Laila Hasan (left) works with Belmont parents and UCLA TEP"Novice Teachers" to improve student achievement. (Photo by Jessica Cervantes)
Every Thursday evening Emilia Martinez, mother of two teenagers attending LAUSD schools, has her husband drop her off at Belmont High School. She meets with 26 other concerned parents and 17 “Novice Teachers” as part of the Parents and Teachers Working Together. UCLA’s Teacher Education Program (TEP) facilitates the group. The Novice Teachers are first-year teachers from UCLA’s TEP doing their student teaching in the Belmont Complex and Berendo Middle School.
Program Coordinator Laila Hasan said the goal of the program is to assist new teachers in collaborating with parents, school and community members. Together they can support student competency and academic achievement.
This program also assists parents in becoming more involved with their children’s education and academic success. By informing parents about issues currently affecting students in their community and educating them of their rights as parents, they learn how to play a more active role in their children’s education.
Martinez has a daughter attending Los Angeles High School and a son attending Berendo Middle School. She shared with Learning Power News that these parent-teacher group meetings have helped her learn different ways of supporting and encouraging her children’s academic progress.
Martinez said the key to students’ success is to “Open up the communication between parents, children, and teachers in order to all work together and better the education for our children.”
Teacher Alma Flores said it is important to know what is going on in a student’s home life. It helps her to understand their behavioral and educational needs. Flores’ students sometimes do not turn in their homework or show up late to class. By talking with parents, Flores has found out that her students sometimes work evenings.
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Novice Teacher Jose Torices said, “This interaction between parents and teachers doesn’t happen very often. Sometimes parents feel they don’t have a voice or the ability to communicate with teachers, but it is important they understand that they can talk to teachers and ask more than ‘How is my kids doing?’”
Ortencia Perez, an active community member and parent at Francisco Bravo Medical Magnet is well aware many teachers who begin their work in the Belmont area need to learn how to work with the community.
“Most of the teacher don’t live in this community so I want them to know that we are very culturally diverse and want to orientate them on how to work with the parents and students of this particular community,” said Perez.
She appreciates the teachers’ efforts to understand the surrounding community, “They have taken our advice as parents and community members and put it into practice, just as we have taken their advice to help our children. Sometimes parents complain about teachers, but they have to understand we’re ALL part of these children’s education.”
The Belmont area is a predominantly low-income Latino neighborhood just west of Downtown Los Angeles. In many households, parents work more than one job in order to support the family. Rina Cheu decided to quit one of her jobs, a few years ago, in order to dedicate more time to her youngest daughter who attends Berendo Middle School.
“I used to feel so proud of myself, being a single mother and being able to support my three kids all on my own, but when one of my sons did not graduate high school, I felt like all that hard work was for nothing,” explained Cheu.
Her involvement in her daughter’s school has led to a position as a district representative for Berendo Middle School. She is actively involved with her daughter and grandchildren’s education. She announced with great pride and joy that her daughter has recently been awarded the second highest score on the math portion of the state exam for 7th grade at Berendo.
Cheu said, “That’s when I see the benefits of my involvement and participation. It’s better than money, I see her success.”
She encourages other parents to become involved with their children, “Not having a degree should not stop us parents from looking for help and supporting our kids. Our children need to know we want them to succeed.”
According to Cheu “parents and teachers must start working together as early as elementary school in order to see progressive academic achievement.”
“It is necessary for teachers to collaborate with parents to really acquire this kind of knowledge about their students. Parents are an essential resource for teachers who wish to identify student’s competencies,” said Hasan.
