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“Never before in our history has education played such an
important role in employment and security for our young people,”
said Lehner. “It is critical that we remove those barriers that
may prevent our Hispanic students from being successful.”
Tony Ortiz
heads the Latino Dream Team, a proactive group of
Dayton-area Latino organizations whose mission is to preserve
the culture of Latinos and assimilate them into the fabric of
the community—“It is important that policymakers, educators and
administrators understand the cultural and linguistic needs of
our growing Latino populations. This Summit will provide an
opportunity to learn and share promising practices and
educational strategies in order to improve education
opportunities and outcomes for our Latino students.”
Ortiz, who is also a lecturer at Wright State and has been
teaching for over 35 years, was asked to organize the summit
when Kasich named him to the OHCLA last year. He said his goal
for the event is to create an environment where best practices
can be shared among educators, Latino students and parents.
“We want to identify where the problems are by getting the
decision makers and consumers together to better understand what
is needed and how to deliver it,” said Ortiz. “There’s an
education gap in Ohio’s Latino communities stemming from a lack
of understanding of the American education process and a lack of
communicating that process effectively. This program should help
connect those pieces.”
Presentations will include a segment from the Cleveland
Metropolitan School District, which has found success
closing the achievement gap with Latino students. The
Northern Kentucky University (NKU) Latino Student Affairs Office
will share its improvements in increasing retention rates for
Latinos. The achievements of Ortiz’s own afterschool program,
the El Puente Learning Center in the Dayton area, will
also be shared, among many other successes.
“I attended a similar summit at the White House a few years ago
and heard about a successful afterschool program in Chicago,”
said Ortiz. “That gave me the idea to start one here and it’s
been going strong for five years.”
El Puente
also offers Wright State education students an invaluable
opportunity to work with Latino students they are likely to
encounter with their first jobs out of college. The Summit will
also seek to foster new opportunities for student teaching
candidates from across Ohio.
Below is the program for the 2013 Ohio Latino Education Summit:
8:00 a.m. Registration
8:30 a.m. Brief Overview, Presentations of Best Practices begin
8:35 a.m. El Puente Learning Center
8:40 a.m. Cleveland Metropolitan School District Closing the
Achievement Gap Program
8:50 a.m. The Ohio Department of Education Race to the Top
Program
9:00 a.m. Northern Kentucky University Latino Student Affairs
Office
9:10 a.m. The Ohio State University Office of Diversity &
Inclusion L.A.S.E.R.—Latino &
Latin American Space for Enrichment & Research, and The College
101 Program
9:20 a.m. ECHHO: Educators and Community Helping Hispanics
Onward
9:30 a.m. Cincinnati Public Schools
9:40 a.m. Springfield City Schools HOP: Hispanic Outreach
program
9:50 a.m. Cuyahoga Community College Hispanic Council
10:00 a.m. Break and Visit Exhibits
10:15 a.m. Presentations
11:45 a.m. Visit Exhibits
12:15-2:00 p.m. Lunch and Roundtable Discussions
Visit
http://latinoeducationsummit.eventbrite.com/# to
learn more and register for the summit.
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