The White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for Hispanic Americans (White House Initiative) believes that an essential factor in the effort to increase educational attainment for Hispanic children and youths and to close the achievement gap between Hispanic students and their non-Hispanic peers is family involvement. To effectively reach these families, it is necessary to coordinate efforts, fortify relationships and make optimal use of the resources that various agencies, organizations and businesses possess.
To that end, in June 2005, the White House Initiative and the U.S. Department of Education hosted a conference in Washington, D.C., "Pathways to Hispanic Family Learning" [PDF, 2.5M]. The conference highlighted private and public efforts to meet the education needs of Hispanic children and youths. Officiating at the event were Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings and U.S. Treasury Anna E. Cabral. Over 200 Hispanic leaders from across the country representing small, medium and large organizations also participated in the event.
The conference set the stage for the White House Initiative's Partnership for Hispanic Family Learning, a national network of public and private organizations that provide Hispanic families with the knowledge and tools needed to help them prepare their children for academic success.
The partnership, comprised of individuals and organizations from the business, community, faith-based, education and government sectors, focuses on: early childhood development and early reading; parent and family involvement; academic preparation and high school graduation; college enrollment, affordability and completion; and adult and workplace literacy.
Partner organizations are drawn from:
There are over 9 million Hispanic households in the U.S., of which nearly 6 million have school-age children. Unfortunately, a substantial number of these families are unaware of the options and opportunities that education reform in the form of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) and the American Competitiveness Initiative offer them.
The Partnership for Hispanic Family Learning makes every effort to disseminate a wealth of new and existing education information to Hispanic communities. The information, when placed in the hands of parents, is a powerful tool that enables them to make informed decisions about their children's education. In the process, they become powerful allies in the White House Initiative and partnership's efforts to help close the achievement gap for Hispanic students. To this end, the White House Initiative has a goal to reach 6 million families during a two-year period.
However, the White House Initiative and the U.S. Department of Education alone cannot reach all of the nation's Hispanic families and children. Thus, the White House Initiative's second goal is to enlist up to 500 organizations in the Partnership for Hispanic Family Learning during the same two-year period. To date, nearly 400 public and private organizations [PDF, 83K] from across the U.S. have agreed to join the partnership.
The Partnership for Hispanic Family Learning, committed to improving the academic achievement of Hispanic children and youths, provides its member organizations access to valuable education information in the form of a weekly e-newsletter that includes:
Click here to become a partner and receive the newsletter.
Information is also distributed at the regional conferences the White House Initiative convenes nationwide. The first regional conference [PDF, 330K], cohosted by Youth Development, Inc., was held in May 2006 in Albuquerque, N.M. The second regional conference was held in Santa Ana, Calif., in September 2006 and was cohosted by the Orange County Department of Education, the Santa Ana Unified School District, the Orange County United Way, and Los Kitos Entertainment, LLC. The third regional conference [PDF, 7.1M], cohosted by the Latin American Association, was held in Suwanee and Norcross, Ga., in May 2007.
These events focus on the ways in which various stakeholders are working to meet the education needs of Hispanic families and cover topics ranging from early childhood development to postsecondary education.
The White House Initiative and the Partnership for Hispanic Family Learning welcome all organizations—nonprofit, community, faith-based, education, public, private, and government—that wish to be counted among those that are forming this national network to ensure academic success for Hispanic Americans.