Monica Garcia, President of the Board of Education, Los Angeles Unified School District Members, Board of Education, City of Los Angeles Semillas believes the social realities of the 21st century require a holistic education that prepares young people to work towards sustainable, culturally inclusive and cohesive societies. Our future depends on alternatives to high stakes, unicultural, competitive approaches that currently exist in the LAUSD school bureaucracy. Semillas Anahuacalmecac offers high school youth in Los Angeles a high quality education that leads to academic skills, cosmopolitan awareness, an appreciation of self and community, and the ability to engage in social transformation, all that lead toward a more equitable and just society. The denial of the Semillas Anahuacalmecac charter by LAUSD is counterproductive and hurtful to the school community and those committed to high quality public education. What is at stake is an education committed to engaging students in powerful life learning opportunities. Effective education must nurture students to be future-minded builders of peaceful, just and productive societies. Semillas has built an internationally recognized curriculum and is LAUSD’s first International Baccalaureate World School with multilingual instruction and culturally responsive Humanities, Sciences and Social Sciences. Semillas educational model incorporates all California state standards from 9-12th grades Semillas has implemented the proven Escalante Math program (designed to improve the math skills of underrepresented students) sponsored by the East Los Angeles College. Semillas offers a safe school environment and safe haven for students of LGBTQ and Indigenous populations, both populations of students previously experienced bullying and discrimination in other schools. Semillas is informed by an internationally-recognized Board of Advisors in the areas of responsive pedagogies and culturally-relevant curriculum. As educators, we are familiar with the facts that in LAUSD there are too many dropouts/pushouts, too many disciplinary infractions, and too few students applying and being admitted to college. Semillas excels in retaining and graduating high schools students and preparing students for college. In all these measures, Anahuacalmecac is successful. High stakes testing is not a solution but part of the complex set of problems and issues facing Latino students in the LAUSD school bureaucracy. Indeed the issue is quality, student sensitive education; Semillas Anahuacalmecac provides one whole response to the educational imperatives of a complex society. Semillas education is a community response to the crises in the education of inner-city children. Staff, students and their family members worked with domestic and international experts to design and build a holistic educational model. Semillas students have demonstrated levels of academic achievement. With adequate funding and full support by the Los Angeles Unified School District, Semillas will achieve further commendable success with high school students. We, the undersigned, call on members of the Board of Education of the Los Angeles School Unified School District to approve the Anahuacalmecac charter on June 18, 2013. Rudy Acuña, PhD., Emeritus Professor, Chicana and Chicano Studies, California State University, Northridge Greg Cajete, Ph.D., (Santa Clara Pueblo), Chair, Native American Studies, Associate Professor Education, University of New Mexico Ernesto Colín, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Specialized Programs in Urban Education, School of Education, Loyola Marymount University Juan Gómez-Quiñones, PhD, Professor, History, University of California, Los Angeles Kris D. Gutiérrez, PhD, Inaugural Provost’s Chair, Professor of Learning Sciences and Literacy, School of Education, University of Colorado at Boulder; Past President, American Educational Research Association and Member of the National Academy of Education Carlos Manuel Haro, PhD, Assistant Director Emeritus, Postdoctoral Scholar in Residence, Chicano Studies Research Center, University of California, Los Angeles Peter McLaren, PhD, Professor, Division of Urban Schooling, Graduate School of Education and Information Studies, University of California, Los Angeles; Fellow of the American Educational Research Association Nancy Parachini, EdD, Principal Leadership Institute, Center X, Graduate School of Education and Information Studies, University of California, Los Angeles Susan Pertel Jain, PhD, Director, Confucius Institute, University of California, Los Angeles Barbara Rogoff, Foundation Distinguished Professor of Psychology, University of California, Santa Cruz and Member of the National Academy of Education Michelle Tellez, Assistant Professor, School of Humanities Arts and Cultural Studies, Arizona State University Angela Valenzuela, PhD., Professor, Director of the Texas Center for Education Policy & Associate Vice President for School Partnerships, University of Texas, Austin Irene Vasquez, PhD, Associate Professor, Chicana and Chicano Studies and American Studies, Director of Chicana and Chicano Studies, University of New Mexico
Posted on: Mon, 17 Jun 2013 22:23:02 +0000
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