I am writing you today to let you know that despite our difficulties as a state and district, Salem Keizer students are making progress, and will continue to do so, but only if all of us continue at the heavy pace we have been working for the last five years.
See the new graduation report in this Statesman Journal article by Natalie Pate, highlighting both the district and our organization.
We must all take responsibility in pulling Oregon’s education outcomes up from at best mediocre (reading and math in the low to mid-average range) and at worst, the third lowest graduation rate in the nation.
We can do this together. And Salem Keizer Coalition for Equality is doing its part. Working with parents, ECONorthwest reports show students’ Chronic Absenteeism rates have drastically reduced for the children of parents we serve. State data show that not only has Salem Keizer’s overall graduation increased, Latino student graduation has gone up at even higher rates.
Over the past 14 years, we have brought informative motivational workshops to and supported leadership and self determination for at least 7000 Spanish speaking immigrant parents in just the Salem Keizer District alone, not to mention another 2000 parents in other districts.
We are successful because we are parents who have been there. Staff members are parents who have the same struggles, the same immigrant backgrounds, the same lived experience. Parent/staff who are imperfect, passionate, vulnerable role models, coaches, and friends, who encourage others to ENVISION SUCCESS and take leadership in their homes, in their schools and in their community.
However, this takes money and lots of it. In the last five years, we have intensified our outreach and our program depth and breadth. The results continue to climb. We want more than just attendance. We need to see great increases in reading and other subjects. We need to see reductions in discipline and dropout rates. We believe that SKCE has the key to the missing puzzle piece of Education Reform.
Latino students are 39% of our student body. Their success means the district’s success. We are ready to ramp up the number of schools we work in. We have schools and parents asking for our programs that we can’t pay for yet.
- Our maximum outreach has been ten Title I schools yet there are 37.
- Only three of our 20 Title I elementary schools with ELL programs have our parent led literacy intervention program for K-2 students.
- And only twice in four years have we been able to run our unique, incredibly popular, 10-week parent-led preschool.
Sincerely,
Annalivia