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Alas y Voz Campaign: Regional Parent Convenings

October 24, 2019 by Claudia Vizcarra

The Alas y Voz campaign will be conducting Regional Parent Organizer Workshops where participants will:

learn why advocating for biliteracy is so important for English Learners
become more familiar with the resources that the Alas y Voz campaign has created for parents to run a campaign in their community and ensure parents know how to choose or ask for bilingual programs in their community

CENTRAL VALLEY
Co-sponsored with Parent Institute for Quality Education (PIQE)
Thursday, November 8, 2019
10 am - 2 pm
United Way Fresno & Madera Counties
4949 East Kings Canyon Road, Fresno, CA
Register Here
Download Spanish Flyer * English Flyer

NORTHERN CALIFORNIA
Hosted by San Mateo County Office of Education
Friday. November 8, 2019
10 am - 1 pm
San Mateo County Office of Education
Corte Madera Room
101 Twin Dolphin Dr.
Redwood City, CA 94065
Register Here
Download Spanish Flyer * English Flyer

An Important Survey We Must Act On Now!

October 22, 2019 by Claudia Vizcarra

Our Voices are Urgently Needed NOW!

We need 10-15 minutes of your time to send a message to the State. There is a very important survey that can have a tremendous effect on the education of English Learners.

If we don’t respond, others will decide what should be included in the new design of the Local Control Accountability Plan Template for the next 3 years. The survey will take about 10 minutes, and we have some suggestions for your responses but you are welcome to respond how you best see the work moving forward.

Local Control Accountability Plan Template Redesign for 2020-2022 LCAPs:

This year, districts will be writing and submitting a new three-year LCAP using a redesigned LCAP template. This is our opportunity to urge the California Department of Education (CDE) and the State Board of Education (SBE) to include language that will require districts to comprehensively address English Learners. This survey must be completed by November 1, 2019.

The CDE has developed a survey to solicit feedback from stakeholders regarding both the draft Local Control and Accountability Plan Template (LCAP) and draft LCAP Template instructions. The survey may be accessed here: https://www.lcapredesign.org/

Based on feedback from the State Board of Education (SBE) at its September 2019 meeting, and in an effort to ensure the template and instructions support local educational agencies (LEAs) in the development of the LCAP beyond the minimum requirements, it has been decided that the CDE will present the finalized draft LCAP Template (including instructions) to the SBE at its January 2020 meeting for adoption.

Important points to address in the survey: Read the form and the directions and add short comments on the right-hand side of the survey under “Feedback about this section”.

· Stakeholder Engagement: We suggest you choose Option A. The form and directions include language to indicate how input was received and where any of the suggestions from the important stakeholders are included in the LCAP. This validates the input from parents, students and community members and affirms that their input was heard and some suggestions were accepted.

· Goal and Activities: In the directions under Measuring and Reporting Results for both options (which will be available to the districts to choose) there is language that says, “LEAs may identify metrics for specific subgroup”. In order to live up the equity principle of LCFF and to have districts commit to closing any achievement and performance gaps, the language should require that metrics are specific for subgroups and are differentiated from what is expected of all students so as to set an expectation of closing gaps. It is also important for the districts to include metrics specific for current English Learners and RFEPs.

Don’t let others decide what is needed for the LCAP Template for the next three years.

We need to be heard and you can make it happen.

SIRS Regional Network meeting

September 24, 2019 by Claudia Vizcarra

Alas y Voz holds gatherings for Parent Organizers in Los Angeles

September 24, 2019 by Claudia Vizcarra

On August 21st, parent organizers in the LA area gathered to learn more about the Alas y Voz campaign and how they could help spread the message.

This is the first of three regional parent organizer trainings that we are holding to where participants learned more about the campaign, its messages and even created their own videos.

We will be holding two more regional parent organizer trainings in November, one in the Central Valley in Fresno (date) and one in Northern California in Corte Madera (date) – training.

Check out one of the videos that participants made.

EVENT August 14: English Learner Roadmap Administrator Focus Group

July 9, 2019 by Claudia Vizcarra

We are excited to announce the convening of an English Learner Roadmap Administrator Focus Group session facilitated by Dr. Laurie Olsen in partnership with Association of California School Administrators (ACSA) and ACSA President Linda Kaminski, in a statewide effort to assist and support administrators to implement the new English Learner (EL) policy.

The goal of the convening is to seek critical administrator input regarding the tools, resources, materials and support administrators will need to implement the EL Roadmap in their district and school. We need to hear directly from administrators in order to develop those resources and ultimately realize the promise of greater success for California’s English Learners.

Space is limited, register now. Register here

English Learners in California have a new opportunity to become biliterate!

May 13, 2019 by Claudia Vizcarra

With the passing of Proposition 58, the landscape changed for English Learners. Today, across California, bilingual programs are expanding and with this, the opportunity for English Learners to become fully bilingual and biliterate.

This is where the Alas y Voz (Wings and Voice) campaign comes in. The campaign aims to raise awareness among parents of English Learners about the benefits of biliteracy, and the importance of students learning in English and their home language at school.

We share research about the benefits of biliteracy that is particularly meaningful to immigrant parents. We center our messaging on how being able to read and write in English and in their home language improves their children's academic achievement and expands their opportunities.

Despite understanding the benefits of bilingualism, many parents of English Learners don't enroll their children in bilingual programs, often because they fear they will become confused or fall behind while learning English.

After all, for the past 20 years, many have heard that English-only programs are the best for their children.

This idea, heard both in media and in community settings, was accepted by parents of English Learners understanding that it was not essential for their children to become fully biliterate or to enroll their children in bilingual programs.

What both media and parents missed was the reality of language loss. The focus on bilingualism (understood widely as speaking the language) hides how important biliteracy is to preserving a home language.

Teaching children to read and write at home is easier said than done. Often, when English Learners enter pre-school or school settings, they start resisting speaking their home language, and eventually lose it. In addition to the lost opportunities in their future, some become unable to communicate with family members and eventually lose their connection to their culture.

The Alas y Voz campaign seeks to change both minds and hearts. Because there is so much shame in language loss, the issue is buried, both in the media as in community settings. We are talking openly about the real impact of language loss, on students, on families, and on communities.

We talk about how biliteracy helps them expand from their spoken voice, by being able to share their voices, their stories and their histories, with a larger group of people. This is symbolized by the Voz (voice) symbol.

The Alas y Voz campaign is building and consistently sharing through social media and workshop presentations, the messages that we hope will turn the tide on this problem.

Our website (alasyvoz) is the hub of our campaign for parents in Spanish. The English section can be found here.

The Elige (Choose) section includes a link to the California Department of Education's database of multilingual programs, so they can find out which programs are offered in the district where they live.

The Exige (Ask For) section includes information about the provisions established in Proposition 58 for them to ask their district to open a new bilingual program, if there isn't one in their community.

A link to our Alas y Voz YouTube channel which includes a library of videos and four video playlists along our four message areas: Benefits of Biliteracy, Choose and Ask for Programs, Language Loss and Think It Over.

A link to our Facebook community and our Instagram account where we are sharing the videos, graphics and stories of the campaign.

The Join the Campaign section that includes details about how to join the campaign on social media including a toolkit with everything parents, district staff or community presenters will need to share the details about the Alas y Voz campaign at a parent meeting.

Schools, districts and community presenters can purchase these postcards, that deliver our message and the various ways to find the Alas y Voz campaign.