Migrant Administrators Promote Student Success

By Editor Ken Harvey

Over 200 federal project directors, migrant record clerks, home visitors and other participants, attended the Statewide MSDR Conference at the Yakima Convention Center in August.

"The Washington Migrant Education Programs really came together to make this year’s conference a success," says Lee Campos, director of the Migrant Education Data and Recruitment (MSDR) Office.

He says part of the conference’s record attendance can be attributed to "OSPI reinforcing local education agency attendance at our conference in light of the federal Office of Migrant Education (OME) re-interview initiative," he says. State officials want to make sure that local school officials comply with federal standards in recruiting migrant students into federally funded migrant programs.

Recent audits show that some students allowed into the migrant programs do not meet its strict requirements, and part of the purpose of the state conference is to provide training for local school officials in charge of recruiting.

Mr. Campos feels there were other reasons for the conference’s success.

"This year had the best session offerings we’ve ever had. Recruiters gave a variety of sessions regarding eligibility and re-interview results. Programmers demonstrated advanced report generating abilities and EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) which really turned some heads," Mr. Campos says.

"Sharon Huck from the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) led the districts’ federal project directors through changes for this coming year, and the Migrant Education Regional Office (MERO) and Secondary Education for Migrant Youth (SEMY) staffs also participated in greater capacity than in previous years," he adds.

In addition, Mike Taylor, Migrant Education Health Supervisor, presented his health database recently merged with the main Migrant Student Information System (MSIS) operated by the MSDR.

The MSIS is "hands-down the best system in the nation," Mr. Campos says. Other states are coming to Washington to have MSDR manage their migrant data, as well.

Idaho officials visited recently because they wanted to replicate the MSIS system, but once the programmer reviewed the system he went back and told education officials that replication would be so time-consuming and expensive that it would be better to have the MSDR manage Idaho’s migrant data, as MSDR already does for Montana.

Mr. Campos expects to launch a pilot project with Idaho this fall. "We will take information from two Idaho migrant schools and store their information in our database. If all goes well, and there’s no reason to think it won’t, we should be storing their entire migrant student population data in our database by this time next year," he says.

He also announced that such scholastic data management systems as PowerSchool are looking at adding a button to automatically send data to the MSIS database.

"All you will have to do to push a button," Mr. Campos says.

MSDR has already completed a link between the MSIS database and OSPI central database. As they began retrieving OSPI data, 70% of the entries did match MSIS data.

"We are now figuring out why the other 30% did not match," he says.

MSDR is also linking its database with the Bilingual Database and the Migrant Education Health Program database so migrant record clerks no longer have to submit the same data to all these different agencies.

"This will help the record clerks a lot, but now we need to start cross-checking our information to make sure it is possible. We want to make sure this is as easy as possible for you, but we also have to make sure it is accurate," Mr. Campos says. "There is more time now to monitor the data, and there is more time for student advocacy."

Part of the additional advocacy should be in making sure that migrant students get credit for class work they complete at one school district before they withdraw and move to another district.

"We need to make sure we are recording partial completion," Mr. Campos says. "To be honest with you, I don’t think we are doing a very good job with partial credit."

Bengie Aguilar of the MSDR and David Rodriguez of the Secondary Education for Migrant Youth (SEMY) office taught a workshop on how record clerks, home visitors and federal project directors could help migrant students graduate on time.

If school districts want to increase their graduation rates and lower their dropout rates – as required by the No Child Left Behind Act -- a good place to start is with migrant students, who typically have the lowest graduation rates and the highest dropout rates in school districts around the state.

Ms. Aguilar and Mr. Rodriguez are experts in helping school districts develop appropriate systems and strategies to help migrant students succeed in school. They taught some of the key concepts to those attending the Statewide MSDR Conference, but they are also willing to provide free consulting to individual districts, and they have several powerful tools to share with the districts – also free of charge.

A major problem migrant students face is that they move in mid-term as their families follow the seasonal agricultural work. Sometimes their families leave the country altogether and move back to Mexico during the winter months.

Even if a student is getting an "A" at the time he withdraws, some school districts will give him an "F" or "Incomplete" for not finishing the course.

When this is done, besides hurting students’ grade average, students end up taking the same course part way through multiple times and becoming frustrated in the process. And if they fall behind their graduating class, their chances of dropping out increase to 50% for one year and 90% for two years, migrant education officials say.

Dr. Richard Gómez Jr., who recently resigned as Washington’s Director of Migrant/Bilingual Programs, sent his recommendations to federal program directors and other school officials.

"Ensure that counselors grant partial credit (when applicable) and record it on the transcripts issued through your high school," wrote Dr. Gómez, in part. "For example, if a migrant student has a ‘late entry’ or ‘early withdrawal’ during the semester, rather than recording an ‘F’ or ‘Incomplete’ for the entire semester, credit is reflected on the transcript for the quarter the student actually attended. … I believe it is of utmost importance and essential to the success of mobile students."

A new Withdrawal Form developed by migrant educators and made available on the MSIS web site is set up to encourage schools to record a student’s grade at time of withdrawal, the percentage grade, number of hours attended, and appropriate partial credit.

Ms. Aguilar explains that the typical ½ credit semester course includes 90 hours of class time. If a student puts in 36 hours before withdrawing and has a "B" at the time he withdraws, the withdrawal form should reflect .2 credits of "B" rather than .5 credits of "F".

"Partial credit is always going to be better. It is put on the transcript, and nobody can take that away from them," Ms. Aguilar says. "It’s all about process. What process do you have in your district that makes sure this happens?"

Another strategy is to have the student enroll in a PASS credit accrual course administered by the SEMY office, overseen by district "contact persons" and completed by correspondence.

If a student has put in 36 hours during a semester, a school may note the "unresolved coursework" in his withdrawal form, says Mr. Rodriguez. That is 2/5 of a semester class. PASS courses are divided into five units, so by completing three units by correspondence, the student will have completed the semester’s work.

He explains that there are over 40 basic courses available in the PASS curriculum, some written in Spanish. Details are available at http://www.semy.org.

"We can increase your graduation rate and reduce your dropout rate," Mr. Rodriguez says. "That may be a way you want to approach it. You can say, ‘Look what we can do for these kids who are dropping out because they have to take the same classes over and over again.’"

Both MSDR and SEMY will offer their free training and consultation to school districts statewide.

The state’s top federal projects director, home visitor, records clerk, migrant students and others were honored at the MSDR’s annual banquet.

The Federal Project Director of the Year Award was given to Victoria Hodge of Quincy School District. The Records Clerk of the Year Award was given to Dolores Gonzalez of Granger School District. And the Home Visitor of the Year Award was given to Samantha Grubb of Centralia School District.

HACER $1,000 migrant scholarship recipients were Alva Rosa Cuevas of Wahluke School District; Ana Maria Cruz Rico of Pasco School District; Angelica Copada-Trujillo of Prosser School District; Cindy Faviola Velasquez of the Uvalde, Texas, School District; Erika E. Valdovinos of the Wahluke School District; Lupe Carrillo, Kiona Benton School District; Maira Perez, Kiona Benton School District; Maria Guillen, Lake Chelan School District; Pedro Mendez, Zillah School District; and Ruth Lopez, Yakima School District.

HACER Tuition/Fee Waivers were provided by Heritage University to Eduardo Pedroza of Prosser School District, Evelyn Lizette Rodriguez of Yakima School District, and Mercedes Maria Martinez of Sunnyside School District. Additional HACER Waivers were provided by Central Washington University to Mayra Zaragoza of Yakima School District, Melissa Camarena of Yakima School District, and Ruthell Martinez of Eastmont School District.