these changes on every aspect of our society. Regardless of where you fall in the education spectrum, this topic affects ALL of us and the very future of the United States.
Tune In and follow this important conversation online on hashtag #LatinoEdChat
Elianne Ramos aka ERGeekGoddess 