CHICAGO — Carolina Hernando was a senior in high school in 1999 when her guidance counselor delivered a devastating blow: She needed a Social Security number to go to college. An undocumented immigrant from Mexico, Hernando had no idea what a Social Security number was, let alone that it would prevent her from becoming a teacher.
More than a decade later, Hernando still tears up when talking about it. "I was the first in my family to graduate high school," she said. "I felt like all that hard work was wasted."
When Hernando, who lives in Chicago's Logan Square neighborhood, heard about the Logan Square Neighborhood Association's parent mentor program last fall, she leapt at the chance to get what she calls a "taste of being in the classroom."
The year-long program places parents into a classroom in their child's school for two hours every day. They work with individual students or small groups, helping teachers give more one-on-one attention to children. They also earn a
stipend of $500-$600 per semester for their time.
Started in 1995 as a way to get more parents into schools, the parent mentor program has been adopted by other neighborhood groups and the city school district, spreading to 29 schools; the Logan Square Neighborhood Association oversees the program in eight of them. Each year, the program places hundreds parents in the classrooms of participating schools.
Some research suggests that the more involved a parent is in his or her child's education, the better the child performs academically. Yet parent involvement in high-poverty schools is often an elusive goal.
Some parents are unable or unwilling to participate; others are unsure of how to get involved. Logan Square views its mentor program as a response to this last problem — it provides clear-cut access to school involvement for nearly any willing parent.
Advocates say the program has contributed to improved student performance in the largely poor and minority neighborhood in northwestern Chicago, both for individual students and for the schools that participate. At James Monroe Elementary School, for instance, 74 percent of third-graders were proficient in reading in 2011, compared to 24 percent in 1999, on state tests.
Yet the program, which draws a large percentage of immigrants, is just as much about adult education as it is about student achievement. After finishing the year helping in a classroom, many parents go on to get a GED, enroll in college or start a career. The Logan Square Neighborhood Association estimates that 80 percent of its parent mentors go on to jobs or some sort of education.
"The parent mentor program is a place for them to be able to explore themselves and realize they can do things they think they can't," said Leticia Barrera, an education coordinator for the association and an alumna of the program.
Hernando is still not a citizen and therefore ineligible for government aid for postsecondary education; college remains out of reach.
But she'll become a part-time classroom aide at her children's elementary school this fall. She'll also be a parent mentor coordinator at the elementary school, recruiting and supporting other parents in the program.
"When you come to America you have to start your life all over again. This year my whole life just changed," said Iyabo Anifowoshe, a recent immigrant from Nigeria who recently joined the program.
And the mentors' children likely benefit as well, says Joanna Brown, Logan Square's lead education organizer. "People's goals for their children either go up or get really enforced," she said. "That's one of the big things they say — they learned how to help their kids at home."
Recruitment for new mentors starts the first week of school, with fliers, notes sent home with children, even phone calls to potential candidates. Parents have to apply and go through a formal interview, but nearly everyone who clears a background check and meets other Chicago Public Schools guidelines, such as passing a tuberculosis test, is accepted. Parents with any level of education can participate.
Teacher participation is voluntary. Logan Square tries to place parents in a class in the same grade as their child or one above, but never in the same class as their child.
Parents often pick up strategies by watching the teachers. "They observe how we do it," said Margarita Ampudia, a first-grade teacher at Monroe Elementary School. "They learn a little bit."
Hernando said that by the end of her year as a parent mentor she'd seen grades improve for the students she worked with regularly.
Funding limits how many parents a given school is able to accept, Barrera said, but some schools — having seen how effective the program is at integrating parents into the school — are willing to pitch in. Logan Square asks that each participating school set aside $5,000 to $10,000 to pay for part of the program. The association then contributes $40,000 to $45,000 per school annually.
At Monroe, Principal Edwin Rivera meets with his parent mentors every other week to update them on school news and let them ask questions. His mentors also pitch in as crossing guards and lunch monitors; they supervise the hallways during standardized testing time.
Although test scores have skyrocketed at Monroe, proficiency rates still are slightly under state averages in most grades. The school has also recently seen a small dip in test scores, and it has been placed on a federal list of schools that are eligible for state sanctions based on a formula of expected test score growth.
Despite Monroe's success in attracting parent mentors, there are still many more parents who aren't involved at the school, where 96 percent of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. Parent mentors must pledge 10 hours a week during school hours, meaning positions are primarily taken by those who don't have other day jobs.
"It's not that they don't want to come," Rivera said of the other parents. "There are a lot of obstacles."
For those without steady work like Hernando, though, time is not a limiting factor. In fact, she, along with other parent coordinators, dedicated a week of the summer to get ready to work with newcomers. Each coordinator-to-be practiced leading a different part of the parent mentor training that they would do in the fall.
During one session, one of the coordinators, Samantha Garrett, led the group through a goal-setting exercise. "Your goals [are] for you," she said, "not for your children, not for your husband."
Hernando scribbled down her own goal immediately: to take leadership classes so she can give future parent mentors the best experience possible. Latino parents, she explained, are often isolated from their children's education, not understanding how schools work or how to get involved. Her own parents didn't know how to help her get into college. She wants to make sure that's not true for the next generation. "It's great," she said about her new mentor coordinator role. "I can help other parents get involved."
This story was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, nonpartisan education-news outlet based at Teachers College, Columbia University.
No Text in Folder
Joanna Brown is the lead education organizer for the Logan Square Neighborhood Association (LSNA). She oversees programs like the parent mentors and parent tutors, as well as youth organizing work. Her position serves as a bridge from day-time programs to educational organizing, both at the individual school level all the way to district, state, and national policy. Working closely with LSNA’s community learning centers, Brown focuses on helping parents work with teachers and community members to improve schools. She fundraises for the parent mentor program and uses it as a way to talk about parent engagement policy at a higher level.
Bridget Murphy, Leticia Barrera and Ofelia Sanchez serve as education organizers for the Logan Square Neighborhood Association. The three oversee the parent mentor program at eight schools in the Logan Square area, helping guide parents and teachers working together to improve their schools. They help parents focus on the changes they want to see in schools. “It’s important... that they’re bottom up changes really led by parents as leaders,” Murphy said. The three organizers also support and train the parent mentor coordinators and work with the Parent Engagement Institute, which helps other communities start parent mentor programs of their own.
There is a parent mentor coordinator assigned to each school that the Logan Square Neighborhood Association (LSNA) works with. The coordinator spends 15-20 hours a week making sure the program runs smoothly at the school level. They recruit teachers, hold parent mentor trainings, and keep track of time sheets and other paperwork. They serve as the main liaison between the school and LSNA, and help parent mentors plan school events or initiatives. “They’re out there all year long, talking to parents on the sidewalk and at school events,” Murphy said.
Education OrganizerBridget Murphy, Leticia Barrera and Ofelia Sanchez serve as education organizers for the Logan Square Neighborhood Association. The three oversee the parent mentor program at eight schools in the Logan Square area, helping guide parents and teachers working together to improve their schools. They help parents focus on the changes they want to see in schools. “It’s important... that they’re bottom up changes really led by parents as leaders,” Murphy said. The three organizers also support and train the parent mentor coordinators and work with the Parent Engagement Institute, which helps other communities start parent mentor programs of their own.
The Parent Engagement Institute is an initiative of the Logan Square Neighborhood Association and the Southwest Organizing Project to support parent mentor programs in other neighborhoods nationwide. They have worked with 10 communities in Illinois and have been involved in helping set up parent engagement programs in Colorado, Maryland and Rhode Island. Along with the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights and the Illinois State Board of Education, the Parent Engagement Institute has recently received state funding to expand their work.
The Southwest Organizing Project (SWOP) is a community organization on Chicago’s South side that runs some of the Parent Engagement Institute schools in conjunction with the Logan Square Neighborhood Association.
These interviews were conducted by NBC News. They have been edited and condensed for clarity.
NBC: How does the parent mentor program create a win-win-win for the community, parents and kids?
JB: It is not only a win-win but in many ways it is very much an empowerment program for women, especially for mothers. And the teachers, as you’ve heard, say, “I don’t know how I would do it without my parent mentor.” The children don’t get everything they need because the class size is too big and there’s only one teacher, and they really pretty much eliminated all teacher aids. Many people also move out of the school into the community and become community leaders. They work on immigration reform, they work on affordable housing. We have a whole team of parent mentors who help connect families with health resources. So it just builds civic engagement and it builds the community. You have to keep creating community in an urban area because people move and neighborhoods change.
NBC: How can a parent who doesn’t even read or write in their native language be a benefit in the classroom?
JB: Almost one hundred percent of the parents love children. They love their own children, they bring that love to the classroom, and they share it with the kids. They’re not teachers, so they don’t have to worry about all 30 kids. They usually work with the kids who need the most help, the most support, and those kids become very attached to them, and they feel like they have a positive support in the classroom. And it works both ways: The kids also give the mentors a great deal of joy and satisfaction and the understanding that they’re doing something really meaningful with their life outside of the family.
NBC: How does the program spur parents to further their own education?
JB: In the week-long training that precedes the program, parents are asked to set a goal for themselves - not for their kids, not for their husband, but for themselves. Mostly it’s education: I want to learn English, get my GED, or I have a high school diploma and want to go to college. And they start looking at what kind of career they might want. We have a teacher program where we’ve had 21 people graduate as bilingual teachers, and we have 55 more studying in a cohort program where there’s a lot of mutual support. The parent-mentor program creates a wonderful environment, so people who have had large extended families in Mexico, and who are pretty isolated here, they find that community again. And they’re very good at building it.
NBC: How does this contribute to a child’s success in school?
JB: First of all, it raises the achievement of the lowest performing kids. That’s really important because families come from all different traditions and situations - some kids have parents who are working two jobs. So it provides extra support for the kids who really need it. Secondly, we have heard so many stories of kids being motivated and being so proud of having their mom being a quote-unquote teacher. When a mother’s walking down the street with her kids and the other kids in her class come up and are like, “Oh maestra, maestra!” That’s a story you hear a lot and it makes people feel good, it makes kids feel good. Also, there’s a lot people don’t know how to manage their way through the system as successfully. There’s all these different kinds of schools you apply to, there’s different high schools, most families do not have college graduates. There’s so much that people who come from college-educated families know about working the system that people who have not had that experience just don’t know.
NBC: Is this particular community unique because of the Logan Square Neighborhood Association?
JB: We’re one of many strong community organizations, but one thing we did very early on was we built these relationships of trust with the principals and other administrators. And that made us an inside-outside partner, whereas many organizations around the country were still fighting the school from the outside. And I think that makes a big difference. Parents don’t want to be enemies of the school - that’s where their kids are. Their kid is with a teacher inside the school and they want to be very supportive of building a better school. At times that may be very controversial, they might not like the principal, but in general you can’t really build a good school while you’re destroying trust. I mean, it’s a community. If it’s working, it’s a community. So, if you just move children around, if you just move teachers around without regard to the personal relationships, it’s very destructive. Teaching is not about stuffing information in little children’s heads, it’s about building relationships and creating that teacher-student and student-student relationship where people can function.
NBC: Why is parent-teacher-school communication so important?
CP: The short version is that urban schools that get better are better organizations right? They have better leadership, they have better climates, their staff is more cooperative. Not that they do this program or that program, but they’re better organized. That’s the overall message. But inside that message they have a great deal of data that says the schools that have strong parent and community ties will do much better - better in terms of student achievement, better in terms of student attendance. So, it’s a pretty well established fact at this point.
NBC: So there has to be trust - a bond - between the teacher and the parents?
CP: If you take two schools that are equal, that have the same demographics, that are both failing, but one of them is a high-trust school and the other is a low-trust school - and by that I mean teachers say they trust other teachers, and teachers say they trust the principal - you go away for three years, and at the end of three years, the high-trust school is three times more likely to be improving than the low-trust school. If you do nothing else except look at the differences in trust, it appears to be humongous. That’s striking.
NBC: How difficult is it for a program like this to get support from administrators?
CP: People need to see it before they can believe it. People bring a limited conception of what parents are capable of, right? And so, you want parents to monitor the hallways and do the Xeroxing, and parents will not object to that. But that doesn’t use them right as thinking partners in the process. And that’s what Logan Square is doing. That breeds success, that respect. You don’t get that if all you are asking parents to do is clean your blackboard.
NBC: What we saw today was that the teacher was allowed to teach.
CP: I’ve been surprised in the last years to know how many behavioral problems we have in our kindergarten. The more adults you have in the classroom, the more likely it is that you will find someone who can speak to the needs of the children who are acting out and teachers can go on and do what they do, they can go on and teach.
NBC: How can a school in Los Angeles or a school in Florida or a school in Detroit learn from what is going on at Logan Square?
CP: I think you have to absorb that it’s not about the specifics of the programming. People are doing this kind of thing with much less effect all over the country. You have to embed the work in a certain set of values and those values have to do with the respect and the hope that you have for parents and parent capacity and I think it never hurts to see it right? I think it’s very, very important for people who are trying to do this thing to be connected to some places where it’s already being done.
NBC: What was it like your first time in a classroom as a parent mentor?
PL: It was a great experience. It was the first time I had come to the classroom. When I started, the teacher introduced me to the students, and I felt respected for the first time, by kids. And it was a very good experience, I was a little bit nervous, but the teacher was very nice, she gave me the confidence I needed.
NBC: How do you think this program helps immigrant women become better mothers?
PL: The parent mentor program helps mothers coming from other countries in different ways. I gained confidence, many of us are at home, we don’t work. So this is a great opportunity to feel that you are valued, that you can contribute not only to your child’s education, but also to the community. They gave us training in different topics, domestic violence - I think that is very important, to let us know that we have rights and that we have the power. And we have the potential to succeed.
NBC: Are any of the husbands initially not happy about their wives becoming parent mentors?
PL: I think so, they don’t understand. They think we are coming to school to just have fun and to be around and talking to other parents. But in reality we are learning and the kids also are really proud with that, their moms are inside the school helping.
NBC: How do parents in the classroom help the child be more successful?
PL: When parents are involved, children can look that parents are participating in school. They want to be helpful, and they want to contribute with the school and with them [the children.] They are a great example for them. Later in life, they can continue with their education because parents are involved. It’s very simple.
NBC: How did you continue your studies since graduating as a parent mentor?
PL: While I was in the program, I had the opportunity to join Grow Your Own Teachers. That is a great program training community members to become bilingual teachers. So I had the chance to join that group and I continued with my education and I graduated last December as a bilingual teacher. I have a teaching certificate.
NBC: How did your life change [with the mentor program]?
LB: During the training they teach me all the skills that I possess as a parent. Also, they teach me how to set personal goals. That was the key for me and my family. One of my personal goals was to learn English and I started taking classes in the community center that the school has. And then I started realizing how much I can offer to the school. As a parent I discovered myself as a leader, as a person that I can cooperate and contribute to my children’s education and I didn’t think in that way before. So, during the training the whole week I was exploring myself and thinking about like all the beautiful things that I possess as a parent. And I started feeling important, and when you have that feeling, you see everything beautiful.
NBC: How did it help you with your husband?
LB: As immigrants, we came with the ideas from our country, but here in the United States parents need to be able to learn about the education system, to learn more about the surroundings, and to learn more about who is your alderman. Those little things play an important role in your life, so now my husband and I are able to talk in the same language, because he knows through me about the curriculum, about many of the things that we don’t know when we arrived. Now, because we have our children attending elementary Chicago schools, we are able to talk about this, and not only between us but also between our children.
NBC: Do you think that children do better in school because of the parent mentor program?
LB: Absolutely. In 1997 the first time that I took my son, I started learning through the parent mentor program many programs that the school offers through Logan Square Neighborhood Association. So my son got enrolled in some of their activities. And, I am helping my children because they saw me every day, so they know that mom is in the school. I build a relationship with the teachers and the school principal, that means a lot to me because I remember when my son was in first grade and I was not able to really help my son with the homework and I asked one of the teachers. So the teacher helped me to understand the homework and I was able to help my son during that time. But building the relationship with the teachers and the principals is huge. I didn’t realize that, in my country it’s not the same thing.
NBC: Is there a story that comes to mind about a child you helped in a special way?
LB: I remember very well in 1998, I had spent two years in the parent mentor program. I was helping a student - a newcomer from Mexico. It was in the middle of the school year, she was already behind as soon as she entered the classroom. And the teacher at the time assigned me that student. And I helped her to start recognizing the letters, and to put the letters together and to start reading on the level of the rest of the students. I was so happy when I saw every time, her improvement. And at the end of the school year it wasn’t the level of all the rest of the students, but it was almost there. And this is something the parent mentors do every day.
NBC: Now you train new parent mentors.
LB: Yes, now I have the opportunity to train the parents. I’m very proud to say it is a pleasure for me to train parents. I had the opportunity to share my experience with them, and to tell them that they have a voice and that they have lots of talents and that they play an important role in their children’s education, because I have raised three successful children and they can do that also. I’m like them, I’m a regular parent like them, and if I can do it, they can do it.
