Family Engagement Action Research

Running head: LATINO FAMILY ENGAGMENT
Latino Family Engagement in a Diverse School:

An Inclusive Collaborative Approach Toward Equity
Patricia Muoz-Rocha
High Tech High Graduate School of Education
LATINO FAMILY ENGAGEMENT
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Table of Contents
List of Figures ................................................................................................................................. 5

Abstract ........................................................................................................................................... 6
Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 7
The Role of the Family................................................................................................................ 8
Why Engage Latino Parents? ...................................................................................................... 9
High Tech High (HTH) and the Quest for Equity ..................................................................... 11
Literature Review.......................................................................................................................... 15
The Beginnings of Family Engagement .................................................................................... 16
The Discovery of Family Engagement...................................................................................... 17
Models of Family Engagement ................................................................................................. 20
Epsteins six types of parental involvement model. .............................................................. 21
Hoover-Dempsey & Sandler motivational parental involvement model. ............................. 23
Academic Parent Teacher Team (APTT) Model - Paredes. .................................................. 24
Latino Parents Perceptions and Constraints: A New and Different Continent ........................ 25
Communication and Language: The Bottom Line at the End of the Day ................................. 29
The Role of the State ................................................................................................................. 31
Setting Description........................................................................................................................ 34
The Charter Organization .......................................................................................................... 34
The Schools ............................................................................................................................... 37
Family Participation .................................................................................................................. 40
School Staff ............................................................................................................................... 41
Parent Association ..................................................................................................................... 41
Methods......................................................................................................................................... 43
Phase I: Needs Assessment ....................................................................................................... 44
1.
Conversations and Interview. ......................................................................................... 44
2.
Focus groups. ................................................................................................................. 46
3.
The Surveys. ................................................................................................................... 47
Phase II: The Parent-Odyssey ................................................................................................... 49

Data Collection and Analysis .................................................................................................... 52
Findings......................................................................................................................................... 54
Findings Set 1 - The Role of Communication in the Relations of Monolingual Populations... 54

At the end of the day it is all about language. ....................................................................... 54
The growing linguistic gap in the Latino families. ................................................................ 56
Implications of the role of communications in the relations of monolingual populations. ... 60
Finding set 2 Educational System and Parent Engagement ................................................... 65
Why Latino parents participation is low? ............................................................................ 65
Two Conceptualizations, Two Mindsets. .............................................................................. 67
The Last Implication: To Know or Not to Know. ................................................................. 70
Finding set 3 - Integration into American Society .................................................................... 73
Life as Immigrants: their micro cosmos and the physical environment. ............................... 73
Becoming an American: Tribulations reaching the promise land. ........................................ 76
VI. Conclusion .............................................................................................................................. 82
1.
Spanish in Communications, Relationships and a Sense of Belonging ............................. 83
2. Empowering Parents to Understand the American System of Education and the

Philosophy of Progressive Education ........................................................................................ 84
3.
The Importance of Inclusion and Engagement within a Diverse School........................... 84
4.
Securing and enhancing equity at diverse schools: Diversity + Inclusion = Equity.......... 86
Reflection .................................................................................................................................. 87
References ..................................................................................................................................... 89
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List of Tables
Table 1 Epsteins Six Types of Parental Involvement .................................................................. 22

Table 2. Watzlawick Axioms of Communication......................................................................... 30
Table 3 Distribution of the types of questions from Surveys ....................................................... 48
Table 4 Parent Survey Sections .................................................................................................... 49
Table 5 Parents Comments Reflecting on the Issue of Language .............................................. 55
Table 6 Parents Comments on their use of English or Spanish ................................................... 57
Table 7 Parents and Students Comments on Communication Barriers ..................................... 58
Table 8 Parents Comments on use and importance of Spanish .................................................. 59
Table 9 Comments on Communication between Parents and Students ........................................ 60
Table 10 Parents Comments on Communication with School Using Technology ..................... 62
Table 11 Parents Comments on the Quality of Communication ................................................. 63
Table 12 Comments of the Parent Associations Leaders about their Experience with Latino
Parents ........................................................................................................................................... 65
Table 13 Teachers Comments on Parent Engagement in HTHs schools ................................... 66
Table 14 Parents Comments on their Perceptions of the Relationships with the School ............ 69
Table 15 Parents Comments on how to support their students with school ................................ 71
Table 16 Parents Comments on their Experiences and Learning in the Parent Odyssey ............ 72
Table 17 Parents Comments of their Use of Spanish in their Daily Life .................................... 74
Table 18 Parents Sharing Perceptions and Experience as Immigrants ......................................... 77
Table 19 Parents Comments of their Transition Process into this Country................................. 78
Table 20 Parents Comments Reflect the Stages of Acculturation ............................................... 79
Table 21 Comments Reflect the Hopes and dreams of families in this Country .......................... 80
List of Figures
Figure 1. Model of Parental Involvement Hoover-Dempsey & Sandler Family1995; 2005 ........ 24
Figure 2. Demographic Data for all HTH schools, Year 2014-15. Source: PowerSchool. .......... 34
Figure 3. Demographic by race for HTHI. Year 2014-15, Source: PowerSchool. ....................... 37
Figure 4. Other Demographic Data for HTH and HTHI. Year 2014-15. Source: PowerSchool. . 37
Figure 5. Demographic by Race of HTH Year 2014-15, Source: PowerSchool. ......................... 38
Figure 6. HTHI Students GPA Semester 1, 2013 - 2014. Source: PowerSchool ........................ 38
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Abstract
This action research explores the engagement experiences of Latino parents in a socio-economic
and ethnically diverse school. Schools with progressive agendas are becoming less segregated by
representing the local and national demographics. In addition, family engagement is consistently
found to be positively associated with a higher academic performance of students. During the
assessment phase, two sets of consideration were addressed; the complexities of parents whose
main social and humanistic determination is to be immigrants from Latin America, and the
ultimate and pragmatic consequences of a progressive philosophy leading a monolingual diverse
school, radically committed with the quest of equity in American education. As a result of the
assessment phase, I created an experiential learning approach, the Parent Odyssey, to engage
both parents and school. This four-day program embraced the design principles of the school and
created a solid foundation for parent engagement through the personalization of their
relationships.
This study is an effort to contribute to the understanding of the importance of engaging Latino
families in schools to achieve equity. In that sense, the main insight of the study is that diversity
is the first step of equity, inclusion is the necessary second step, otherwise equity is handicapped.
Keywords: diverse school, equity, Latino family engagement, Latino parent engagement
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Introduction
maestra dgame, qu puedo hacer para que mi muchacho se pueda graduar

y se aleje de las pandillas?
miss, tell me what can I do so my child can graduate
and stay away from the gangs?
With desperate plea full of love and pain, Doa Maria and I made a pact. We agreed to
meet every Friday after her work at 6 pm, for the next 37 weeks until her son graduated from
high school. This happened in my first year as a principal. The school was an alternative high
school served students who had dropped out from the Chicago Public School district; and located
in one of the most violent neighborhoods in the city. My promise to her was that we would
provide a safe learning environment at school, for her son, while she will randomly drug test him
and keep me informed of any behavioral changes. With this super plan, as we called it, her son
received his diploma in June 2000. This made his parents, especially his mother, the happiest
people on the planet.
Reflecting on the experience with Doa Marias family, I realized how powerful and
valuable the parents contributions could become. They are eager to be included in the school
process and to do whatever we ask them for the benefit of their children. I also understood
that, by trusting us with their kids, parents position themselves in such symmetrical relation with
the school that, by default, they have the potential to become the most efficient partners in the
education process. Their efforts are more genuine and unreserved than traditionally identified
allies such as state agencies, foundations, and the business community.
The Role of the Family

Classical authors and theoreticians in education have vastly agreed that parent
engagement in school affairs, as well as in their childrens learning experience, is a strong
independent variable for student achievement and success. Later, academia, led by a remarkable
number of professors and researchersincluding the Harvard Family Research Project at the
Harvard GSE (Henderson & Mapp, 2002), the John W. Gardner Center for Youth and Their
Communities at the Stanford GSE (Castrechini, 2011), John Hopkins University Center on
School, Family, and Community Partnerships (Epstein, 2007), and many morehave provided
us with striking findings about the importance of involving the family in the educational process
of their children, and its impact on their academic success. Social practice has also echoed this
concept, even in early radical experiments on education reform in Chicago in 1988: All
movements to transform urban education have included parent participation among their
strategic tenets.
Most of these findings are correlational relationships. For instance, Ceballos (2004)
found that high achieving Latino youth have parents that emphasize education as a vehicle to
break out of poverty; Auerbach, (2004) argues that students with parents, who are
knowledgeable and involved with college preparation and application process, tend to graduate
from high school and attend college. As it is normal with correlations, they provide good insights
as on what happens, but they fall short in explaining why it happens. In the case of the
correlation between student success and family engagement, or its absence, the task of finding
out detailed causal explanations, is still a work navigating in uncharted waters with many
unknowns and multiples variables. The family and its peculiar internal dynamics that determine
specific behaviors, as it happens with Latino immigrant families, offers a great deal of
explicative possibilities.
Why Engage Latino Parents?
The Latino population in the United States is the strongest testimony that we are a nation
of immigrants. Throughout history, hundreds of immigrant waves from all corners of the planet
have come to this part of the North American continent to make it their home. Latinos, however,
were here as early as 1542 in San Diego, California, and 1565, in St. Augustine, Florida.
Later, they joined all times immigrant waves: starting with the 118,000 Mexican
inhabitants of the 525,000 square miles, when in 1848 the south-west border was redrawn.
Between 1942 and 1964, 4.6 million Mexican peasants came in the Bracero Program. In variable
numbers and intensity, millions of Latinos from the other 27 Caribbean and Latin American
countries have also come to make their home in the north. The percent of Latinos foreign born in
1960 was 14% and increased to 40% in 2005 (Passel & Cohn, 2008).
Today, 55 million Latinos represent 17% of the US population, making the US the
second largest population of Latinos in the world, after Mexico (120 million). In 2015, Latinos
are the largest minority group, and by 2043, when no single racial group is expected to account
for more than 50% of the US population, they will surpass the number of white non-Hispanics,
becoming the largest minority group (Passel & Cohn, 2008).
These contemporary demographic tendencies will have long-lasting repercussions in
education. For instance, while the total enrollment in public elementary and secondary school is
projected to increase 7% between 2011 and 2022, the Latino students are expected to increase
33%, and white non-Hispanic students decreased by 6%. Thus, if demographic trends behave as
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projected, by 2030 the largest group of students in American public education will be Latinos,
followed by white, black and Asians (United States Department of Education, 2014).
Demographic figures, however, do not reflect automatically social and economic
positioning in society and education. Between 1990 and 2013 the dropout rate declined for all
groups and although Latinos had the largest decrease, from 32% to 13%, they still have the
largest rate of not earning a high school credential (either a diploma or GED certificate) between
the ages of 16 to 24-year-olds. By the same token, Latino preschoolers make up the largest
minority group and have the lowest rate of enrollment in preschool programs. Latinos also have
the lowest transition rate between middle school and high school, as well as from secondary
education to college programs. Once in college, they have, again, the lowest rate to move from
freshman to sophomore and to junior grades. This also applies to technical/vocational programs.
With such a gloomy present and uncertain future, many Latino families are compelled to
approach the education of their children in a survival mode, which allows for limited options. As
immigrants, the decision to come to this country was the only choice that Latino families had for
a very long time. Once here, immigrant Latino families are drawn into a non-stop race to get a
stable job and home, along with schooling for their children. The same uphill battle they
experience in the labor market, they experience in relation to school: with not many options, they
end up taking whatever is available. Those who are undocumented keep a low profile and try to
make the best of what they can get.
Latino families, therefore, live in an internal contradiction in regards to the education of
their children. On one hand, they are interested to actively engage with the school and
participate in any capacity in the educational process of their children; on the other hand, the
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opportunities of inclusion and integration in the schools are limited and restricted, due to
personal factors as well as to the schools limited systems to engage parents.
High Tech High (HTH) and the Quest for Equity

Inequality in the school starts long before the first day of classes. When a child from a
low- income family enters sixth grade, she or he has spent approximately 6,000 less hours
learning than a student who comes from a middle class family. The 6,000 hours equals five years
in a classroom setting. This calculation, made by The After-School Corporation (ExpandED
Schools by TASC, 2013), takes into account enriched learning activities such as enrollment in
preschool, family reading time, summer camp, weekend day trips, and after-school activities.
Activists, researchers, and educators, continue to provide evidence on the benefits of
creating diverse schools as a key strategic solution for inequality. Kluger (2009) claims that
diverse schools not only provide students with opportunities to learn life skills, but also, to help
students to breakdown stereotypes, as they study, play, and talk with each other. From a different
angle, Orfield & Jongyeon (2014) argue that after six decades of separate but equal, research
shows that inequity in opportunity is due to segregation. Today, Latinos are significantly more
segregated than other groups. Gutierrez & Jaramillo (2006) warn us of the danger of relying too
much on Brown vs. Board of Education, without addressing the very policies and practices that
create the inequities in the first place; for these authors: equity has to dismantle inequity
(p.178).
High Tech High was created as an equity project, and, along with other organizations, it
has led the progressive education movement of diverse schools since 2002. This agenda is not
only a national affair but also runs along the lines of international organizations such as The
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United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) that has defined a
new vision towards 2030 to Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote
lifelong learning opportunities for all (2015). The Organization for Economic Co-operation and
Development has stated that the highest performing education systems are those that combine
equity with quality (2008).
In my research, equity is a central pursuit. In Chicago, I developed effective and strong
partnerships with families in my schools with homogenous population, I saw a great opportunity
for exploring the world of a diverse school such as High Tech High who preserves its soul and
cares for each and every family they serve (High Tech High, 2015a). I believe that a great and
often misunderstood difference between homogeneous and diverse schools has on the forms
assumed by the endemic academic gap in urban education today. In homogeneous schools from
low-income neighborhoods, practically everybody, in one way or another, has wounds inflicted
by the academic gap; as a contrast, in many diverse schools only some segments are affected
normally students of color, low income and immigrants. Similarly, the approaches and methods
used by both types of schools have dealt with the academic gap to reach equity with quality
education have been different.
High Tech High enrolls a diverse student population that represents the demographics of
the city. Consequently, as a diverse school, it faces the challenges of providing all students
equity and quality education, regardless of their differences. In 15 years, High Tech High has
achieved several benchmarks which are both academic and diversity accomplishments. As part
of such a success, Latino students hold statistics of academic achievement that place them in a
position of advantage, when compared with other Latino students in San Diego.
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Today, however, Latino students at High Tech High International academically perform
lower than their Caucasian, African American or Asian counterparts (figures 6, 7 & 8). Thus,
notwithstanding the hard work, since the school inception, the Grade Point Average (GPA) of
Latino students has been the lowest, thus making these facts so persistent that they open the door
to a number of challenging questions.
The most obvious question is what is the reason for a lower GPA? Is the fact that
disadvantaged groups cluster and lag academically behind the average, an indictment of what or
for whom? Wasn't equity supposed to solve such issue by resorting to diversity and PBL in the
classroom? What part of the equation is not delivering, as expected? Is there something wrong in
the practice of heterogeneous groups, as they are the embodiment of diversity? What else is
needed for diversity to be able to bring equity? And last, how do parents fit in this puzzle?
These questions open such a vast investigative horizon that they exceed by far the focus
of this research. Yet, I have used this insight to set the prologue of my inquiry question:
How might we increase equity
by engaging and empowering Latino families
to support their students academic achievement
while developing a sense of belonging in a diverse school?
In the logic of the inquiry question, this research developed two focuses: First, it aims to
understand the rationale of the Latino parents behaviors with regard to their participation in a
diverse school. What do they see and find in a diverse school that motivates them? Is their
engagement different from that of other parents? What role does language play in the interaction
of two different monolingual populations? How effective are school practices at communicating
with Latino parents? How can the school approach and engage them?
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Second, it also leads to the examination of the conditions that facilitate, or obstruct, the
parents engagement with their children. What role does language play in Latino family
interactions, particularly within inter-generational relations? Do Latino parents understand both
the American system of education, and High Tech Highs progressive system and philosophy?
What can schools do to ensure and facilitate Latino family engagement with the school? What
kind of new initiatives could schools launch to secure and enhance equity by promoting
participation of Latino parents? What kind of risks and unwanted situations might these
initiatives bring? What operational cost do they imply? Are they worth it?
Based on the learning from these two focus areas, I designed and piloted an induction
program the Parent Odyssey to engage Latino families and the school to work together. In
the long run, the program aims to integrate and empower parents to become a better support
system that will ensure their students success. The Parent Odyssey was modeled after HTHs
induction program for new teachers to HTH who through practice, learn the principles of
Project Based Learning, Deeper Learning and protocols, while they reflect as a collaborative
community.
Surpassing all expectations, the Parent Odyssey inspired families to envision themselves
as agents of change and to make a positive impact upon their family, the school, the community
and the world.
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Literature Review
The literature review provides the historical context of the engagement of families in the
education of their children. I have organized it in the following major themes:
The Beginnings of Family Engagement
The Discovery of Family Engagement
Models of Family Engagement
Latino Parents Perceptions and Constrains: A new and Different Continent
Communication and Language: The Bottom Line at the End of the Day
The Role of the State Apparatus

The existing literature on family engagement provides various terms and definitions for
parental involvement that includes activities which, by taking place at homes and schools,
connect both spaces in the life of students and their families to the work of educators. These
activities may vary widely, from sophisticated interventions to simple and inconspicuous actions
such as checking students assignments, contacting teachers, helping students with homework
and projects, volunteering at schools, participating in fundraising, attending teacher-parent
conferences, school presentations, and other events. For instance, parents may also include
powerful roles, as the ones they play in the Chicago School Councils. Parents participate in the
selection of their principal, approve the school budget, and school improvement plans (Hill &
Taylor, 2004; Chicago Public Schools, 2015).
For the purpose of this research, I use the terms parents, families, parental or family
engagement interchangeably to refer to the proactive and interactive two-way communications
and interactions between the school and the families. In addition, the terms parent(s), and
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family(ies) will be used to refer to any adult caretaker of children; including biological parents,
foster parents, grandparents, or other relatives.
The Beginnings of Family Engagement

By nature parents are in constant search to protect, educate and to better provide for their
children. The home and school are places where this parental instinct shines. In an attempt to
capture this basic logic of life, more than a century ago in 1897, Alice McLellan Birney and
Phoebe Apperson Hearst founded the National Congress of Mothers (NCM) to keep parents
voices prominent in discussion of children and their education, to foster partnerships between the
parents and schools, and to advocate for greater parental involvement in all aspects of childrens
lives (OBrien, 1970. p.594). These were the beginnings of the Parent Teacher Association
(PTA).
The NCMs founders were inspired by the call of the father of kindergarten, German
pedagogue Friedrich Froebel: Last uns unsern kindern leben (let us live with our children),
and eventually provided the motto for the PTA Let us live and work with the teachers of our
children (Butler, 1908, pp 78). During the second half of the 19th century, the formation of the
American nation went through one of the biggest immigration waves: the German one. Its
influence in social movements and civil societys ideas infiltrated all threads of the American
fabric. Those were the days of the martyrs of Chicago, who in the events of the Haymarket
Riots, launched the final battle for the eight-hour workday (David, 1958). Those were also times
of ethnic tensions among the Anglo Saxon population and the recently arrived immigrants from
other Europeans nations; such tensions were inevitably reflected in schools. (Holli & Jones,
1977). Thus, when in 1908 the NCM became the Parent-Teacher Association (PTA), it
unequivocally envisioned the establishment of friendly relationships between parent and
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teacher [because] Where the Parent-Teachers- Association flourishes, difficulties between

parents and teacher have disappeared (Hervey, 2010, pp 651). The NCM was not an initiative
from the schools or even by teacher unions but one external to them (Bartoletti, 1999; Spargo,
2012). Two historical elements should be underlined here: PTAs were founded in a time when
women did not even have the right to vote nor when females were integrated in the leadership of
social activism; and women however, in their role of mothers, were the driving force in the
history of boththe National Congress of Mothers and the Parent-Teacher Association history
The most substantial issue in the foundation of these organizations, was the betterment of the
relationships between parent and teacher (Hervey, 1914, pp 651), an achievement that did not
resound as a proper educational issue among researchers, theoreticians or concerned
intellectuals. Thus, a vigorous discussion on parent issues is rarely found in the early history of
ideas on education.
At the transition of the 20th century, the famous debates sparked by John Dewey's works
connected education to the big, somehow abstract theme of democracy. Projecting his ideas on
democracy, Dewey defended the participation of parents in the school and argued from a
pragmatic point of view that only when you have a voice in decisions are you likely to be
enthusiastic participant as the decisions are implemented (as cited in Bauch, 1997, p. 8). Those
years, however, were times of ideas with broad shoulders and the conception of parents
engagement and participation in the school, notwithstanding its importance, still was a tiny
element of the complex gears that moved the school on a daily basis.
The Discovery of Family Engagement

It took half a century for family engagement to be considered a proper subject of
educational and social research. In the 1950s, the nation lived its golden moment and came out
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from post-war times fully established as the economic and military leading world power. The
prosperity and immense accumulation of wealth far above any other industrialized economy,
allowed for switching the attention to reforms and domestic issues, and among them: education
(Paine, 2013; Pulliam & Van Patten, 2012). In the 60s, President Lyndon Johnson's Great
Society and its War on Poverty placed education in the spotlight for reform with the Elementary
and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) of 1965. The subsequent quinquennial reauthorization of
ESEA and its Title I provided the mandated and institutional frame for parent involvement and
the efforts to reduce and eventually eradicate inequality in education, a legal battle initiated by
Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka in 1954. (Rury, 2013; Michelman, 2012)
By the end of the 70s, research began stressing the critical and important role of the
family in the academic success of their children (Wise, 1972). For instance in 1980, when there
was still little recognition of the importance of involving parents to improve student
achievement, the Evidence Series, a well-known research review on family and schools, in its
first edition summarized a decade of research by reviewing 35 studies on parental participation in
the school. The Evidence Series a meta-study concluded that the manner in which parents were
involved in the school would be relevant as long as the engagements were planned,
comprehensive and envisioned for a long-term (Henderson & Berla, 1994).
In the late 90s, several studies that examined the relationship between parental
involvement and students academic achievement argued that there was still a great deal of
inconsistency in the empirical research literature (Fan & Chen, 1999). They recommended that in
order to advance the scientific understanding, it was imperative to pay attention to the
operational definitions and measurements of parental involvement. In addition, they called for
future studies to include other measures for academic achievement like GPA and disaggregate
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subject-specific indicators. Moreover, Fan & Chen advised researchers that instead of grouping
different dimensions of parental involvement into a general composite, consider measuring them
separately to determine each ones impact on the academic indicators. In other words, parent
engagement was becoming a true and legit variable in the school equation; soon, the times of
being a wayward outsider would be a matter of the past, and the institutionalization of the issue
was entering into the educational establishment through the front door.
Today, the field of family engagement is growing and there is plenty of evidence
demonstrating that family engagement impacts childrens education by improving attendance,
increasing student achievement, and reducing dropout rates (Legutko, 1998; Mulroy, Goldman,
& Wales, 1998; Jeynes, 2005). Furthermore, there is virtually a full agreement that the family
engagement impacts children from preschool through high school (Epstein, 1996; Hara & Burke,
1998; Henderson & Berla, 1994; Hill & Craft, 2003; Inger, 1992; Marcon, 1999; Baker &
Stevenson, 1986).
The understanding of the parent engagement issue has reached sophisticated levels of
predictive details. Bauch & Goldring (1995), based on empirical evidences, established that
when parents choose a particular school, their level of involvement with the school is higher. For
instance, they have found that when parents take the time to compare schools academic
programs, talk to administrators and teachers, and discuss their findings with their kids; parents
are not only motivated for finding the best school options for their kids, but also they are driven
by high expectations for them. Bauch & Goldring correlated high expectations with academic
achievement and very convincingly rested the case on the impact of parent engagement in
student performance. A few years later, in a meta-analysis including 52 studies, Jeynes (2007)
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found the scrutiny of Bauch & Goldring (1995) on parent engagement, that high expectations
relate to academic success, to be basically accurate, over and over again.
From a different perspective, and more in the line of this research, Henderson & Berla
(1994) found a strong correlation between the family interactions and behavior associated with
high-achieving students, and compared them to families with low-achieving students. The results
of this study are important for the Latino family since it stresses the important role of the family
in spite of their economic and educational status. The researchers carried out a meta-analysis
covering 66 studies, reviews, reports, analyses and books. Going against the sociological and
economic current in educational analyses, their outstanding contribution suggests that the most
accurate predictor of a student's achievement in school is not income or social status, but the
extent to which the student's family is able to:
Create a home environment that encourages learning by providing time and a quiet place to
study, being firm about times to go to bed, and having dinner together. (Kellaghan et al.,
1993; Wand, Walberg, & Walberg, 1994),
Express high (but not unrealistic) expectations from their children's achievement and future
careers; encourage special talents and celebrate successes with family and friends (Kellaghan
et al., 1993),
Become involved in their children's education at school and in the community (Bauch &
Goldring, 1995; Hampton, Mumford & Bond, 1998; Christian, Morrison, & Bryant, 1998).
Models of Family Engagement

The extended experiences of schools actively engaging parents during the 80s
reverberated in research and institutional evaluations. The knowledge and understanding of the
parent issue in education reached the heights of Mount Olympus and theoreticians analyzed the
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school and parent practices by constructing models of representation and explanations. Models
classified the different ways in which parents were involved, into mutually exclusive categories.
Some models were based on the activities parents could do at the school; others included
activities done at home; several identified activities in the community and, lastly, a combination
of some these or all of them. The heuristic value of models was that regardless of the system
selected and used, the key effect was to remind school staff of the areas that were not tapped or
exploited in the development of true partnerships between schools and home. In addition, models
provided a framework to evaluate schools current efforts and served as guidelines and basis for
future planning.
In a sort of pre-meta study, Bauch (1994) provides a compilation of the parent
involvement models that, since the end of the 1970s, delineated their existence to the point of
differentiation and independent existence. Following her methodology, I have identified three
parent engagement models used to guide my action research. They clearly represent three
tendencies of development and implementation in what we can call the movement of
engagement and parent participation in the schools; they are:
Epstein (1995), Six Types of Parental Involvement
Hoover-Dempsey & Sandler (1995, 2005), Motivational Parental Involvement Model and
Paredes (2010), Academic Parent Teacher Team Model.
Epsteins six types of parental involvement model.

The parent involvement model form Epstein has served as the basis for many parent
organizations, community programs and international organizations such as the United Nations.
Even the national PTA has strongly recommended its members to consider Epsteins analysis
and organizational resources. According to Epstein,
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the way schools care about children is reflected in the way schools care about the
childrens families when educators see children as students, they are likely to see the
family separate from the school [and when] educators view students as children, they are
likely to see both the family and the community as partners with the school in childrens
education and development (1995, p.701).
Epstein developed a model of parental involvement by integrating the three spheres of
influence school, family and community partnerships. The framework identifies six types of
involvement: parenting, communicating, volunteering, learning at home, decision making and
collaborating with the community (see Table 1 for a description on each type of parental
involvement). From this model, I focused my action research on the following three types of
parental involvement: communicating, collaborating and learning at home.
Table 1 Epsteins Six Types of Parental Involvement

Type of Parental
Involvement
Description
1. Parenting
Provide families with skills to understand the various stages of

child and adolescent development.
2. Communicating
Create effective communication systems between schools and

home about childrens progress and school programs.
3. Volunteering
Involve and organize families in volunteering opportunities.
4. Learning at Home
Help families to create environments to support their children

with learning activities at home.
5. Decision Making
Include families in school decisions, governance and advocacy

through various organizational forms.
6. Collaborating with the

Community
Identify resources and services from the community for the

families.
Note. Adapted from: Epstein, et. al. (2002) School, Family, and Community Partnerships: Your
Handbook for Action (2nd ed.) Thousand Oaks, CA:Corwin Press, Inc.
23
Hoover-Dempsey & Sandler motivational parental involvement model.

Another model of parental involvement is the one created by Hoover-Dempsey & Sandler
(1995, 2005). The objective of this model is to influence the educational outcome of a child, as
well as to explore the process of parental involvement and motivations starting with the parents
decision to be involved. Parents decide to participate when:
It is clear for them that their school involvement is part of their role as parents;
they believe they can influence the education of their child positively;
they feel that the school and children want them to be involved.
This model is structured into five hierarchical levels (see figure 1). The first level lays the
foundation of the parental involvement, where the parents decision to participate varies
according to considerations in their role, their sense of efficacy, and the invitations and access
from the school and the child. In the line of my experience, which embodies the creation of
authentic and reliable relationships, I integrated the first three levels of this model in the action
component of the research the Parent Odyssey.
Level 1 - Personal Motivation, Invitation and Life Context.
Level 1.5 - Parent Involvement Forms.
Level 2 - Parent Mechanism of Involvement.
24
Figure 1. Model of Parental Involvement Hoover-Dempsey & Sandler Family1995; 2005
Academic Parent Teacher Team (APTT) Model - Paredes.

The model of Maria Paredes (2010) focuses directly on the teacher-parent relationship, as
they team up to go over the performance indicators of their children. In this model, named
Academic Parent Teacher Team (APTT), teachers provide parents with a folder of their childs
progress on school academic and emotional indicators. To empower parents to manage the
information in the folder, teachers provide them with training on how to interpret data and
25
teach them strategies on how to support the learning at home. This is supported by an explicit
commitment of partnership that is embodied in scheduled meetings as a classroom team. In
addition, Paredes claims that the model provides purpose to the parent-teacher communication to
the point that the APTT has the potential to become a powerful tool to create context, meaning
and focus around the childrens academic performance indicators. Furthermore, parents feel
more comfortable at school, as they develop relationships with other parents and create
supportive systems.
This model of academic conversations between parents and teachers was not used in our
Parent Odyssey, however, its use is one of the recommendations for future parent induction
programs. The idea is to first develop a closer relationship with, and among, parents; so that a
sense of belonging with the school community is instilled. Eventually as it flourishes, this
process will become the material base for the creation of parent-teachers team in the idea of
APTT.
Latino Parents Perceptions and Constraints: A New and Different Continent
Diverse schools have heterogeneous student populations which are composed of families
from various backgrounds such as: race, ethnicity, socioeconomic, culture and ideology. By
bringing into a common space students and parents with different family histories, and different
educational backgrounds, diversity confronts the challenges of inequality that continues to exist
although is not any longer self-evident (Nieto & Bode, 2008). Differences among groups create
specific realities that need to be addressed in their own determinations or reasons to exist.
Diverse schools are a step in the pursuit of equity (Rosenstock, L., personal communication,
2015) with the next step being in the classroom dependent on how the variables of learning,
integration, personalization and projects based instruction are managed. A last step towards
26
equity is at the level of the school environmental variables, where parent engagement and
participation becomes relevant, particularly when parents are members of a disenfranchised
group.
For instance, the Latino families participating in this research are mostly first generation
immigrants and monolingual Spanish dominant speakers who tend to be working-poor families
without higher education attainment. According to the US Census Bureau (2012) Latinos may
have different national origin: 64% are from Mexico, 11% from Central America, 9% from
Puerto Rico, and 6% from South America.
The differences that create and determine the behavior of groups in society are dependent
and tightly linked to the existence and reproduction of economic interests. They also exist in a
variety of ideological and cultural forms that act as immediate mechanisms by which people
process and accept, or transform, its social and political existence even in the neutral and
apolitical world (Weber, 1964; Marx, 1997). Therefore, far from being the happy copy of
Eden, diversity, and for this matter: diverse schools, are spaces plagued by the contradictions
derived from the coexistence of different groups that outside, in the society at large, may have
different interests and ideological perceptions of their very own existence and realities (Valdes,
1996). In schools, these contradictions tend to be expressed at the level of relationships and
subjectivity; that is how people perceive behaviors and attach their interpretive meanings.
Notwithstanding the vast research and data indicating strong correlation when families
have high expectations and are engaged with the school, some researchers sounded the alarm by
discovering that minority parental participation was low, and decreased notably in the higher
grades (Floyd, 1998; Moles, 1993). Others have noted that teachers and school staff tend to have
misperceptions misconception regarding the non-involvement of Latino families and perceived it
27
as lack of care for their children (Inger, 1992; Ferrer 2011). Researches have reported four
groups of explanations of the negative perceptions; they are as follows:
Latino parents do not care about their children's education and/or do not know how to help
their children; they are transient families who resist acculturation and live in linguistically
and culturally parallel societies (Diaz, 2000)
Latino immigrant parents tend to have low levels of education and poor command of the
English Language, therefore, they have low educational expectations for their children and
cannot help their children with school assignments (Kuperminc, Darnell, & Alvarez-Jimenez,
2007).
The influx of Latinos in certain neighborhoods have occurred at the same time that student
performance, as measured by state standardized test scores, have declined in the schools of
the area. Hence, Latino students are responsible for the low-performing schools (Quiocho &
Daoud, 2006)
Latino parents have a low degree of engagement with the school because of language barrier
or work schedule, in either case; they cannot make a positive and lasting contribution. In
addition, they do not have high academic standards and attainments, thus their contributions
are limited (Bohon, Johnson, & Gorman, 2006).
The debate around minority family engagement has become a sensitive issue and
positions began to polarize (Bronstein, Stoll, Clauson, Abrams, & Briones, 1994; Offenberg,
Rodriguez-Acosta, & Epstein, 1979; Hampton, Mumford & Bond, 1998). Pollack and others
specifically do not hesitate in arguing that this perception is far from reality; minority parents are
highly interested in their childrens education (Chavkin & Gonzalez, 1995; Pollack, Coffman &
Lopez, 2002). Later, with the results from large-scale quantitative research, new evidence has
28
shown that parental involvement is challenged by factors such as: language barriers,
misalignment of cultures, adverse opinions and behaviors towards Hispanics, work demands,
educational background, and having an undocumented status (Ferrer, 2011; Tinkler, 2002;
Walqui, 2000). In addition, minority parents may often feel unwelcome, misinformed, and
excluded from the school community (Quiocho & Daoud, 2006). Schools need to be aware of
these feelings and create environments where parents are comfortable.
Language and cultural disconnections are at the center of the lack of involvement and
sense of belonging from parents. In 1954, Maslow identified belonging as a basic human need;
he ranked it third in the hierarchy of needs. Belonging is fundamental to the sense of happiness
and well-being. Walton & Cohen (2007), on the same line as Baumeister & Leary (1955), argue
that motivation is tied to the feeling of social belonging to a community that shares common
aspirations.
Furthermore, cultural proficiency in diverse schools needs to focus on asset-based
strategies embracing and understanding the various cultures represented in the school (Lindsey,
D., Terrell, Nuri, & Lindsey, R., 2010). The opposite to this approach is reflected in school
environments where students or families might be blamed for not achieving, or for not meeting
the school expectations educators make assumptions of family behaviors in a negative and
condescending manner. Walqui encourages the development of relationships based on strength
and states that whatever the approach, in the education of immigrant students (as in education of
all children) it is necessary to recognize and build on the identity, language, and knowledge that
they already possess (2000, p.20). Moreover, she states that schools need to create spaces for
students to strengthen and explore their language and ethnicity, while they learn the discourses of
this country; there is not a need to develop one identity and language over the other (p. 20).
29
Educators who value the diversity of their community will respond effectively in cross-cultural
environments; and the tools for culturally proficient practices allow school leaders to focus on
assets in order to overcome barriers to student success (Lindsey, R., Nuri, Lindsey, R., & Terrell
2009). Educational leaders need to look deep within themselves and their institutions to be well
prepared to lead schools serving diverse communities.
Communication and Language: The Bottom Line at the End of the Day
When the conversation on parent engagement narrows its focus and lands in the area of
ethnic minorities (for example: Latinos), the theme of monolingual populations, language and
communication jumps to the center of attention. We know that communication is not easy as it
can be misunderstood. These misunderstandings may happen with colleagues at work, at school,
between friends, or within the family, as well as between countries and cultures. Every
individual has the feeling of dissatisfaction when communication does not work, even if the
intentions are benign. Communication is difficult for all people. It is especially hard when people
do not speak the same language, which is the case of many of the HTH schools where two
monolingual groups (parents and school) try to communicate.
In addressing communication we should look at Watzlawicks five axioms of human
communication, in an effort to understand the role of language. These axioms were first
published in 1967 by Watzlawick, (one of the most influential theoreticians in human
communication), in conjunction with Don Jackson and Janet Beavin. The Pragmatics of Human
Communication is a classic theory in human communication that led to other theories and
models. Watzlawick believed that good communication was essential for satisfying human
relationships and interaction. In his five axioms he reduces communications to its basic aspects
and gives us the opportunity to decipher why, occasionally people do not understand each other.
30
Table 2. Watzlawick Axioms of Communication

Axiom 1
You cannot not communicate; whether you say something or not, it is a message.
Axiom 2
Content & Relationship; while content is the what, relationship is the who, why
and how.
Axiom 3
Punctuation; when words lose their power, behaviors communicate the message
Axiom 4
Digital and Analogic; communication happens in both ways simultaneously with

words and behaviors.
Axiom 5
Symmetrical versus complementary; communication involves balance of power, in

one way or the other
Note. Adopted from Watzlawicks Theory of Communication.

Communication is a complex system not easy to fix. The integrity of the message totally
depends on its means and form of transmission, to such a point that language between two
distinct monolingual populations is everything. When developing and or evaluating
communication systems, these axioms will help determine behaviors generated due to problems
in the communication. For example, if all communication to parents is sent in English, the
content & relationship will be affected (Axiom 2) for the parents who do not speak the language.
In this the case, relationships and engagement may be limited and/or non-existent. Another
example may be on where schools never contact parents, or fail to provide access to ongoing
school information; the no communication is communicating (Axiom 1) perhaps the lack of
interest to involve parents. Again, language and form play an important role in the development
of an authentic family engagement program.
Speaking Spanish at home is more than a fundamental way of communication within the
family. In a study with parents from seven states and over a period of 28 years, Ada &
Zubizarreta (2001), revealed that parents obviously want their children to learn English;
31
however, parents stated their desire for their children to maintain their native language and
culture as a way to preserve family ties.
The Role of the State
For almost 40 years, the question asked by local, state and federal policy makers has been
what role should families play in raising the achievement levels of their children and in the
efforts of the reform of the nation's schools? (Mapp, 2012, p.5). It is necessary to understand the
historic perspective to make sense of the demands of the future with regards to family
engagement. Mapp provides the history of Title I, the learning and efficacy of the parent
provisions, and presents recommendations to be considered, as the ESEA goes for reauthorization (2012).
In the 1960s, during the government of President Lyndon B. Johnson, the program War
on Poverty required that citizens served, had to participate in the planning. An example was the
Economic Opportunity Act of 1964 that required citizens served to participate in planning and
implementation in order to provide services more responsive to their needs and to integrate urban
population into the community life. A year later, the Elementary and Secondary Education Act
(ESEA) of 1965 created the Title I program which provides financial assistance to local
educational agencies and schools with a high number of children of low-income families to
insure that all children meet the academic standards. During its first years, the Office of
Education required local school officials to involve parents in a significant way, which led to the
establishment of a district wide parent advisory council in 1972.
The movement of parents grew to a point in which the National Coalition of ESEA Title I
Parents was created, and organizations such as the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights, the
NAACP legal defense fund and the National Committee for Citizens in Education provided
32
workshops and training for parents in urban and rural areas. These trainings provided parents
knowledge about the legislation, leadership and the law. As a result, parents learned about their
eligibility for federal initiatives, such as Head Start and free lunch programs.
During Ronald Reagans presidency in 1981, the majority of parental involvement
provisions were eliminated, as the ESEA was repealed and replaced by the Education
Consolidation and Improvement Act. Each reauthorization of the ESEA after 1981, attempted to
strengthen the Title I parent provisions. In 1994, President Bill Clinton signed the Improving
Americas School Act which had a more comprehensive model of parental involvement, and
required for Title I schools to set-aside and spend at least 1 percent of their Title I funds on
parental involvement. Under President George W. Bush, in the No Child Left Behind Act of
2002, parental involvement is mentioned in several legal documents, but the reauthorization did
not increase the set-aside dollars. Nonetheless, for the first time, the ESEA included a definition
of parental involvement. The ESEA is up for reauthorization this year (2015) by the federal
government. The Family Engagement in Education Act of 2015 (S.622/H.R. 1194),
ensures shared responsibility between families, communities, and educators for closing
the achievement gap. The proposed legislation sets forth a framework for leveraging
existing federal investments in education to support schools and districts with researchbased strategies that engage parents and raise student achievement, in a way that makes
the most sense for each community. It also provides professional development for
teachers and school leaders on how to partner with parents and turn around struggling
school (PTA, 2015, p. 3).
At the State level in 2013, Californias Governor Brown signed into law a new legislation
called Local Control Funding Formula. This is an innovative funding model based on the
33
principle that California must do better for its underperforming students; which are a large
portion of the states student population. The funding increases resources to the states neediest
students and restores local control over how money is spent on schools. Therefore, school
districts have more authority to decide how to spend their money. In addition, districts must
adopt a Local Control Accountability Plan (LCAP), which is updated annually and is prepared
with the input of teachers, parents and the community. The plan should address the eight priority
areas that help all students succeed. The eight priority areas are:
Basic Services
Implementation of State Standards
Course Access
Student Achievement
Other Outcomes
Student Engagement
Parent Engagement
LATINO
O FAMILY ENGAGEM
E
ENT
34
ng Descriptioon
Settin
The Chaarter Organ

nization
I conducted th
his action reesearch at tw
wo of the schoools of Highh Tech High (HTH) in Saan
Diego, California.
C
In
n 2000, its firrst charter hiigh school was
w founded by a group of
o entrepreneeurs
and educcators under the leadershhip of Gary Jacobs,
J
Kay Davis
D
and Larry
L
Rosensstock with thhe
purpose of
o creating a
school whhere studentss would be passionate
p
abbout learningg and would
acquire thhe basic skillls of work and
a citizenshhip (High Tech
T
High, n..d.)The orgaanization hass
become an
a integrated
d network off K-12 schoools, with a coomprehensivve teacher ceertification
program and a Gradu
uate School of
o Educationn (GSE) fullyy embeddedd within the network
n
of
schools; being the firrst of its natuure in the couuntry. Todaay, there are 13 schools: 4 elementarry
(includinng one that will
w open in August
A
20155), 4 middle schools, andd 5 high schoools for a tottal of
4,852 stuudents. Diverrsity is achieeved by two mechanismss: the invitattion of studeents from all zip
codes of San Diego, and the blind lottery adm
mission proccess. Two sttatistics refleect diversity::
race/ethnnicity and socioeconomicc status: 60%
% are studennts of color, and
a 42% of the
t families
qualify foor free or red
duced lunch. See figure 2 for the dem
mographics of all HTH schools.
s
hic Data for all HTH schhools, Year 2014-15.

2
Source: PowerrSchool.
Figure 2. Demograph
35
High Tech High has guided its mission and practice by the following four design
principles:
1. Personalization. The schools of HTH strive to create learner-centered environments where
teachers can fully engage students on a personal level, and thus, know them well enough to
support and challenge all students so that each one would eventually reach their maximum
potential.
2. Adult World Connection. Rather than being an ivory tower, the academic place is
conceptualized as a continuum of the real and adult world. Students integrate hands and
minds to connect their learning curiosity with challenges and experiences of the world of
work.
3. Common Intellectual Mission. The integration of a diverse community requires an
environment with common expectations for all and each one of its members. The existence
of such common intellectual mission is a key mechanism to secure equity in the
implementation of a rigorous curriculum leading to college and work in the 21st century.
4. Teacher as Designer. Connecting with the most classical traditions of the universitas and
Akadma, teachers are empowered to be curriculum and programs designers in
interdisciplinary teams, committed to be scientifically and technologically current and
innovative.
A main tenet in the HTH educational philosophy is that the first step in achieving equity
is diversity. The second step towards equity is through Project Based Learning (HTH, n.d.). The
consistent implementation of these strategies has empowered HTH to achieve various
benchmarks in California and San Diego (website):
98% of HTH's graduates have gone on to college,
36
86% of High Tech graduates are either still enrolled or have graduated from college (the
national rate is about 59%).
About 35% of HTH graduates are first-generation college students.
Over 30% of HTH alumni enter math or science fields (vs. 17% national rate).
In summary, the educational philosophy derived from the above four design principles
lines up HTH with the democratic trajectory of the American education. This acts not only to
satisfy the new demand of the labor market, but also to be a fully and true social equalizer. The
latter specifically connects with my inquiry question: How might we increase equity by
engaging and empowering Latino families to support their students academic achievement
while developing a sense of belonging in a diverse school?
There are two underlying situations that connect HTHs philosophy in education and my
research on how to engage Latino families.
The first situation is the proposition that parental engagement in the school as well as in the
educational process of their children is fundamental for securing the academic achievement
of the students. Besides HTHs inspiration, I had validated this proposition in my own
experience and found that it is supported by vast contemporaneous research (Ceballo, 2004;
Epstein, 1987; Ferrer, 2011; Gutman & Midgley, 2000; Henderson & Mapp, 2002; Paredes,
2010).
The second one is the fact that although there is an active Parent Association (PA) in HTH,
the level of participation of the Latino families in both the school and in the Parent
Association is minimal. Therefore, the point in consideration is that if there is a segment of
the diverse student population whose families are not engaged in the school and/or the
LATINO
O FAMILY ENGAGEM
E
ENT
37
educaational affairrs of their chhildren, they cannot suppport their chiildren as thee other familiies
can. Therefore, this
t particulaar group of students
s
is beeing placed in
i a disadvanntaged posittion.
The Schoools
For the purpo
oses of this action
a
researcch and as a resident
r
of thhe HTH Graaduate Schoool of
Education (GSE), I worked
w
with the Spanishh-Speaking families
fa
from
m two of HTH
Hs high schhools;
High Tecch High-Garry and Jerri-A
Ann Jacobs and
a the Highh Tech Highh Internationaal. Both schoools
are locateed in the Poiint Loma cam
mpus, with a total enrolllment of 5800 and 394 stuudents
respectivvely. The Lattino populatiion represennts 31% for HTH
H
and 36% for HTHII. See Figurees 3,
4, and 5 for
f the schoo
ols demogrraphic inform
mation that includes
i
the ethnicity, soocioeconomiic
status (SE
ES) of the faamilies who qualify for the
t free/reduuced lunch program, Engglish Learnerrs
(EL), andd Special Ed
ducation for each
e
school..
Figure 3. Demograph
hic by race for
f HTHI. Year
Y 2014-155, Source: PoowerSchool.
Figure 4.
4 Other Dem
mographic Data
D for HTH
H and HTHI. Year 2014--15. Source: PowerSchoool.
LATINO
O FAMILY ENGAGEM
E
ENT
38
Figure 5. Demograph
hic by Race of HTH Yeaar 2014-15, Source: Pow
werSchool.
Inn general, Laatino studentts of the highh schools stuudied tend too perform lower than theeir
counterparts. If we co
onsider one academic peerformance indicator,
i
thee Grade Poinnt Average, at
High Tecch High International Laatino studentts scored low
wer than Cauucasian, Asiaans and Africcan
Americann in the acad
demic years 2013-14. Thhe average GPA
G
of all stuudents for thhe first semeester
was 3.25; the GPA fo
or the main groups
g
in deescending ordder were as follow: Asiaan 3.48,
Caucasiaan 3.41, African Americaan 3.13, and Latinos hadd an average GPA of 3.08 , 0.40 poinnts
below thee highest gro
oup. The com
mplete data is
i representeed in figure 6.
6
dents GPA Semester

S
1, 2013 - 20144. Source: PoowerSchool
Figure 6. HTHI Stud
LATINO
O FAMILY ENGAGEM
E
ENT
39
For the secon

nd semester, the average GPA for alll students waas 3.39; whille the GPA for
f
the main groups weree: Caucasiann 3.58, Asiann 3.57, Africcan American 3.31, and Latinos,
L
agaain
had the loowest GPA of 3.21, whhich was 0.377 points lower from the highest
h
grouup. Completee
data is reepresented in
n figure 7.
Figure 7. HTHI Stud

dents GPA Semester
S
For the first semester

s
of the
t academicc year 2014-15, Latinos and African American had
h
A was 3.13, with a difference of 0.31 points from
m the
the lowesst GPA among all groupps. Their GPA
highest group.
g
Data is
i representeed in Figure 8.
LATINO
O FAMILY ENGAGEM
E
ENT
40
Figure 8. HTHI Stud

dents GPA Semester
S
Family Participatio
P
n
H
HTH
schools have variouus events durring the schoool year wheere parents are
a invited annd
expectedd to attend. These
T
events are run in English
E
thouggh some schoools offeredd translation
services for
f Spanish speaking fam
milies.
1.
Open
n House: thiis is an annual event whiich takes plaace at the begginning of yeear. Teacherrs
proviide an overview of the scchool year, projects,
p
exppectations annd other relevvant events.
2.
Exhib
bitions of Learning:
L
onnce a project is finalized,, students shhare with fam
milies, peers and
the coommunity att large, theirr learning, diiscoveries, products creaated, as well as their ownn
learning process.
Student-Led
d conferencees: twice a yeear, all studeents converse in an intim
mate way witth
thheir parents about
a
their academic
a
proogress, challlenges, as weell as their reeflections annd
acction plans.
41
College Fair: depending of the grade level, the school has several college information
sessions, college fairs and other events to guide families with college options,
admissions, financial aid, and other processes.
Meetings with Directors: schools have a scheduled monthly parent meeting with the
Director. This provides parents with the opportunity to converse and discuss topics of
their interest related to the school and their children.
Meetings of the Parent Association: parents who are members of the Parent Association
meet every month. They create an agenda for the year and encourage other parents to
collaborate and participate in the various events.
School Staff
The High Tech High International school has a total 36 staff members deployed as
follows: 20 teachers, 6 administrative staff (director, dean, business manager, it support, college
advisor, academic coach), 4 inclusion teachers that work directly with students with special
needs, and 6 academic coaches who provide personalized academic support to students. 53% are
female and 13% (5) of the staff are bilingual English-Spanish.
Parent Association
Each of the HTH schools has its own Parent Association with the mission to support the
schools design principles. The Parent Association is composed of parents who sponsor social
events, fundraise, and volunteer for school events. They meet once a month as an association
with their school director. At HTHI, the Parent Association has six elected officers in the
following positions: President, Vice-President of Communications, Vice-President of
Development, Vice-President of School Support, Secretary, and Treasurer and Parliamentarian.
42
The Presidents Council in conformed of the President and Vice-President of each

schools Parent Association from the Point Loma schools (also known as the HTH Village).The
Council meets every month to coordinate and plan their events to include after-school/annual
fundraisings, the Village Fest, voluntary initiatives, and much more.
From the five schools of the HTH Village, only one school has a Latino Parent
Association; the HTH Gary and Jerri-Ann Jacobs high school. Parents have monthly meetings in
Spanish, invite guest speakers, plan volunteer events, and participate in fundraising activities. A
staff member, who is also the English Language Learner coordinator, works in a part-time
capacity as the outreach advisor for the Latino Parent Association. They coordinate the monthly
meetings, workshops, fundraising activities and support families with translations when
necessary. Parents and the community at large, are welcome to attend the bi-monthly board
meetings as determined by the Open Meetings Act from the Charter School Law.
Parents at the HTH schools do not participate in the school process of making decisions.
This the case in the Local School Councils in Chicago Public Schools, where parents have
representatives who are elected officials who participate and vote on decisions to approve how
school funds and resources are allocated, develop and monitor the annual School Improvement
Plan, and evaluate and select the school's principal (Chicago Public Schools, n.d.)
43
Methods
The action-research took place over a period of four months with permission to conduct
the research granted by HTHs Graduate School of Education Institutional Review Board.
Participants were identified purposefully according to the criteria of the research calling for
Latino parents of 9th grade students from the first school, and Latino parents from various grades
from the second school. Participants who voluntarily consented to participate were adequately
informed of their rights as participants to include the following four elements: full information,
voluntarism, comprehension and competence as stated by Diener & Crandall (as cited in Cohen,
2007).
My inquiry question can be disaggregated in five operational elements as follows:

while developing a sense of belonging
in a diverse school?
To collect the data to address the five operational elements, I used qualitative and
quantitative methods throughout two phases: first, during the needs assessment and research
portion, and later, during the action and transformative undertakings articulated in an induction
program for parents that I called The Parent Odyssey.
44
During Phase I, I used three methods to collect data (1) Conversations and interviews; (2)
Focus Groups; and (3) Surveys. In Phase II, I also collected data through surveys, but mostly
through participative observations. I selected these qualitative methods because they provide a
closer perspective to understanding frames of mind, experiences and important antecedents that
determine interests, differentiated positions, contradictions and conflicts from parents, teachers
and staff that with the sole use of surveys might not have been revealed. Qualitative methods
offer effective mechanisms to capture insights and visions as to how participants construct and
reproduce their subjective realities with which they rationalize and emotionally frame their daily
transformative actions.
Phase I: Needs Assessment
During this phase, I engaged in a listening and observational tour that included a series of
meetings with staff from the two schools: HTHI and HTH in Point Loma. As a result of these
conversations with the Latino Parent Outreach Advisor from HTH, I decided to extend my
research to include the parents of her high school. We both share the conviction that Latino
parent engagement is essential in the equation of the student educational success and the school
quality delivery.
1. Conversations and Interview.
These were done with four purposes:
To begin the development of genuine relationships;
To enhance my base knowledge and understanding of a diverse school committed to a

progressive educational agenda;
To understand the status of parental involvement within the school, especially the degree of
engagement of Latino families;
45
To understand the similarities and differences of the school-family engagement between San
Diego and Chicago. I used my experience and understanding for comparison purposes as
well as to create mini-hypotheses to be tested, in questions, in conversations, and in
interviews and to elicit more thoughtful comments from the interlocutors.
I conducted a total of 30 interviews which included: 2 directors, 2 deans, 1 business
manager, 1 family coordinator, 5 teachers, 3 students and 16 parents. Interviews lasted between
45 minutes to an hour, I took notes and clarified with some staff when necessary. Interviews with
staff members were more structured, and mostly conducted with open-ended questions to
encourage deeper elaboration. The main questions were:
How active is the participation of Latino parents?
What are some of the issues they consider parents should be more proactive about?
What challenges they face when communicating with parents?
What facilitates or impedes parent engagement in the school?
How can parents help and support students?

With parents, even though I had clearly identified specific questions, my approach was
less formal allowing them to dive into topics they felt relevant to share. Interviews were done in
Spanish. Some conversation talking points were:
How they learned about or found HTH;
How different they felt at HTH compared to other schools;
How were their experiences participating in school events;
What type of communication and engagement they have had with the school?
How was their own experience of education in their countries of origin;
How their family life was shaped in the United States.
46
The locations for the interviews varied from coffee shops, restaurants within the school
area, benches in the park, to spaces at the school or at their workplace. I was very flexible with
the days and times; some interviews took place late at night, early before school, or during the
weekends. I provided parents with my cell phone to maintain communication and be accessible.
Furthermore, strong relationships began to develop, to the point that they contacted me, due to
my bilingualism, to report late arrivals, early dismissals, absences, and to set up appointment
with teachers for academic or personal concerns regarding their kids. I gladly accepted the role
of being a bridge for them. As we know, these exchanges of human kindness are necessary to
build the foundation of collaborative relations within the Latino community (Scribner et. al.,
1999). I captured the conversations and interviews through field notes which I found to be less
invasive than video/voice recordings, where people tend to say less and limit their responses.
2.
Focus groups.
During January and February, I conducted two integrated focus groups with Latino
families from the two schools (HTH and HTHI). The meetings were held at the school facilities,
during weekday evenings and lasted between 90 and 120 minutes. In total 48 families
participated, 25 in the first focus group and 23 in the second; for a total of 32 unduplicated
families. The ambiance was friendly and parents shared personal, sometimes difficult
experiences, and recalled strong emotions as immigrant and working class families.
The purposes of the parents focus groups were:
Foster the development of a trusting environment where the parents of both schools could get
to know each other;
Understand their reasons for choosing HTH as well as their experiences at the school;
Learn about their understanding of the roles of parents, students, teachers and the school;
Learn more about how they see their contribution as a group to the school community.
Document their understandings and experiences with the American and HTH systems of
47
education.
Although the main purpose of the focus groups was to continue collecting information,
they were also considered friendly spaces to learn about obstacles the families faced, as well as
their hopes and determinations. I hoped the conversations to be transformativethat they would
awaken a sense of identity and belonging, and more importantly, that families would envision
their roles in supporting the students. I gathered all data from the focus group through
observations, note-taking and the poster boards prepared by parents who after discussing certain
themes in their small group, presented their findings and conclusion to the whole group.
3. The Surveys.
Three surveys were administered to 71 families. Two of those surveys were administered
to 62 parents and one survey was administered to 14 students. The first parental survey was
administered during Phase I - needs assessment, and focused, compressively, on parents
experiences at the school; 48 families responded this survey. The second parental survey was
administered during the Parent Odyssey and focused specifically on this experience; 14 parents
responded the survey. The last Survey was given to the students and its focus was on their
experience at the Parent Odyssey; 12 (9) students responded the survey. Table 3 provides a
distribution of the types of questions per survey, there was a total of 67 questions.
48
Table 3 Distribution of the types of questions from Surveys

Demographic Likert
Type
3
SATA
(Select All
That Apply)
Open
Ended
Polar
(yes/no)
SOOA
(Select Only
One
Answer)
Rating
Scale
Parents
Survey 1
10
13
Parents
Survey 2
Students
Survey
Total
10
14
11
11
14
All three surveys were written in Spanish. Although English translations were available,
only one parent took the survey in English and 3 students responded the open ended questions in
English. The main objective of the first survey was to collect specific data from the families,
including: demographics, beliefs, parents self-efficacy perceptions, parental support methods,
expectations, roles and responsibilities. I used some of the questions from the survey designed by
the Harvard Graduate School of Education researchers. Table 4 provides the four main areas
covered and the number of questions per area.
49
Table 4 Parent Survey Sections

Sections
Areas
# of questions
Section A General and demographic data

We would like to know more about you
10
Section B Perceptions on the role of the school and parents

Beliefs and expectations for high school
Section C Perceptions on the process leading to college

Beliefs and expectations after high school
Section D Perception of engagement with the school

Roles, beliefs, attitudes and activities with the school
18
Each section included a question asking participants if they had a question or a comment
they wanted to submit, anonymously; nearly 60% of parents and 40% of students provided
feedback. Thirty seven surveys were administered in a group setting, 13 participants filled out
the survey at home and returned it through their students, except for 2 who never returned them.
The parent association, and I, administered the group survey and provided a five-minute
explanation on purposes and direction of the study.
Phase II: The Parent-Odyssey

The Action component of the research consisted of a 4-day pilot Parent Odyssey. The
Odyssey is HTHs version of a teacher induction program, where new teachers to the HTH
schools, learn how to design, plan, execute and assess projects with the guidance of their HTH
peers. During the Odyssey, teachers become familiar with the use of protocols such as project
tuning, looking at student work, and become reflective practitioners of deeper learning. All
learning is constructed by doing, in a collaborative manner. Having this spirit in mind, I
created and executed an induction program for parents which I called The Parent Odyssey. With
50
the collaboration and the input of parents, teachers and the Latino parent advisor, we identified
the topics, guest speakers and format for these interactive workshops. The aim of the Parent
Odyssey was to,
empower parents with the knowledge of the educational system and options in the United
States and of the school,
engage parents in conversations about their role in supporting their children,
encourage them to develop a network of committed parents to support each other,
develop a closer and meaningful relationship with the school.

The Parent Odyssey took place between March and June on four Saturdays from 8:30
a.m. to 4:00 p.m. for a total of 30 hours. During the first two days, parents participated in
dynamic and interactive workshops. On the third day, parents and students participated in the
family panel and developed the college action plan culminating in a Presentation of Learning by
the parents and students. On the last day of the Parent Odyssey, parents, students and other
family members attended a 7-hour-field trip to the University of California San Diego. A total of
twelve families participated in the field trip which included fathers, mothers, students, other
siblings and also a grandmother abuela. It was an intergenerational learning experience full of
emotional moments. A grand total of 60 participants attended the Parent Odyssey; from those, 18
parents attended all four days.
In the Parent Odyssey, I incorporated the HTH principles and practices. Contents were
personalized according to the parents knowledge and familiarity with various topics and issues.
For example, the college admission process was presented by a parent who graduated from a
university in the United States and it was compared to the experience of a mother who graduated
from a university in South America. The richness of the conversations were complemented with
51
testimonials and advice from college students, a professor and director of supportive programs at
the University of California in San Diego, national Latina motivator, a health coach, and a panel
where a family (mother, father, and two sisters) of a HTH employee. The family shared their
experiences, satisfactions and how they overcame the financial and emotional challenges faced
when their children went to college.
The common intellectual mission of the Parent Odyssey was reflected in the objectives
defined as follows:
all families will learn, understand and experience the education system and model of both
the United States and HTH, and
all families, in spite of their academic background or English knowledge, will actively
engage in conversations to begin the creation of a tailored action plan for their children to
graduate from college.
The design principle of real world application was embodied in the contents and in the
relevance of the topics covered. The themes of the Parent Odyssey were carefully selected with
three objectives in mind:
1. to validate parents experiences as human beings and immigrants;
2. to acknowledge the importance and beauty of their culture and values;
3. to identify their challenges and opportunities to access the educational systems in the
country. See Appendix C for an overview of the Parent Odyssey.
The format of the Parent Odyssey followed the progressive pedagogy of High Tech High,
where learners construct their knowledge in a collaborative manner. It was designed to be an
experiential learning process for parents, students and the whole family. Parents worked in pairs,
small groups, presented findings, did gallery walks to learn from each other, journal and created
52
prototypes using the design thinking process from Stanford University. In the two sessions where
parents and students attended, all worked on their action plans presenting them in their first
Family Exhibition of Learning. The last session culminated with a reflections shared by
parents, students and staff in the form of Connections; a HTH tradition, where all families
gathered around in a circle, and in this open space they relay their learning, experiences, and
anything they have in their hearts and mind.
Data Collection and Analysis
Standard procedures of descriptive statistical methods were used for collecting and
analyzing data. Information from surveys was tabulated manually and organized in frequency
distribution tables using Excel, a Microsoft Office product. Statistics for measures of central
tendency and dispersion were estimated to provide perspective to some of the findings. No
instruments of statistical inference were used. The data collected from the Parent Odyssey was
obtained through observations, field notes, videos and artifacts produced by participants (posters,
design thinking prototypes, 4-year college plans, etc.), exit cards and a survey. Data tabulated
from answers to close-ended question was transcribed and classified to be organized into
conceptual and issue categories as well as into frequency distribution tables. These answers
were then processed with the same formats used with the participant observation methodology
for field notes in interviews and focus group. No cross reference was made between the notes
from identified participants in interviews and focus groups and anonymous comments offered in
the surveys open ended questions.
As a mostly qualitative action research, this study confronted a substantive issue with the
scope of bias, understood as systematic errors introduced into the collection and analysis of data
by selecting or encouraging one answer over the others. Furthermore, I approached this issue
53
with the mindset that bias is not only present in all stages of the research, but it cannot be totally
eliminated and consequently, the researcher needs to develop a personal strategy to handle
his/her own bias (Popper, 1992). Under the conception that reality is equal to data plus and/or
minus a margin of error (Popper, 1957), in the design phase of the research, I applied traditional
procedures to reduce error and enhance representation of the reality in the data. I used the
Gubas model in which validity is procured internally by credibility and externally by
transferability; at the same time, reliability is pursued by dependability, while objectivity is
factorized in conformability (Guba, 1981).
During the implementation of phase I, I addressed the bias factor in two ways. On one
hand, by regularly questioning and self-criticizing assumptions that I have in my multiple
conditions of an immigrant, a Latina and a parent. On the other hand, by becoming theoretically
conscious of the implications and impact of my social political and emotional commitment; to
the inner-city Latino communities in United States in this time and era. In other words, although
I accept that in all honesty I cannot pretend to have neutral value judgments, I can strive for
becoming conscientious of my own bias as a historical being of my time and place (Shenton,
2004); in that way, I intend to achieve what I call "the conscious status of my inherent
subjective".
54
Findings
I have organized the various results of the research and its action components into three
sets of findings, as follows:
1. The Role of Communication in the Relations of Monolingual Populations
2. What is the System of Education?
3. Integration into American Society
Findings Set 1 - The Role of Communication in the Relations of Monolingual Populations
At the end of the day it is all about language.
As obvious as it may sound, my first finding is the presence and coexistence of two
monolingual populations: school staff and teachers on one side, and Latino parents on the other.
Ninety percent of teachers and staff are unable to communicate in Spanish; while for 89% of the
Latino parents surveyed, English is the main obstacle in their communication with the school.
Among all HTH schools, the Latino enrollment is 33% (at HTH is 31% and 37% in HTHI).
Clearly, this third of student and parent populations defines an area of potential linguistic
tensions; projecting my data, in the entire HTH population, only 3% of the Latino parents can
communicate in English without issue.
In terms of the operational process of communication between the schools and Latino
parents, the language factor is not only an issue of communication but is also an organizational
factor, in at least three levels (Watzlawick, Beavin, & Jackson, 2011):
1. In securing an effective exchange of information between parents and the school; without
information there is no reason for actions which become minimal or null.
55
2. In empowering parents to participate in the educational process of their children;

communication and information provide the contents that encourage participation.
3. In integrating immigrant families into the school life and eventually into mainstream
America; one cannot become a member of something that is unknown.
Table 5 Parents Comments Reflecting on the Issue of Language

Parent I highly appreciate the fact we are talking in Spanish: I understand everything and I can
have an opinion on problems in education and the country it makes me feel like I am
part of the school and the country... it is such an incredible experience.
Parent We have been living in this country for 25 years and I never felt like an American as I
have these last 2 Saturdays because I realized my ideas count and I can be part of the
solution it is great!
Parent I told my son what we have been discussing and the speech I gave about the
agricultural workers, and he could not believe it... he said he was very proud of me, I
said me too I am proud that he can see that and I can make him proud of me we are
now closer and have plans to do many things together
Parent I have never doubted that someday I am going to speak English well every day I try
to practice a little bit, but while I get there I prefer to talk in Spanish. Especially for
important things like in the hospital or at my daughters school, for now, in Spanish I
can think much better and people understand me better
The initial findings regarding the critical importance of Spanish, to secure proper and
effective communication, were revealed in the interviews and focus groups, and later confirmed
in the surveys. However, these findings were not a surprise as they align with my expectations
based on 20 years of experience working with two Latino communities in Chicago: the Puerto
Rican and the Mexican community. Also, data from the US Census Bureau provided a solid
frame of reference to this finding. The 2010 US Census in question 14-b, asked people to
identify what was the language other than English that individuals spoke regularly at home: 21%
of the 291 million of people, aged 5 and over, detailed 381 languages. For operational purposes,
56
and data tabulation, languages were collapsed into 39 major language groups; out of them,
Spanish was the largest group, accounting for 17% or 38 million people (US Census, 2013). The
national use of Spanish is confirmed in the existence of six national TV networks broadcasting in
Spanish, some 500 local radio stations and more than a thousand weekly newspapers.
Contrasting the demographic data of Latino parents gathered in the survey with the US
Census figures on Latino population, I found no significant differences. In terms of the specific
importance of Spanish, in our survey, 96% of the parents said they were born and raised in Latin
America. Data also indicates that in practical terms, Spanish has three functional articulations
for them:
They use Spanish on a daily basis when talking, and in all colloquia communications; 97%
consider themselves linguistically dominant in Spanish;
They always use Spanish for family communications, 85% communicate with children in
Spanish and rarely use English;
They use Spanish to speak in the neighborhood and/or at work, 35% consider themselves
bilingual, though they stated that most of the time they speak Spanish.
Conclusion: At HTH and HTHI, Latino parents who are mostly first generation
immigrants from Mexico and other Latin American countries are idiomatically dominant in their
native language: Spanish. The importance and use of Spanish is strongly reflected within the
Latino families, their relationships and daily-life-colloquial communications.
The growing linguistic gap in the Latino families.
Initial findings also confirm what is already known as the relationship triad language,
school and immigrant families (Portes & Rumbaut, 2001). For instance, language development
in children of immigrant families confirm that while the parents language continues to be used
57
within the family as soon as children are socialized in the educational system, even as
preschoolers, they begin to transition into becoming dominant in English (Gabler, 1990; Portes
& Rumbaut, 2001). As far as conversations with their siblings, students use more English than
Spanish. As a result, and aware of the importance of Spanish for Latino families, during
interviews and focus groups, I sought to better understand this phenomenon, as well as, to figure
out the impact of this research for how to engage parents. My first inquiries confirmed the
analysis of Gabler (1990), when he studied the dynamic of languages in Chicagos Latino
immigrants who were attending St. Augustine College, the first bilingual college experiment in
the nation. He identified four tendencies in the use of English and Spanish when immigrant
families settle in their new homes.
First, in recently arrived families, Spanish is used in all domestic situations, including
colloquial conversations and daily routines and affairs. However as time goes by, parents
reported that Spanish language stops growing and developing, particularly the vocabulary related
to new experiences, such as, when dealing with technology and/or when communicating at work.
Table 6 Parents Comments on their use of English or Spanish

Parent
I feel so awkward trying to talk with her [daughter] in English, that we always go back
to Spanish;
Parent
I always talk to my husband in Spanish and I try to not mix it with English, with the
children sometimes, I use spanglish when we are in a hurry, but I dont like it;
Parent
There are many things, like words in computers, I have learned here [USA] and I do
not know how to translate them into Spanish;
Parent
It is a shame, it is not that I forget how certain things are said in Spanish, it is just that I
never learned them when I was in Mexico.
58
Second, children attending school with monolingual English programs systematically

incorporate into their minds a universe of new knowledge, ideas and mechanisms for thinking in
English (Gabler, 1990). For many children, and particularly for those born in the United States,
the acquisition of two languages extends throughout 18 years: 6 years of monolingual Spanish
pre-schooling socialization at home, and 12 years of academic socialization in English
monolingual schooling. Bilingual programs provide a smoother transition and make the entire
process shorter.
Table 7 Parents and Students Comments on Communication Barriers

Parent
Sometimes I feel very bad I know that he cannot share with me the new things he
learned at the school because he has no idea how to say it in Spanish, so I prefer not to
ask him
Parent
Up until middle school we used to have long conversations; not anymore, sometimes
I feel we are living in two different worlds
Student
Even if I try, I cannot talk too long with them [parents] in English.
Student
I miss the long conversations I had with my father; now everything is different, he is
always busy at work and so am I with school. Also, there is the language problem I
think its the vocabulary
Third, the unequal and combined development of two languages compartmentalizes the
experiences in the daily life of immigrant families and their students. On one side is the home
experience in Spanish, which is constrained to domestic and colloquial matters, disconnected
from the school and with minimal use in the academic sphere. The English experience at school,
on the other side, focuses on the entire learning process, with all its concomitant involvements
and socialization processes. These two experiences, home and school are largely disconnected.
59
In that sense, the study confirms Gablers findings that these two spheres emerge as parallel
realities with minimum areas of contact in terms of social relationships and/or intellectual and
emotional connection (1990).
This is the famous world of hablo un poquito (I speak a little) which is still several
steps before being bilingual; this ability is understood as the capacity to speak and think
simultaneously in both languages. Moreover, the code-switching of the bilingual experience is
not present in most of the Latino students during their high school years. Furthermore, the
second generation rediscovers the importance of the parent language when they enter into the
adult life and compete in some segments of the American labor market, where bilingual skills are
considered a plus (Gabler, 1992; Portes & Rumbaut, 2001).
Table 8 Parents Comments on use and importance of Spanish

Parent
now I talk to them in Spanish and they respond in English, I understand most of the
time and they too I used to guess a lot; not anymore
Parent
we have a rule: at dinner nobody speaks in English... it is family time
Parent
just now, my older son, whose age is 25, is interested in learning and practicing
Spanish with us, I think he wants to find out who he is as a Mexican American and use
the Spanish to have more job opportunities
Parent
the same goes for my daughter, the eldest, who is a nurse, she now regrets having lost
her Spanish"
Parent
I have a nephew who wants to learn Spanish with me my brother never spoke in
Spanish with him
And fourth, as parents remain Spanish-monolingual at home along with a survival

English in their daily work; their children increasingly evolve dominant in English at school. As
a result, this generates a tendency towards a linguistic gap within the family. This gap has a
60
number of serious implications in education and needs to be studied from a greater and deeper
perspective (Diaz, Espinosa, & Rodriguez, 1999; Fillmore & Snow, 2000; Zhou, 1997; Reese,
Garnier, Gallimore, & Goldenberg, 2000).
Table 9 Comments on Communication between Parents and Students

Student I cant explain myself well in Spanish, so I prefer to talk in English with my family
I know they do not understand all what I am saying
Parent
when she invites her classmates to study at home, they speak so fast that I cannot
understand anything they say - so I can only trust that all is fine; I dare to ask if I can
help, as when she was a little girl
Conclusion: The immigrant familys transition into the American society and its
posterior integration is accompanied of a linguistics transformation in its internal linguistics

relationships, specifically between parents and children. These transformations that run along
four stages create an internal gap that, in different degrees, affect seriously its capacity to
communicate and impact its external world, especially the experiences linked to the school.
Implications of the role of communications in the relations of monolingual
populations.
The spontaneous and simplest solution to the translation needs of immigrant families has
been the familys children, who have picked up the language faster and in many cases, they are
ahead in the process of becoming dominant in English. Schools settings are the best example of
children translating to their parents, other settings are hospitals and public offices. Nowadays, it
is not unusual to find students translating in teacher-parent conferences, particularly in
progressive schools where staff and teachers truly believe in the importance of keeping parents
informed, in turn facilitating their participation in the school.
61
The findings regarding the linguistic gap within the Latino family introduce serious
doubts as to the students capability to be an effective and efficient interpreter between the
school and the parents. Even if students attempt their best to fulfill this need, because of their
limited bilingual skills, they can be incompetent to render the quality of service that is required,
know. In the survey, when parents were asked how the school, including teachers, communicates
with them, 33% responded through the students as the mechanism used by the school in such
process. Yet when they were asked what would be their preferred means to be contacted and
informed by the school, 80% did not select the students as one of the mechanisms of
communication. I found that even considering the issue of language, the majority of parents
prefer the phone as a way for the school to communicate with them (78%), followed by a letter
(17%), while only 5% selected email.
When the issue of communications was addressed in focus groups, particularly with
teachers and staff members, technology was identified as a solution with great potential. Staff
and teachers provided various types of feasible solutions that would increase communication
with parents, allow messaged to be translated in both languages, send massive phone invitations
via PowerSchool, and provide ongoing information related to projects and class work. All these
solutions are being used presently, are cost free, and are in tune with the modern tendencies in
communication revolutionized by the technology. On this issue, however, Latino parents have a
different opinion.
62
Table 10 Parents Comments on Communication with School Using Technology

Parent In that week I phoned the school 4 or 5 times, every single day, and nobody
answered I never left a message [thinking] it was a waste of time. I always call my
son.
Parent I just learned that the school sends us messages through Power School, I did not know
that, and I think only few people know it it is a good example of the lack of
communications
Parent I disagree I think the problem is not the technology it is about [developing]
personal relationships. First we meet in person and look at each other eyes, I have to
trust you, and then you can send me all the emails and messages you want I need to
respect you before I can listen to what you have to say I am sorry, this is how our
parents and grandparents taught us, this is the way I am, and now I am teaching my
kids
Parent I prefer when a person calls me and speaks Spanish, I do not have a computer at home
Although the benefits of technology mainly apply to the form of communication and little
to its contents, in using it intensely in the relationships between the school and Latino parents,
three aspects should be considered. First, since availability to technology is correlated with the
disposition of economic resources, low-income families are challenged in regard to their power
of access. Second, many of the parents reported the need to learn how to use the various
technology tools used at school. Third, my notes show that that Latino parents do not oppose or
disregard it. Though moderately, all of them use technology at work or have smart phones. What
this suggests, is that Latinos dislike replacing personal relationships with technology, especially
when they attach a value to the relation as it may be in the case of their relations with the school.
That is also why, it is easy for Latino parents to understand and enthusiastically support the
personalization design principle of HTH.
63
Table 11 Parents Comments on the Quality of Communication

Parent I always tell my daughter: I you can call me, do not text me, if you can see me, talk to
me, do not call me on the phone, if you have time, lets converse and enjoy the details of
the conversation, do not rush talking to me
Parent if I cannot connect with them [sons], I prefer to say nothing
Parent texting is destroying [written] language there was a time that if somebody texted me,
I would ask myself: what happened?, why are they mad?, why they dont want to talk
with me anymore? now I dont feel offended, but still is hard, it is so distant, and far
away
The communication between the school and Latino families is one that should be
carefully assed. Content and forms of communication are critical for having highly efficient and
effective communication (Watzlawick, 2011). Even more, there are instances in which the
communication form is more important than its content, because if the form or way of
communication does not reach the family, the content is already compromised, especially with
two monolingual populations. Therefore, if the school is communicating with Spanish-speaking
parents primarily in English, one may pose the question how does the school value efficiency in
the communication, and for that matter, how much does it value its relationships with parents?
In that sense, an overall finding in this study is that HTHs Latino families are not different than
other immigrant families in other places of the country.
Consequently, parents are not immune to the problems and vicissitudes in the process of
integration into the American society. For parents, language as a function of communication is a
primary critical barrier in integration and participation in the school. For the school, language is
the primary critical challenge in the efforts for having with Latino parents at the same level, and
quality, of communications that the school has with the rest of the parents.
64
Thus, the inter-dependency between communication and language became a key theme in
this research. If the United States is a predominantly monolingual society; as is Mexico (with
the largest Latino population the great majority of the Latino population in the US is from
Mexico); then the intersection of both societies requires the existence of bilingual skills in both
directions. Otherwise, when bilingual skills are not available they rapidly turn into a harsh
barrier sometimes insurmountable. By the same token, when the cardinal importance of
language is placed in context, whether in English or Spanish, it becomes not only a matter of
pragmatic communication between two groups, but also a matter of integration and/or
assimilation of recent immigrants into a nation of immigrant descendants.
During the study, the communication system used with the parents was personalized via
phone and in Spanish. After day-2 of the Odyssey, I decided to communicate with the parents via
text to determine if this could be a viable media of communication in the future, the content
remained in Spanish. The responses were very positive 80% responded via text and 20% called
returned the call.
In sum, if we contextualize language within the political and civil rights climate of the
21th century, vis--vis the ideological environment set by the design principles of HTH, it is
totally unavoidable that language will arise as an issue of equity for the HTH experience and an
issue of real and effective integration into the American society for the Latino community.
Conclusion: The coexistence of two significant monolingual populations in the school is
a daily test to the capacity to establish and develop a good level and system of communication
with Latino parents. The degree of success, or failure, of this task will affect various critical
components of the school operation, ranking from the quality of peoples relationships to the
very productivity of the school and the empowering of its mission. The use of technology, a
65
common solution today, needs to be adopted to the dialectic of contents and forms and it should
not replace personal interface, especially when relationship are just being established.
Finding set 2 Educational System and Parent Engagement
These findings are clustered around the possible reasons as to why Latino parents in HTHI
have a low level of engagement with the school and, for that reason, in the student learning process.
Why Latino parents participation is low?
Early in the conversations, previous to interviews and the focus groups in the assessment
phase of the study, it was established that Latino parents in HTHI had a low level of the
engagement compared to other parents. Later, this low level of involvement was confirmed by the
leadership of the Parent Association. They explained that a language barrier was the basis of such
irregularity. In sharing their experience, the leadership of the Parent Association recalled that some
time ago, concerned with the situation, they attempted to solve the problem by renting an electronic
system for simultaneous translation and hiring a professional translator, without positive results.
Table 12 Comments of the Parent Associations Leaders about their Experience with Latino
Parents
Leader unfortunately, they did not attend the meeting, probably was our fault because we did a
lousy job inviting and informing them of the new translation equipment
Leader when they [Latinos] feel comfortable with their English knowledge, they tend to attend
some meetings
Leader we sent email invitations using PowerSchool, but the content was in English, we did
not have anyone to translate it into Spanish
Teachers offered an additional dimension to the engagement of Latino parents. The 9th
grade teachers focus group discussed three themes: communication, participation and
66
understanding of HTHs educational framework. With regard to communication and

participation of Latino parents, there was a consensus that a significant issue was the language
barrier and in many instances, time was a constraint due to their jobs. In relation to the
understanding of HTHs educational framework, a senior teacher pointed out what I have also
sensed as a generalized opinion in most teachers which is: that the majority of parents do not
know or understand the pedagogy and operational elements of the academic program at HTH.
Consequently, teachers suggested that ALL parents of incoming students need to be introduced
to the theory and practice, the culture of Project Based Learning, assessments, collaboration and
homework among others. Latino parents certainly need such induction, and it should be done in
Spanish.
Table 13 Teachers Comments on Parent Engagement in HTHs schools

Teacher
it is not only PBL, it is the entire school culture that is different in so many ways,
that it is not only one message at once, but a series of conversations that takes
time
Teacher
when I see a group of freshmen and their parents who were not in a HTH middle
school, I know I have a lot of work ahead it takes around three months to have
everybody on the same page
Teacher
we need a program to help students transition from a traditional setting into our PBL
culture everybody, not only students of color
Teacher
I realized we were in two different worlds, when I explained to a mother, how

important it was for the team and the project to be present those specific days, she
argued her daughter was never absent from class or a test and that should really count
for grades
Latino parents are not much different than other parents, in regard to the acclimation at
HTH schools. If we remove the variable of language from the equation, the questions would be:
what is causing the low level of involvement of Latino parents? Is there anything in the
67
background of Latino parents that explains the difference in engagement and participation?
Maybe there is something which is strongly determined by the immigrant condition or is it
embedded in their cultural experiences? These questions imply that Latino parents have an
understanding or mindset with regard to the educational system and their participation in the
school's affairs that is different than the mindset of the American parents. To validate this
suggestion and connect with some of the findings is necessary to explore some historical
antecedents in the issue.
Conclusion: In explaining the challenges encountered by parents from the two HTH
schools of the study, to engage and participate in school affairs, the unfamiliarity with the culture
of a school organized around the PBL approach is, certainly a convincing one; as well as the
language barrier. Even if we consider this dual explanation to the double challenge confronted by
Latino parents, an additional explanation is needed. Such an explanation answers why they do
not display a culture of active engagement when barriers are removed, partially or completely.
The hesitations they have displayed make it necessary to take another look at the collective
behavior of Latino parents and explore their mindset, analyzing how the educational system in
Latin America promotes certain conducts that immigrants will eventually manifest in the United
States and keep them peripheral to the school.
Two Conceptualizations, Two Mindsets.
Both, historians who argue the uniqueness of the American experience, and scholars
specialized in the history of Latin American countries; agree in the existence of substantial
differences in the formation of the three Americas nations (Skidmore, 2004; Smith, 2012).
These differences have existed since colonial times. They have run in parallel through the
agrarian societies of the 17th and 18th centuries, assimilated in different forms the impacts of the
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industrial revolution in the 19th century, and accompanied the creation of modern nations with
their peculiar conformation of their state apparatus and political regimens during the first half of
the last century. In synthesis, the two differentiated trajectories have existed from the beginning
and gone all the way up to the modern capitalist developments in the era of globalization.
Certainly, the two different historical experiences, United States of America including
Canada vis-a-vis the 27 Latin American and Caribbean nations are engraved in their
corresponding cultural and ideological superstructures (Zinn, 2010; Lievano, 1996), out of
which, education is critical in the functional reproduction of social idiosyncrasies and skills for
the labor market (Apple & Beane, 2007).
We know that in all modern societies, regardless of any of their specific historical
differences, the functions and purposes of education are conceptualized in the relation of power
localized in the intersection between state and civil society (Poulantzas, 1978; Kumar, 2007;
Seligman, 1992). In Latin America, education and its institutional expression, the school system,
is under direct control of the state, while the civil societythis is, the community has limited
influence. In the formation of the Latin American nations, the conception by which education is
a duty of the state was borrowed from the classical tradition of the social contract and
Napoleonic Code; a contractual obligation with civil society that empowers the state to claim the
monopoly of education. Civil society compromised by accepting that education falls under the
reign of the state in exchange of the commitment to provide free education for all (Ossenbach,
2000). The conceptualization of education in the United States was different inasmuch as the
intersection of state and civil society was different. Here, education is primarily understood as a
right of the civil society that imposes limits to the state and decentralized the control of education
(Urban & Wagoner, 2008).
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In Latin America, the individual right to education is entrusted to the state, through the
compromise between a monopolistic control of education in exchange for free education. While
in the United States, the education is decentralized across the 50 States and 15,500 school district
that provide an institutional and social space to empower the local control or influence of the
civil societys communities. The roots of this paradigm date back to the Anglo Saxon and
Norman traditions of the rights of communities chartered in the Magna Carta, all the way up to
its synthesis in We the People.
Table 14 Parents Comments on their Perceptions of the Relationships with the School
Parent
when I try to advise both, my son and my daughter, on what to do at school to get good
grades, they dismiss my recommendations by saying that things are different here
and that I do not know the HTH way
Parent
I argue a lot with my husband about the school he thinks that we do not know
enough to criticize the school... he doesn't even want me to ask questions.
Parent
when I told him [son] I was going to call his teacher, he got upset and asked me not do
it mom she would never understand you, things are not the same as in Mexico
Parent
my sister who is a teacher in Mexico visited us and talked a lot with them (students)
about the school, then she explained to us that it was totally different... finally the
school made sense to me my husband like it too
Conclusion: These two different constitutional conceptualizations permeate all aspects of

society and are instilled in peoples mindset. The Latin American mindset sees education affairs
as matters of the state, reserved to its certified experts and away from the intervention of civil
society. Latino parents are socialized in that mindset, once they immigrate to the United States,
rather than to gravitate towards the school and its dynamics, they tend to marginalize and
distance themselves from the school.
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The Last Implication: To Know or Not to Know.

The explanation that a low level of engagement is because parents dont know or
understand the system in general, and the HTH approach in particular, was a recurrent theme in
the study. Question 14 asked parents if they were not able to help students with their school
duties, state the reason for not helping? Against all expectations, only an 8% said they could not
help because of language, and still a lower 4% because of time limitations, while an
overwhelming 88% said they didnt know how to help.
However, a word of caution is needed here. Not knowing how to help or how to do it
may have several meanings. In my notes, it is clear that it is not a matter of knowledge itself, as
much as an issue of disempowerment. This includes misinformation about the American and
HTH systems of education, not clear expectations of the parents role, and operational
confusions with times and requirements. In addition, there is a lack of integration and a tendency
to live in parallel worlds with mainstream that manifests in an overall feeling of isolation and
exclusion.
Answers to question 13 provide support to my notes: 82% of the parents said they feel
able and willing to help their children with specific tasks in assignments and school projects.
Likewise, in question 17 when parents were asked: How do you or someone else help your
child with school work? they choose By asking and reviewing school assignments (43%),
followed By establishing and enforcing schedules for study, relaxing and rest (22% ), and By
assisting him/her in a school project (20%). Moreover, when the same question asks parents to
write down other forms of help, they respond: seek tutoring for student (47%), sit with them to
study (20%), ask to meet with teachers (12%), buy books (11%), take them to a library or
activities (10%).
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Table 15 Parents Comments on how to support their students with school

Parent After the meeting my son explained to me again what the teacher said. I realized that it
was not because of my knowledge of English that I did not understand, no it was that
I disagreed... everything is so different, so I asked to myself: what if the teacher is
wrong? Who is going to lose? What do I have to do? What is my role?
Parent I want to make sure that he does all the assignments and studies for the tests, but he
keeps telling me that there is no homework or test, then how can I help him?
Parent We have a tremendous responsibility to guide our daughters through the college
admission process but first we need to learn how the system works
At first glance, this finding suggests a contradiction. First, 88% of parents stated, in the
survey, that they do not know how to help their students. Then, in the next questionwhen they
were asked to identify specific forms in which they have actually helped their childrenall of
them, pointed out more than one specific form. A possible explanation to this contradictory
dialectic of no, but maybe, and yes is ok is the hypothetical existence of two interacting
realities.
One reality is that parents know how to help students but they know it in the context of
a traditional, and thus, different educational system such as: public education that works with
textbooks, homework, daily assignments in a notebook, quizzes, exams, etc. The second reality
is that HTH does not have a program to transition and educate parents in the principles and
methods of progressive education, so they can literally be recruited and empowered to
enable their capacities for working and helping their student in the logic of progressive
education, such as Project Based Learning.
In consideration of the above two realities, the Parent Odyssey, was designed with the
aim to engage parents into the conversation of the educational system in the US and HTH. They
72
received a brief explanation of the HTH educational setting, and a contrastive analysis with
traditional schooling approaches was done. Then they were invited to go through similar
experiences to those their children undergo everyday at the school. The intention was to
establish how parents identify their own learning experience and what kind of problem and
remedies they may suggest.
Table 16 Parents Comments on their Experiences and Learning in the Parent Odyssey
Parent
I learned to listen and not to judge, or give my opinions and although it was
difficult because I am not used to it I think I could learn
(design thinking)
Parent
At the beginning I was embarrassed to talk in front of parents now I am less shy
because I understand much better what the issues and the positions are, it is like to
having something concrete to talk about, I don't have to think much I just talk about
from my experience and it is easy
(presentation of learning)
Parent
these projects are fun this is so different from when I went to school now I want
to go back to school
(PBL)
Parent
the visit to UCSD was very informative I did not know about all the opportunities
and support students have now I know what to ask during the other college visits
(college visit)
The family experiential learning format of the Parent Odyssey allowed parents to go
through the same processes students go through when working in groups, doing presentations
and reflecting. They were advised to engage in the activities and look for changes in the ways
they understand their experiences. Results were very encouraging. After a four-day Parent
Odyssey, 90% of the parents stated that their knowledge of HTHs educational program has
improved, and 80% felt more confident in knowing how to provide support to their child, or at
least where to search for it. When asked about what struck them about the format of the Parent
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Odyssey, 96% of the parents found it interactive, interesting and engaging. All parents (100%)
considered that the Parent Odyssey should be done at the beginning of the school year, 30% said
to have a second session in the middle of the year, and 80% are interested in helping other
parents.
Conclusion: The uncovering realities that in part explain the low level of Latino parent
engagement in the school, suggest a factor to be their understanding or mindset with which they
approach the education of their children and the engagement with the school. These beliefs are
learned in the process of socialization and in the development of relationships of cultural
empowerment in Latin American countries. Therefore, it is necessary to empower parents with
the knowledge of the American educational system as well as the progressive system of the HTH
schools. Such empowerment should have an experiential component which would increase
rational understanding as well as their emotional sense of belonging into the school community.
Finding set 3 - Integration into American Society
The findings in this section are articulated around the process in which Latino parents as
immigrants come to terms with the American society - the host society.
Life as Immigrants: their micro cosmos and the physical environment.
With its multi dimensional avenues typical of a school that embraces diversity, HTH
becomes the closest point of reference and contact with the American Society for Latinos. This
finding became evident during conversations, interviews and focus groups. These personal
encounters allowed for deeper explorations of perceptions, feelings and thoughts. I was able to
confirm that for the most part, Latino families live in segregated communities which in many
ways are a replica of their home country, particularly for the Mexico that share with US a 2,000
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mile border. During the 19th and 20th centuries, segregated communities in neighborhoods
created authentic micro cosmos, thus becoming a standard of urban development.
Table 17 Parents Comments of their Use of Spanish in their Daily Life

Parent
My older brother was the first to come to this country. Years later my siblings and I
came with our families. We all live in the same neighborhood, and many of our
friends come from the same town We all get together on the weekends and have
birthday parties, watch soccer games we continue seeing each other as when we
were in Mexico
Parent
I really dont need English, at work everybody speaks Spanish, including the bosses,
at church masses are in Spanish, we go to Latino restaurants and we buy many
groceries and fresh produce from Mexico in Latino mini-markets
Parent
We watch news, sports and soap operas in Spanish TV networks and radio stations
I really do not need to speak English
Parent
When my children began to attend this [HTH] school, I realized the importance of
learning English I do not need English at work, but it is different now, I need it to
help them [children] I have to start taking classes
The location where immigrants live when they arrive in the United States depends largely
on where previous generations of the same race/ethnic group lived. For instance, between
the 60s and 90s, 75% of new Polish immigrants went to live in Chicago. After Warsaw, the
second largest Polish population in the world is in Chicago. In inner city areas, this model also
takes place with the replacement of ethnic communities where the second or third generation of
previous ethnic groups moves either to the suburbs or downtown. Neighborhoods are
transformed and their micro cosmos adapts to the life and culture of the next wave of ethnic
immigrants. An exception to this rule is when gentrification takes over the inner city
neighborhoods and changes them completely rocketing the properties' values and taxes. In
75
charge of the gentrification have been the yuppies of the new services economy who since the
late 70s have been expelling minorities and working poor groups from near downtown areas to
the peripheral city limits.
In traditional inner city neighborhoods, Latino parents live surrounded by churches,
stores, restaurants, grocery stores and even schools that provide services in Spanish. Within a
short distance, families can go to work, take students to school and buy their groceries without
using English. In addition, non-profit and community organizations specialize in identifying the
needs of immigrants/minorities then developing the required services to community such as ESL,
GED, job skills and citizenship training programs, health services clinics, financial guidance, etc.
Some schools develop partnerships with community, non-profit organizations and state entities
to provide families access to additional wide-range of services including homeowners
workshops, buying house orientations, job fairs/placement, legal, financial and health guidance,
family therapies, personal growth and leadership. In many instances, services are provided by
partner organizations at the school facilities where families attend at night or on the weekends.
The majority of services are provided in their native language.
Conclusion: The segregation of the American inner cities not only follows economic and
socials patterns, but its facade is painted and re-painted by successive and intermittent waves of
immigration that tend to cluster in urban areas of ethnic communities, creating micro cosmos of
self contained environments. Within such an environmental survival mode, families have most if
not all services to satisfy their needs. In the colloquial lingo, these pockets of urban dwellings are
called ghettos. However disparaging the tone of the word ghetto is, one cannot deny that
within them that families still aspire and reach for the American dream: buy a home, keep a
stable job and retire, even if they do not master their second language. In that sense, during the
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last 40 years, Latino immigration has taken these predicaments and transformed its native
language of Spanish, into the second most spoken language after English with some 50 million
users.
The material conditions in which most Latino families spend their lives determine the
mental and emotional mechanisms by which they rationalize and go along with their lives as
immigrants in our times and nation.
Becoming an American: Tribulations reaching the promise land.
As members of civil society and working employees residing in the country, the identity
of Latino parents is triply defined; first, in relation to their nuclear and extended families, second,
in their condition of aliens born abroad, and third, by their inclusion within an American
minority ethnic community. Life as immigrants has assigned Latino parents a social status that
constrains them to live in a certain manner for a good number of years during their acculturation
or integration phase into the American society. During that time and process, immigrants collect
and construct a set of ideological understandings with which they try to make sense of the world
of emigration, a world from which they derived their existences.
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Table 18 Parents Sharing Perceptions and Experience as Immigrants

Parent
some things were much better over there, but that is not the point now our life is
here... I dont want to feel like a guest anymore, I am responsible and honor my
obligations, all of them, so I think I have gained my rights it is simple and fair... this
is how I understand things work here in America, and I like it
Parent
As in any place, there are nice people who make you feel you accepted, and
unpleasant people who show their dislike. My older daughter who is excellent at
observing people say 'ma' we are invisible to them, we don't exist to them and I tell
her: don't worry mija it is their problem, we are here to stay and besides they need
us more than we need them, so lets do today what we have to do
Parent
Most people have been really good with us, especially at the school, so now that I can
understand English, my position is: please, tell me what I have to do as my
grandfather used to say: I want to be part of the solution, not part of the problem
Sociologists, anthropologists and psychologists who have studied the acculturation

transition have produced various models of explanation; most of them are organized into four
stages (Waters, Tran, Kasinitz,& Mollekopf, 2010):
1. Euphoria: arriving immigrants experience a honeymoon phase; people, things and
surroundings are perceived as nice, beautiful and perfect; enthusiasm and optimism are
dominant.
2. Alienation: elements of the host culture produce a shock, questioning ones self and security;
people feel cheated and in stage of grief; negativism, irritability and anxiety are dominant.
3. Anomie: objectivity is gradually restored; positive and negative aspects are recognized and
accepted in both cultures; identity crisis and a functional sense of equilibrium are dominant.
4. Adaptation: the new culture is accepted as ones identity and self are reestablished; a new
home is recognized and the sense of belonging, assimilation and participation are dominant.
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Additionally, the four stages run along with two other dimensions: (1) the retention or
rejection of the native culture which deals with the past and its impact on the attitude for facing
the present and the future; and (2) the adoption or rejection of the host culture which dynamically
consolidates a position with respect to the present and reviews and establishes parameters for self
empowerment in the future (Berry, 1997).
Table 19 Parents Comments of their Transition Process into this Country

Parent
It took us a long time to understand how things work here, I had to change my way of
thinking various times too many things are too different here, it was hard but I am
glad now...everything is so much easier especially with them [children]
Parent
I used to feel homesick all the time, I went through a crisis when my mother died and
I couldn't go so I said: that is enough, no more crying, if I am going to live and die
here I better start being happy my husband and children noted the change and they
liked it I know that still we have a long road to go, but we are not scared anymore
and I think it is not only me and my family, but something that happens to all of us
Parent
I do not care for objects I left behind and lost, I care for the people I dont see any
more and it hurts, especially when you realize it is going to be for a long time, it is
an awful feeling that keeps me in the past every day I say I must change and survive,
but then I get lost I havent talked about this with anybody for years, but you know
how it is this is the last time I cry I promise palabra de mujer (you have my
word, as a woman)
Depending on particular and specific circumstances, each stage of acculturation lasts a

different amount of time and is interconnected by various ways. These four stages are negotiated
in variable ways. The reasons as to why somebody came here may differ from the next person;
which determines the acculturation process. For instance, was the family formed here or in their
home country? Did they opt to come, or were forced to abandon their homes as political exiles or
refugees? How much suffering, trauma and/or losses has immigration cost the family? Once the
family has arrived, have they been able to recreate what they had back home? Can they exercise
79
their vocations, crafts or professions here? Have they lost the socio-economic status they had
there? Have they increased or decreased their earning power? Is their ethnicity/race/religion
accepted here? Are they struggling to survive? Do they or their children have opportunities to
thrive? Is the family better or worse off here? Is immigration worth it?
Table 20 Parents Comments Reflect the Stages of Acculturation

Parent
when I came I didnt bring anything, just my hands, the ability to work hard and my
will I am a carpenter and for years I have worked 12 hours a day, six days a week
with no vacations I work harder than any American that I know and I dont
complain; nobody forced me, it was my decision [but] dont ask me to stop being a
Latino. It is the only thing I brought to this country and it is mine I am going to die
eating beans with tortillas and listening to ranchera music, I hope my children will do
the same
Parent
I think the real question is whether you have to stop being who you are to become an
American? And then the question is whether or not is worth it?
Parent
My oldest brother who is very successful told me his secret: behave as an American,
but deep down, always be a Latina... I told my children: do the same, it is working
Parent
In the movie on Bruce Lees life, he argued with his mother-in-law that he was born in
California so he must be treated as an American, and she said you may be a citizen,
but you are not an American that is how people sometimes make me feel, but it is
ok with me so I tell my children: lets be like Bruce Lee, a champion
Acculturation, assimilation, integration and/or adaptation are specific categories of analysis

that attempt to explain the immigrants transition in becoming Americans. It is a transition that
takes place inside and across various institutions such as workplaces, churches, unions, social,
recreational, sport and community organizations and of course, schools. In these institutions and
organizations they spend most of their social life. In addition, during their first 15 years in the
country, practically all immigrants at one point or another had some relationship with the school
system. They deal with schools as students in ESL, GED, Citizenship, training and continuing
80
education classes. In the three largest community college system of the nation: Los Angeles,
New York and Chicago, the enrollment of adult non-traditional students are overwhelmingly first
and second generation immigrants. They also deal with school as parents. The pattern of Latino
immigration is dominantly formed by young people who either are already parents or are about
to be and therefore, sooner than later, they will engage with their childrens school; for many, the
school is the closest experience theyve had with the American society.
Table 21 Comments Reflect the Hopes and dreams of families in this Country
Parent
The first time I realized that I was really in the U.S.A was when I took my daughter
to grammar school. In the hallways I saw all the pictures about the history of the US,
then I had to speak in English with the teacher who was nice and friendly I thought;
oh my God, is not a dream anymore, we are living in the north and she [daughter] is
an American
Parent
After the last baby, we are now 6 in the family. One Saturday we were having
breakfast and planning the day and I realized that we all were going to be at the
school, including the baby. So I thought: tonight, all of us will have learned
something new, all of us are going to be better, we are moving ahead, and I saw a
light at the end of the tunnel and because of the school, we owe a lot to it and are
very grateful
Parent
Even if we both work, money is limited, so I am very conservative with expenses.

My husband says I am stingy, and I say: it is no time for foolishness, we are here to
progress but when it comes to books and school supplies it is different, it is a
priority and I have no limits We used to have the children in private catholic
schools... [but] we saw the movie Waiting for Superman and we applied to HTH...
The day we knew she [daughter] was accepted we were so happy and celebrated
eating in a restaurant For us, HTH is on the other side of the city, so we bought
another car just to bring her on time nothing is more important than school
next year when I finish my GED, my husband will go to school too
Parent
my little brother and his family just arrived and after a while he wanted to move into
a bigger house, but I said no, the priority for now and for many years must be school.
It is the only way to progress in America we may not get there [the American
dream] but our children, one day will be there it is our promised land
Teacher
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when I listen to them [parents] I become very emotional they have so many hopes
and they trust us so much sometimes I feel we are not prepared for them and are
very separate...then I say to myself: we have to improve every day we cannot fail
them
Conclusion: Historically in the American nation of newcomers, schools working with

immigrants in either condition, as students or parents, have been confronted with the need to
develop special capabilities for serving them efficiently. What makes immigrants a special
population is the fact that all of them are engaged differently within the four stages of
acculturation which is a dynamic process of intense social (collective) and emotional (individual)
interactions. Consequently, immigrant populations present a variety of challenges to all
organizations but especially to schools since they work mostly with the whole child-- mind and
emotions of their students. Therefore, schools with the mission of serving this student population
must ensure that their systems provide ongoing professional development to teachers and staff,
and have developed a network of partner organizations to refer families for services when
required; this is in the best interest of the student.
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VI. Conclusion
The inquiry question sparking this action research asked:

while developing a sense of belonging
in a diverse school?
The learning of this research is an effort to contribute to the understanding of Latino

families needs in a diverse school setting. Diverse schools have already given the first step
towards equity, and as an equity project, it is time to advance through the inclusion of the Latino
families in a systematic manner for the success of their children.
Four conclusions have been consolidated with regard to findings and analyses on Latino
families engagement at the school, and the role parents are expected to play in their children's
education:
(1)
The importance of the Spanish Language in communications, relationships and a sense of

belonging;
(2)
The importance of empowering parents to understand the American system of education

and the philosophy of progressive education;
(3)
The importance of inclusion and engagement within a diverse school and American
society, and
(4)
The importance of securing and enhancing equity at diverse schools.

1.
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Spanish in Communications, Relationships and a Sense of Belonging

Family engagement in their childrens school experience is powered by the quality and
the efficiency of the communication provided to parents by the school. In diverse schools there is
a coexistence of two monolingual populations, educators and families. The capacity of the school
to establish and develop an appropriate system and level of communication with Latino parents
is the most important condition to engage families or contribute to their isolation.
In American inner cities, Latino immigrants cluster in micro cosmos where Spanish is the
main resource to articulate their social life and community services. When Latino immigrants
engage in schools, as parents of students or as participants in programs of training, they establish
a direct and sensible connection with the American mainstream. Latino parents tend to be first
generation immigrants, mostly from Mexico and as such they are idiomatically dominant in
Spanish. In the case of Latinos, which comprise 33% of all HTHs students, communication
done in Spanish would personalizes the relationship with parents; feel connected to the school
and are more likely to participate.
Communication using technology is a common solution today, but needs to be adapted to
the dialectic of contents and forms and it should not replace personal connections, especially to
establish genuine relationship from the beginning. The Parent Odyssey demonstrated how an
approach that combines relevant content and experiential learning is valuable to parents. The use
of Spanish in the process of establishing relations, and contacting parents via phone, drastically
increased parents motivation to engage in schools workshops of induction, training and
leadership development. As a result, parents developed an energetic sense of belonging to the
school community.

2.
84
Empowering Parents to Understand the American System of Education and the

Philosophy of Progressive Education
The explanation that the low level of Latino parents engagement is due to insufficiencies
in the schools communications is only partially accurate. Interestingly, and perhaps not
surprisingly, the unfamiliarity with the culture of a progressive school organized around the PBL
approach, as well as the language barrier are also real and convincing explanations. These three
explanations have the merit that they are very practical ones.
Another more theoretical but very suggesting one is that Latino parents are alienated
from the American system of education; as a result they rarely engage in schools, self imposing
limitations to their participation in the education of their children. The alienation from the system
of education is a cultural heritage from Latin America where most parents were socialized. What
I call the Latin American educational mindset defines the parents role as to care for the basic
needs of their children and provide them with moral and ethical values at home, while the school
has the sole responsibility for the childs academic education. In practice, these are two
parallel worlds which rarely intersect.
In correspondence with the nature of this impediment, is urgent to educate Latino parents
in the particular characteristics of the American educational system and mindset, as well as the
philosophy progressive education with emphasis in its practical consequence in the classroom
and the school culture.
3.
The Importance of Inclusion and Engagement within a Diverse School

Whether a school has become diverse because of the agency of its leadership, as in the case
of HTH, or by chance, due to demographic changes such as gentrification or a new immigration
85
wave in town, its educational agenda is systematically challenged by social issues, demanding a
proactive response from the schools.
The diversity of the American society is well represented in the diversity of HTH, therefore
when new students and their parents enter in direct contact with any diverse school, they are
actually immersing into mainstream America. For the great majority of Latino students and
parents those contacts are their first intense and lasting connection with this country. The
complexity of immigrant populations is the fact that they are in a different degree in one of the
four stages of acculturation which is a dynamic process of intense social (collective) and
emotional (individual) interaction.
Latinos, as other previous wave of immigrants and according to the dominant pattern of inner
citys urban transformation of neighborhoods, cluster their lives in micro cosmos that mirror
Latino culture and hometowns. Schools need to be aware and develop inclusive environments.
Therefore, leaders need to understand the contradictions impacting their schools by its diversity,
and consequently respond in line with the school mission, such response will spark inclusion and
engagement in the two status where diversity expresses with most urgency: the students and their
parents.
For instance, in the logic of this action research, the schools improved communication with
Latino parents is expected to take their will and understandings to a higher level in their abilities
to participate, as well as in their own personal transformations. These transformations were
evident during the Parent Odyssey, as parents comfortably shared their stories as immigrants and
connected their dreams with their social realities.

4.
86
Securing and enhancing equity at diverse schools: Diversity + Inclusion = Equity

Equity is a cardinal parameter in the philosophy of progressive education as well as in
modern conceptualizations of education in public policy and economic development -domestically and internationally. By default, equity begins with diversity, and in that sense, it is
primarily a quantitative dimension. To perform and reach its maximum expansion however,
equity has to go from the purely quantitative dimension of diversity and move toward a
qualitative dimension of inclusion.
Diverse schools embrace equity by enhancing and facilitating access to all students,
regardless of background; they provide opportunities and invite all potential students and
families to apply for admission while lottery and the waiting list are the desiderata for securing
diversity, and by default, enhancing equity. Now, for diversity to be able to empower equity, it
has to be integrated, normally via inclusion and right there is where problems start.
For instance, although the inclusion of non-English monolingual Latino parents requires
engagement and participation with utmost urgency, it has to deal with the parents first language
as the presiding uniqueness that defines their very existence and dynamic as a group.
Operationally, even if we ignore the fact that teachers and the schools staff constitute a
monolingual group with limited possibilities to communicate in Spanish, the solutions for this
situation are extremely specific as well as complex, demanding a focused and skillful
implementation, most of the time not contemplated in the budget.
Yet for equity, the bottom line continues being the same: if a group of parents, for any
reason, cannot support their students, there will be a group of students with an unleveled terrain
to perform, and therefore they will be excluded from equity. In our case, if Latino students
cannot benefit from the support of their parents because they are not engaged in the school as
87
other parents are, then Latino students, have lesser access to resources, and therefore, they are
not only disadvantaged, but objectively deprived of opportunities to perform academically as
their peers do. To deny or ignore this proposition only because it is hypothetical, it will require
to previously falsify, or nullify, at the level of Social Science, the validity of the long established
proposition that, in rigor, there is a positive and high correlation between parents engagement
and student high academic achievements.
In summary, equity is the result of recognizing differentiation and promoting integration.
Students are to diversity what parents are to inclusion. Both makeup equity to the point that if
either one is faulty, equity will not fulfill its social justice imperative. Myers stated this dilemma
in very colorful and meaningful terms: when diversity is being invited to the party, inclusion
should be asked to dance (2012, p.1).
Reflection
Diversity in schools is relatively new in American education, whether it has been
intentionally created by the school's mission, or as a result of changes in the demographics of
neighborhoods and cities. Even though, there are demonstrated benefits for these inclusive
environments, it needs further exploration and research. Areas should include how to measure
the impact of diverse schools in students socio-emotionally, how are schools preparing
educators to embrace the different cultures represented in the schools; how schools are engaging
families and types of services provided to be fully inclusive.
I began this research paper sharing the story of Doa Mara, a mother with courage and
commitment who never gave up on her son. She reached out to the school to build a
collaborative plan, where her family and the school shared responsibility, in order to provide her
88
son with all he needed to graduate from high school. This was the familys dream since they left
Mexico in the late 80s.
Unfortunately, her story has a sad ending. Years later, Doa Mara visited me at the
school, and told me that her son was killed by the gangs a couple of years after he received his
high school diploma. We hugged and cried like old friends. Before she left, she said gracias
for allowing her to be there for her son, doing what needed to be done, so he could graduate.
After she left, I thought that I should have thanked her, for teaching me that
family is the unconditional partner,
that will do whatever it takes to collaborate with the school,
that will provide the education to their children and with it,
break the cycle of poverty.
I know there are many Doa Maras in our schools, and as the population becomes
more diverse, schools need to be proactive and intentional in the inclusion and engaging of
Latino and other minority families in a systematic and purposeful manner. This is a matter of
EQUITY. I firmly believe that family engagement is the missing link in closing the academic
gap and advancing the educational agenda at the pace required for the demands of the 21st
century.
89
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Running head: LATINO FAMILY ENGAGMENT

Latino Family Engagement in a Diverse School:

LATINO FAMILY ENGAGEMENT

List of Figures ................................................................................................................................. 5

Conversations and Interview. ......................................................................................... 44

Focus groups. ................................................................................................................. 46

The Surveys. ................................................................................................................... 47

Phase II: The Parent-Odyssey ................................................................................................... 49

LATINO FAMILY ENGAGEMENT

Findings Set 1 - The Role of Communication in the Relations of Monolingual Populations... 54

Spanish in Communications, Relationships and a Sense of Belonging ............................. 83

2. Empowering Parents to Understand the American System of Education and the

The Importance of Inclusion and Engagement within a Diverse School........................... 84

Securing and enhancing equity at diverse schools: Diversity + Inclusion = Equity.......... 86

LATINO FAMILY ENGAGEMENT

Table 1 Epsteins Six Types of Parental Involvement .................................................................. 22

LATINO FAMILY ENGAGEMENT

LATINO FAMILY ENGAGEMENT

LATINO FAMILY ENGAGEMENT

maestra dgame, qu puedo hacer para que mi muchacho se pueda graduar

LATINO FAMILY ENGAGEMENT

The Role of the Family

LATINO FAMILY ENGAGEMENT

LATINO FAMILY ENGAGEMENT

LATINO FAMILY ENGAGEMENT

High Tech High (HTH) and the Quest for Equity

LATINO FAMILY ENGAGEMENT

LATINO FAMILY ENGAGEMENT

LATINO FAMILY ENGAGEMENT

LATINO FAMILY ENGAGEMENT

The Beginnings of Family Engagement

The Discovery of Family Engagement

Models of Family Engagement

Latino Parents Perceptions and Constrains: A new and Different Continent

The Role of the State Apparatus

LATINO FAMILY ENGAGEMENT

The Beginnings of Family Engagement

LATINO FAMILY ENGAGEMENT

teacher [because] Where the Parent-Teachers- Association flourishes, difficulties between

The Discovery of Family Engagement

LATINO FAMILY ENGAGEMENT

LATINO FAMILY ENGAGEMENT

LATINO FAMILY ENGAGEMENT

Models of Family Engagement

LATINO FAMILY ENGAGEMENT

Epstein (1995), Six Types of Parental Involvement

Paredes (2010), Academic Parent Teacher Team Model.

Epsteins six types of parental involvement model.

LATINO FAMILY ENGAGEMENT

Table 1 Epsteins Six Types of Parental Involvement

Provide families with skills to understand the various stages of

Create effective communication systems between schools and

Involve and organize families in volunteering opportunities.

Help families to create environments to support their children

Include families in school decisions, governance and advocacy

6. Collaborating with the

Identify resources and services from the community for the

LATINO FAMILY ENGAGEMENT

Hoover-Dempsey & Sandler motivational parental involvement model.

LATINO FAMILY ENGAGEMENT

Figure 1. Model of Parental Involvement Hoover-Dempsey & Sandler Family1995; 2005

Academic Parent Teacher Team (APTT) Model - Paredes.

LATINO FAMILY ENGAGEMENT