Project 3 Artifact

Increasing Student Engagement for Hispanic Students

In Project 3, I looked for new ways to connect Hispanic students to school. The three
ways are:

The creation of a student club where students can celebrate and take pride in the
Spanish language and culture.

Researching ways to help incoming Hispanic freshmen experience greater

academic success.

Increasing Cultural Proficiency in administrators, faculty and staff.

I.
Creation of a Student Club
Spanish Honor Society - Sociedad Honoraria Hispnica Guanajuato Chapter
Provides all students interested in increasing their Spanish language and cultural
knowledge.
Serve as tutors for English Language Learners in the school.

II.
Greater Academic Success
The following is a list of items that help incoming Hispanic freshmen experience greater
academic success:
In Middle School Bilingual Spanish speaking students should not be placed in Spanish courses in
middle school as it will disqualify them from enrolling in high school Spanish for
Native Speakers.
Encourage native speakers to take Credit by Exam in 7th and 8th grades.

In High School
Native-Spanish Speaking Students Misplaced in Beginning Levels of HS Spanish.
Ask Spanish Level I teachers to identify those students that are bilingual in
Spanish to test out of Spanish 1 and 2 if possible and enroll them in Spanish for
Native Speakers.
Enroll Advanced Spanish speakers in Pre-AP Spanish III or IV and prepare them
to take the Spanish AP Exam.
Offer a Pre-AP Level I Spanish.
Encourage English Language Learners to take Spanish AP Exam.
Test Spanish Level of newly arrived Spanish-speaking English Language
Learners so as to better meet their educational needs in ESL classes and other
academic classes.
Provide teacher-training opportunities that target teaching to non-native English
speakers.
Designate an ELL teacher to act as liasn between academic department and ESL
teacher in order to facilitate problem-solving and helping students to be
successful.
Update the WoodCox-Muoz English proficiency test (2005).
Provide an ESL Aide that can attend core classes with students having difficulties
with the language.
Separate ESL I and II into two separate classes so as to improve reading skills.
Create a Newcomer Academy for newly arrived ELL students.
III. Increasing School Cultural Proficiency
According to Dr. Elizabeth Torres, MISD Director of Bilingual Education, the
student population is currently:
31% are Hispanic
40% are Low Socioeconomic Level.
Ruby Pane Consultant to talk to faculty and staff about how to deal with students
and parents in poverty
Increasing the cultural proficiency of educators will help raise expectations and
performance levels for Hispanics.
Priority is to Increase Cultural Proficiency among educators.
Also of importance is increasing the Hispanic parent outreach.
Embrace the cultural proficiency of teachers and staff and administrators
Raised expectations will result in higher academic achievement in students.
Increase Parent Outreach to help raise student academic success
o Teach students how to have higher achievement levels
o Literacy Nights: Classes in ESL, Computer Skills, Homework Help,
Health, etc
o Role Models Invite Hispanic leaders to talk to students and parents