Home, where academic leadership begins

By Editor Ken Harvey

Learning begins at home. So does the love of learning.

Research continues to support this premise, and this recognition is one reason why Bridgeport School District has become nationally acclaimed for its efforts to overcome the challenges of poverty, English as a second language and family mobility, say Superintendent Gene Schmidt and Mary Anton, special programs director, at the Bridgeport School District.

A few years ago the Bridgeport was best known for having the highest juvenile delinquency rate in the state, and now it's winning national awards, the educators say.

"The parents are the first teachers, and if we can engage the parents in good literacy practices, it will be a good marriage between the home and the school," says Schmidt.

"There are ways to move people from non-engagement to engagement," he says. "We can look at people as empty vessels and not having much value, or we can look at parents as a great resource that we can take advantage of."

Migrant families may not have much money to invest into education, but they have other kinds of "capital," including social, parental and cultural capital, Schmidt says.

"Social capital" includes the time and effort family members and relatives provide as a family support system.

"The Hispanic family is big, and if we can figure out a way to involve the expanded family, we can have a very powerful thing," Schmidt says.

The Bridgeport superintendent told of how they had secured 180 used computers from the federal government and gave them to families during a Christmas celebration.

"The whole family -- uncles and aunts and grandparents -- all showed up for their computer, and one said,'You have raised our status in the community now that we have a computer,'" Schmidt recounts.

"Parental capital" can be tapped into if parents can be motivated "to participate as a support system or as advocates for their children -- and not as confrontationalists," he says, adding that parents need to feel their input is valued and that they feel welcomed at school, school board meetings and other activities.

Parents will feel more welcomed if they sense that educators and administrators value the "cultural capital" the family has to offer.

"This is new. It has been a difficult adjustment for our town to make the transition as it has reversed its demographic appearance in about a 10-year time," Schmidt says. During those 10 years, Bridgeport moved from a mostly white community to one that is largely Hispanic.

"I don't think we have still engaged fully the cultural capital of our community," he admits. "State Superintendent of Public Schools Terry Bergeson says we need to move toward cultural competency. That's turning your spaghetti feed into a taco feed and your school band into a mariachi band."

It isn't easy for schools to get migrant families and those with similar challenges involved in the schools.

"Parent involvement tends to be a middle class sort of thing," Schmidt says. "That is to ignore the gift our community has. People forget to look beneath the surface to see what people have to share. We don't expect the poor parents to contribute, but if you understand the Hispanic culture, they are actually quite involved in their community, good at fund-raising and in many other activities."

Research does show that "Anglo" parents are four times more likely to volunteer than Hispanics, two times more likely to go on field trips, and seven times more likely to serve as room moms, he says, but it doesn't have to be that way.

"Our perceptions tend to become reality. We begin to believe those other parents are bad parents. We need to find ways to engage those parents, and this perception will be changed," he says.

Indeed, parental participation has been shown to be a critical element in the academic success of minority students, Schmidt says. "We need to help the students by helping their parents get more and be more involved."

Despite the stereotypes and the realities shown by research, "all parents desire to be a part of their children's education, but many have felt the school did not listen to their needs. They have felt their contributions go unnoticed." But that is changing in Bridgeport, and the result has been greater academic success for all students, the superintendent says.

"Something good is going on in Bridgeport that has begun to change the climate. People are choosing to send their children to Bridgeport because we are changing," Schmidt says. "We now have a mariachi band, and when there is a musical event, there are more people now than at a basketball game. Now we want to invite the parents to come into the school and join our band."

The district benefited greatly from the influence of Lt. Col. Consuelo Kickbusch (retired) of the Family Leadership Institute who practically adopted the small school district isolated in the northern part of the state.

The institute focuses on offering immigrant or migrant Hispanic families, primarily of Mexican origin, with the tools needed to help children succeed in school and life.

The district's special programs director, Mary Anton, was among the first Bridgeport educators to meet Kickbusch about 10 years ago at a conference in Philadelphia. Her story of overcoming her family's poverty, poor English and migratory lifestyle to become the highest-ranking Hispanic woman in the U.S. military left 1,500 people without a dry eye, Anton says. And at the height of her career, with other imminent accolades awaiting her, her mother helped her realize what was really important in life, so she walked away from her career and started her institute to help children like her to achieve success in school and life.

"She lived the story of our kids," Anton says. "We asked ourselves how we might get her to come here.

"Later we sent a group to a school in Texas to learn about dual-language instruction, and there was Consuelo. And those people came back telling the superintendent that we had to get her."

Finally it was arranged for Kickbusch to come speak to the Bridgeport staff. These included high school teachers who were still focused on teaching their traditional wheat farmer kids, although their rooms were filling up with Hispanic children.

"Two years later these teachers were national award-winners," Anton says.

Then the district had Kickbusch return to help improve Bridgeport's parent-involvement program. It was an 18-month process, starting in 2003, with one five-hour workshop each month for 10 months.

"The school has now become very inclusive. And we are finding ways to get people in school," Anton says. "We brought her in to work with parents, but we also saw a need to have her meet with educators. She was an absolute godsend for our community."

Kickbusch even agreed to come last November when she had only two days when she was not traveling -- and one of those was Thanksgiving.

At the first parent meeting with Kickbusch, only three parents showed up. But at the next there were 37, and later over 70.

Kickbusch taught the local leaders that if the parents won't come to you, you have to go to them. During the harvest, parents couldn't come to the meeting, so Kickbusch and the educators went to a local orchard.

"The foreman drove us around to 11 sites. We invited the workers to come to a meeting two weeks later, but it was pouring rain. Some of us thought we ought to have it at school, but instead went out to the orchard. They had totally cleaned out their shop. They had blue tarps up, ready for Consuelo to present to them. We had 25 chairs set up and benches, but we ended up with 300 people standing in the back, and they all listened," Anton describes.

They then organized a picnic, and over 500 meals were served - and it was promoted just by word of mouth.

"The parents were questioning each other about their self-identity and on how they can help their children succeed. It was an incredible eye-opener for all of us," Anton says.

"Now we see our parents feeling better about themselves, and the 25 parents who graduated from the institute are confident enough in their leadership skills that they are ready to teach the next institute themselves," Anton says.

FLI's core curriculum for parents consists of 10 modules. Much of the benefit of these instructional modules comes from the interchange generated among participants. The 10 modules are:

1. Home: Where Leadership Begins - This defines leadership and its modes. It examines leadership in the typical Latino home, school and church. Participants discuss the value of literacy as the basis for success.

2. Self-Identity: Past, Present and Future - This identifies the historical roots of those who participate through small- and large-activities. Through a guided facilitation, participants come to understand the effect of their identity and behavior on the success of their children.

3. Living in Two Worlds: Cultural and Generational Perspectives - Living in two cultures can create stress, conflict and miscommunication. This module seeks to mend broken bonds of understanding that may exist between Hispanic parents and their children growing up in America. The challenges of and alcohol abuse, gang membership, teen-age pregnancy, teen-age depression, teen-age suicide and other problems are discussed.

"Migrant families live with one foot in the U.S. and one in Mexico. In the U.S. it's OK for a girl to go to school. In Mexico they are expected to stay home and learn to make tortillas. We still have the fundamentalist parents whose daughters will never go to college, no matter if they are the school valedictorian. It was an eye-opener for the Hispanic fathers to meet Consuelo, an Army colonel and one of 10 children," Anton says.

4. Storytelling and Journaling: Valuing Literacy though Family History - The value a family places on literacy and the joy of reading has a profound effect on the ability of children to acquire essential reading skills. This highlights the role of traditional storytelling within Hispanic culture. Participants collect family stories and oral histories - which are recorded, transcribed, analyzed and mined for leadership lessons. The journal is assembled over the remainder of the course, and is presented to a school or public library at the conclusion of the institute program. Thus, the course also stresses the importance of libraries as personal and family resources.

"A lot of our children have never heard their family stories. We got them to do that. We then took specific examples of leadership traits out of these stories. They are coming to find out that they can be leaders," Anton says. "By this time we've got them, and they're soaking things up."

5. Education: The Key to a Better Future - This lesson focuses on the role of education in the social, economic and intellectual well-being of children. Participants come to see education as a key to the future. A college education for boys and girls is more than just desirable - it's attainable.

"They come to see education as the key to their future," says Anton. "Not just the education of the children but of the parents. They no longer want their children to have to move from crop to crop."

6. College Field Trip: What Does Success Look Like? - This module takes participants to a local college, where they tour classrooms, libraries and dormitories. They also meet teachers and administrators, with the goal of demystifying the college experience. Moreover, the participants share in a roundtable discussion with college students of Hispanic heritage who tell their personal stories of overcoming barriers to making it to college.

7. Improving Family/School Relationships: Partnerships for Success - This material stresses the forging of a positive relationship with teachers and administrators as necessary to the academic success of children. Participants discuss what might prevent their involvement in school activities. They also address strategies for how they can build relationships with teachers and staff.

8. Facing Challenges at Home: Coping Strategies for Success - In this module, the participants identify obstacles and behaviors that keep them from achieving personal and family goals. Moreover, the material focuses on the origins of conflict within Hispanic families, along with strategies through with they can be handled. Resolution concepts include personal responsibility, mediation, two-way communication, respect, cycles of conflict and the value of establishing mutual goals and outcomes.

9. Creating a Family Action Plan: Roadmaps to Success - In a constantly changing world we must make tough decisions that impact our lives - clear goals provide purpose and direction.

"We had them examine their current situation. We guided them through envisioning alternative scenarios. They defined their goals, especially in supporting the success of their children," Anton explains. "The product is a roadmap for moving the family forward. It was very dynamic. They all wanted something better for their children, and they all thought of different ways of getting there."

10. Celebrating Family Academic Excellence: Success as a Way of Life - This module, the culmination of the course, features three families making presentations to the school board, education providers, or both. The presentations highlight personal and family mission statements along with family action plans to bring forth the leadership potential of their children. Parents summarize what they learned, how they will support their children's' academic - and life - success, and what to expect the school district, local school, or both, to do as well. Participants give their oral-history journals to the school library, or community library, as a sort of validation of their Family Leadership Institute experience and proof of the value of their Hispanic heritage as worthy of preservation.

"We heard personal testimonies -- our people coming up as husbands and wives telling us how much the program meant to them, how much they had changed," Anton says.

But the Bridgeport educator says the parents were not the only ones affected by the program.

"I can't say enough about what the modules meant to me personally and how many friends I made," Anton says. "It is so much different to go to the Hispanic stores now. I'm accepted much more than I thought I would be, and we accept the parents much more than we thought we would."

"It comes down to attitude," says Schmidt. "How we treat people. It's about changing perceptions and valuing people as parents and as cultures.

"We have to create those open doors to reach out and embrace our community," he says. "Make this your mission, to go back and change the attitude your school and your community has for its low-income, diverse parents.

"Don't let one group control the definition of what a good parent is," Schmidt says. "Open it up to what gifts other parents have to offer. We are going to be a very diverse society. By 2035 one of every three children in our schools nationwide will be children of color. We can embrace that and help them become part of the American Dream, or we can exclude them and have all sorts of trouble."