Involving Latino Families in Schools: Raising Student Achievement Through Home-School Partnerships - Paperback

by Concha Delgado Gaitan (Author)

"Anyone involved in preservice training for future and present classroom teachers should read this book. Both the content and context of the book are practical, timely, and necessary as our country and classrooms become more diverse."
Michele Dean, Principal
Montalvo Elementary School, Ventura, CA

Raise school attendance, reduce dropout rates, and improve academic performance of Latino students!

Often marginalized by poverty, linguistic isolation, or prejudice, Latino students face many academic obstacles. And while research has shown that parental involvement plays a key role in academic achievement, most schools have failed to modify their parent involvement programs to address social and cultural realities of Latino families.

Involving Latino Families in Schools provides tools and strategies for including Latino parents in developing sustained academic improvement. Sharing numerous first person success stories, author Concha Delgado Gaitan stresses three conditions of increased parental participation: connecting to families, sharing information with parents, and supporting continued parental involvement.

Offering easily applied techniques for cultivating communication, this practical handbook examines

• Latino families and their educational aspirations for their children
• The communication systems needed between schools and Latino families
• How Latino families can assist their children at home
• Techniques to foster Latino parent involvement
• How to organize schoolwide parent involvement programs

Through suggested activities, case examples, and vignettes, the author provides insights and instruction for planning, designing, and implementing parental participation programs that enhance the classroom curriculum and effectively engage Latino students.

Designed primarily for elementary and secondary school principals and teachers, this innovative text is also an indispensable resource for district-level administrators.

Author Biography

Concha Delgado Gaitan, PhD, is an award-winning ethnographic researcher and professor of sociocultural studies in education. She received the George and Louise Spindler award for her contributions to the field of Anthropology and Education from the Council of Anthropology and Education of the American Anthropological Association. Her early career as a teacher and school principal informs her later work as a practicing anthropologist in communities and professor at the University of California, Davis. Concha has also worked in the field of public health education in Latino communities, combining that interest with her dedication to issues of social justice and education. She is a national and international speaker as well as a consultant on the numerous topics that inspire her work.

Among her many scholarly publications are her books where she presents her work as an ethnographer working with disenfranchised families and communities toward their empowerment and extending practical lessons to educators: (1) The Power of Community, (2) Protean Literacy, (3) Crossing Cultural Borders, (4) Literacy for Empowerment, (5) School and Society, (6) Involving Latino Families in the School, (7) Building Culturally Responsive Classrooms, and this most current one (8) Creating a College Culture for Latino Students. In a different book, Prickly Cactus, she turns the lenses inward to look at the role of family and community in her life during a time of major health crisis. Concha works and lives in the San Francisco Bay area with her husband Dudley Thompson. For more information, please go to www.conchadelgadogaitan.com or contact Concha at concha@conchadg.com.