New Haven Independent

Posted by: Bill | October 14, 2009 8:26 AM

Maybe the Spanish speaking folks should find out how the Asian parents handle orientation for their children, since their children out perform the children from Spanish speaking homes. Just saying.

Posted by: Concerned in NH | October 14, 2009 10:28 AM

Why doesn't Mr. Nieves learn English then he can help his children and will also set an example. He can do so at the Adult Education program run by the Board of Education. Our tax dollars should not be used on translators but rather educators!

Posted by: Mary | October 14, 2009 11:51 AM

LEARN THE LANGUAGE!!

If I moved to Italy-I would learn Italian.
China? I would learn Chinese.

Posted by: Hmmm... | October 14, 2009 2:00 PM

Most of the 'learn the language' folks have lived here in the US their entire lives and can barely piece together a complete sentence or communicate a lucid thought so just stop that nonsense please!!! I have met Mr. Nieves and it is clear that he is trying very hard to learn the language. It isn't that easy and won't happen overnight. In the meantime, should their children suffer?

Having said that, I do NOT like ToC's tactics. It is NOT the responsibility of the schools to do EVERYTHING. I'm betting that a simple request to their own ranks would in a week produce enough translators who would VOLUNTEER to work with the parents in the schools. Especially if we're only talking a few times a year. I bet in a couple months they could find funding to pay a stipend to those translators. But instead, ToC jumps immediately to the loud and public protest (did you notice the signs are all in English) to get their name in the paper.

YOU ARE NOT HELPING YOUR PARENTS BY DOING THIS KIND OF STUFF ToC!

Posted by: Hmmm... | October 14, 2009 2:04 PM

(Sorry, must have accidentally hit post before I finished.) What I was trying to say is at best these protests and other tactics tend to make those who would be your supporters turn against you. Somebody needs to teach ToC how to get things done.

Posted by: nfjanette | October 14, 2009 3:51 PM

Thanks to HMMM for sharing a well balanced opinion. I believe the suggestion to provide volunteer translators from within the community involved was made the last time this story made the news.

Posted by: Follow the Money | October 14, 2009 5:56 PM

The tactics of TOC have remained the same. Find an issue, locate some parents to read statements written by the organizers, request a meeting to discuss the alleged issue and then hold an odd press event before the meeting is held to review the alleged issue. If their focus was really the issue then why wouldn't they meet on the issue? Why wouldn't they help translate? Why wouldn't they translate their own site? Why would they lure people to their event by telling them they "would be on TV" as opposed to telling them they would be speaking on a translation issue? Is 20 people, some of them paid to be there an impressive demonstration that an issue exists.

If these speakers actually attended orientation they would have seen English AND Spanish orientation packets. I know I did when I went to the school for my child. If they went to the BOE website they would see English and Spanish forms and information as well as a translation tool for not just Spanish but all other languages as well. But why let the facts get in the way of a good story?

What does change is the paid staff. Every few months, or perhaps at the conclusion of every academic year, it seems that these Yale grads move on to another cause or to pursue their own career interests after giving a few months in the "trenches" telling us urban dwellers how to live. Then another new Yalie ready to take on the world fills in. By last count they had gone through 3 or 4 of these paid staff members.

So is it really parents? Or is it paid staff?

If you are paid for a crusade, do you not need a crusade? If you do not get publicity then perhaps the funders would go away. These are the same funders who fund Charters and CONNCAN by the way.

Thankfully other responsible groups are out there working with schools and principals and parents to make a difference. TOC is only out there to support itself and to sustain its funding through these stunts with the usual suspects, most of whom are paid a stipend or salary I would bet.

When the funding goes and other career opportunties come these paid staff will leave New Haven as fast as they appeared. Then the parents and the Board of Education will be left to work together to solve whatever issue comes up. Everyone has a role in solving urban eduction, even the parents.

It is time to stop with the organizer 101 antics and responsibly advocate for urban education reform.

Posted by: THREEFIFTHS | October 14, 2009 7:35 PM

Mary

LEARN THE LANGUAGE!!

If I moved to Italy-I would learn Italian.
China? I would learn Chinese.

You need to tell that to companies taht outsource
the american customer service job to the countrys that can't speak english like aol who I called today and I could not understand a word he was saying.

Posted by: Claudia Bosch | October 14, 2009 11:22 PM

Unfortunately this “loud” and public protest was necessary. When it comes to translation TOC was interacting nicely and orderly with the school administration since 2008. And the district’s administration proved to be a black box – better a black hole.

In 2008 TOC spoke with Miriam Camacho (Director of Instruction), Daniel Diaz (Parent Liaison), and José Ortiz (Supervisor of the Bilingual and ESL Programs) and were told that each principal is in charge of deciding whether to make translation services available in their school. On October 4, 2008, 44 community members, including parents, clergy and aldermen met with Dr. Carlos Torre, now President of the Board of Education, and urged him to address the problem. Finally on August 5, 2009, TOC leaders met with Superintendent Mayo to discuss the following proposals:
a) translation of the NHPS web page (hey - a TOC proposal!!!)
b) translation into Spanish at mandatory parent meetings
c) translation of all documents to Spanish, especially those that require a parent signature
d) translation into Spanish at Board of Ed meetings
e) availability of interpreters in school system and in each school
f) a list of interpreters who work for the school system so that parents can make appointments with them
The Superintendent agreed to proposals (a) and (b), and said that both the web page would be ready for the start of the school year and that there would be a Spanish/English interpreter at EVERY orientation.

Besides the translation feature on the web page nothing was accomplished and nobody knew and took notice of all the collaborative efforts of TOC. Did any press outlet mention the translation agreement between TOC and the Superintendent on August 5 this year (of course TOC sent out a press release)? No.

So no results (really, that google translation program is a joke and produces rather amusing than enlightening translations), no reaction to three letters sent to Dr. Mayo and all Board of Education Members in August 2009 after the meeting – not a single line - and no improvement insight and TOC is supposed to repeat more of the same fruitless efforts? Addressing the black hole over and over? No!

We are parents and taxpayers with limited time. We do NOT get paid for our efforts in any prolonged back-and-forth. Folks at Meadow Street do however. So, 34 TOC parents and children, ONE paid staff, two interns (one with a school kid) and seven community supporters made our struggle for translation and interpretation – which is actually a struggle for closing the achievement gap - public.

Unfortunately publicity was and is needed to get things moving.

non-anonymous
Claudia Bosch
A TOC Parent Leader

P.S. This one is for “Follow the money”: Besides the ‘paid rebel rousers’ and the ‘non-meetings’ you got more facts wrong: TOC’s web page has a Spanish version (truly translated not “googled”). Oh, and ALL the HANDBOOKS of EVERY school were in Spanish – you probably checked that as well as the translated TOC page …. Oh, and since when is the Board of Ed working TOGETHER with organized parents? Individual parents – of course – but a whole bunch like TOC?
The teachers are unionized, why not we the parents?

Posted by: mary | October 15, 2009 8:48 AM

THREEFIFTHS-

I totally agree since my own job went to China last November!

Posted by: JJL | October 15, 2009 9:27 AM

I'd like to comment on one thing Mr. Torre said in this article: "if a parent calls and requests translation services, we're going to bend over backwards to make it possible". It should be superfluous to point this out, but apparently Mr. Torre didn't notice it: parents ARE requesting translation services. We requested them several times last year, and several more times THIS year. Nearly all TOC members, and everyone else who came to support this rally, are NHPS parents. We are requesting translation, and I don't see anybody "bending over backwards to make it possible."

In response to comments that people should learn English: if you've ever tried to learn a foreign language as an adult, you already know that it isn't a matter of snapping your fingers and knowing the language. Most of the members of TOC are indeed learning English, as do nearly all immigrants to the US. In the meantime, however, while they may be able to follow the general gist of a conversation, many of the nuances of what is said in school orientations and other official meetings may be misunderstood. And there are new immigrants arriving all the time. Are you going to tell someone who arrived in the US one month before the school year began that they have to know English by the date of the orientation, and if they don't, that's just too bad?

We cannot, as a community, afford to take the attitude that immigrants' problems are their own, and dismiss their difficulties with comments like "well, they should have learned English". As stated in the motto for this rally, we are all in this together. We are a community. Our children are growing up in an environment poisoned by racial and ethnic divisions, given very little hope for a better future, struggling with a school system that consistently fails to help them excel and barely meets their basic needs. This school system is not working. We have money to build a dozen brand new schools in the last two years, but not enough money to have full-time psychologists or social workers on the staff. Our out-of-school suspension rate is totally unacceptable by any standard. Our kids spend literally half the year preparing for the standardised tests at the end of the year, and yet the education gap in CT has widened in the last five years, and thousands of kids in New Haven fail to graduate every year.

Now we have a citywide school reform initative, which supposedly rests on four pillars (administrators, teachers, students and parents, in case anyone forgot), but NO ONE has asked the students what they think needs to be improved in our schools, and when NHPS parents have presented their opinions to the man in charge of the reform, they have been told that their concerns (unacceptable suspension rates, lack of translation, no uniform code of conduct) are not core issues. The way I'm understanding it right now, this reform initiative has one goal, and one goal only, and that goal is not "give our children a better future and improve our city". It's "do something visible and get Destefano reelected."

This is not acceptable. We need to fix this system. The reform initiative is a wonderful idea, but I'm extremely concerned by the fact that two of its so-called four pillars are being more or less completely ignored. TOC has met with the Board of Education. We have met with the Superintendent and his staff. We have met with Mr. Harries. We have followed due process. Again and again our concerns, presented as parents in the New Haven school system, have been ignored, deflected and politicised by career politicians and professional school reformers. Mr. Harries at least has the decency to tell us to our faces when he does not agree with our opinions, and I respect him for that. Most of the other players in this game simply say how much they agree with us, make promises to improve, and then go about their business as if we had never met. This is exactly what happened with the translation. At this point we're not even discussing whether translation is a good idea or not. It's a very simple issue: translation was PROMISED in a closed-doors meeting between the Superintendent and TOC members. Translation was NOT provided. While some schools did have translation available for both documents and the spoken orientation, NO systemwide effort was made to ensure that all parents from New Haven's very sizable Spanish-speaking population would be able to participate in the orientation.

Did we not all learn when we were five that a promise is a promise, and that a man is only as good as his word?

Apparently not.

****

Regarding comments by "Follow the Money": you have absolutely no idea what you are talking about.

Posted by: Brian | October 15, 2009 3:36 PM

What TOC is asking for is not unreasonable, it actually makes sense. If there is a meeting which is mandatory to attend at your childs school, any parent would want to know what is being said. Dr. Mayo must agree with this, because he agreed on August 5 to provide translators at all parent orientations. Its too bad for the parents that Mayo can't live up his word.
So while most of the people on this board just look at this story as a way to slander immigrants, why don't you instead consider how your city government treats its citizens.
This story isn't about folks not wanting to learn English, its about folks who don't know English yet and want to help their children. The only thing these parents have to gain by protesting is a brighter future for their children. What parent could possibly disagree with that? People want to talk about ESL classes and so forth, that's a great idea for long term assimilation into society and it should be supported.
However what TOC is asking for is much smaller. All TOC wants is for on the one day per year when all parents must attend orientation, for all the parents to be able to understand the orientation. 26% of children in NH speak Spanish at home. Its a simple equation. The board of ed just likes to misinform the public, so that racist simple minded people such as those preaching "learn English or leave" can have some fuel for their fire. Try a little compassion, all TOC wants is for administrators to live up to their word.

Posted by: blind leadership must end | October 15, 2009 3:55 PM

I am a parent and the honest truth is that if your educational system does'nt work together with parents who wish to be involved they are doing our children a dis-service parents have power and need to exercise that whenever there children or they as parent are being disenfranchised let get real people the its about attitude and when it come to asking for help from individuals who make the ultimate decision. new haven as a whole in terms of leadership on all levels might as well be a corporation that provides what they want not what their employees( citizens need! no more back and forth its time to stop excuses and work together so that a balance can be achieved

Posted by: RL | October 16, 2009 10:47 AM

GO TOC! If people only knew the way it really is working with the NHPS.... As long as you don't question the status quo of the very LOW standards of the NHPS school system, and question whats really going on in New Haven's Schools, there are no problems. Let someone start asking questions, and everyone has something to say, but not everyone has the guts to stand up and fight. The people who are fighting everday unfortunately get the back lash because they put themselves out there. Then in the end, everyone benefits from those who had the guts to stand up and fight!

Posted by: JU | October 23, 2009 12:24 AM

Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act states that "No person in the United States shall, on the ground of race, color, or national origin, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any program or activity receiving federal financial assistance." The 1974 Supreme Court ruling, Lau v. Nichols, found that language-based discrimination is equivalent to national origin discrimination.

The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 requires that local education agencies provide parents meaningful access to participation in education of their children. (Title I, Sec. 1118)

One could reasonably argue that NOT providing language assistance to these parents is discriminatory and a violation of their civil rights.