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**EqualEducational Opportunity for Hispanic Students in the Oklahoma City Public Schools**

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**Chapter3**

**CommunityPerspective**

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Whenreviewing educational issues, the school district administrative office is agood source for information. Likewise, to provide a balance of viewpoints,community input from parents, students, and education advocates becomesimportant. The Advisory Committee received information from three communitypersons.

AmyNazario, a parent and social worker who has worked in the Latino community ofOklahoma City, spoke to the Advisory Committee about her experience with theOklahoma City public schools. Ms. Nazario thought that because she was Hispanicand had an accent, school personnel assumed that her son would have problemswith language. However, her son has an English surname and speaks English as alanguage with no accent. But when Ms. Nazario would attend her son�selementary school�s open house, she was always given a waiver form for theIowa Test of Basic Skills (ITBS).[1]She asked why she was given a waiver form, and the school�s representativeresponded that, since her son was from a household where Spanish was spoken hewould have problems with the test.[2]Ms. Nazario thought it was strange that a school official was predictingproblems in September for an achievement test that would be taken the followingApril.[3] She never did sign the waivers.[4]

Ms.Nazario�s second encounter with the testing issue in the schools was as asponsor of the Latino Leadership Club at Jackson Middle School. One springmorning, she told her students that she would not be at school the followingweek because no activities were allowed during the week that the ITBS wasadministered.[5] Students in the Latino Leadership Club suggested to Ms. Nazario that shecould go on a field trip to the zoo with them because they were not going totake the test. In the ensuing conversation with the club members, Ms. Nazariolearned that their parents had signed the waiver forms that exempted them fromtaking the test.[6] She learned from the club members that there were concerns that Latinostudents would lower the test results.[7]

SergioGallegos, Jr., is the chairperson of the Hispanic Advisory Committee to theOklahoma City public schools. The Hispanic Advisory Committee has set a positive5-year agenda to help Superintendent Marvin Crawford and the school districtbetter understand the educational needs of the Hispanic community.[8]Mr. Gallegos said he was most passionate about the issue of exemption ofstudents from taking the test of basic skills.[9] He said that the exemption policy robs students from participation inenrichment programs.[10]Mr. Gallegos was of the opinion that exemption from taking the ITBS institutesthe mentality in Hispanic children that they can no longer take exams becausethey might be handicapped, less capable, and less intelligent than theircontemporaries.[11] He further stated thatwhen a student does not take the ITBS, the classroom teacher has inadequate,incomplete information available to focus and reinforce the student�s academicability.[12]Consequently, many students are moved up to their next grade without having theskills necessary to be successful at the next level.[13] The result of delaying the education of students through exemptionpolicies creates a mediocre education and a mediocre student who does notachieve his or her potential. These school district exemption proceduresreinforces the stereotype that students cannot compete equally with thosestudents who do take the ITBS test. Mr. Gallegos added that in real life thereare no exemptions, and all people are judged under the same standards and areexpected to compete.[14]He also said that providing Hispanic bilingual counselors and teachers in theschools would be helpful in removing the communication obstacle for manystudents.[15]

JohnnyCharqueno, a senior at Northwest Classen High School and a member of the LatinoLeadership Club, provided the Advisory Committee with a student�s perspectiveon the educational services he has received and observed in the Oklahoma Citypublic schools.[16] He told the AdvisoryCommittee that some of his friendswho were exempted from the ITBS were just glad they did not have to take anothertest and could spend the week watching movies.[17] The disadvantage, he said, was that if a student did not take the testbecause of the exemption waiver signed by parents, he or she could not go toClassen High School, a school that has enrichment classes.[18]

Mr.Charqueno stated that many of his friends dropped out because they had beensuspended a long time and also because of parent conferences.[19]At parent-teacher conferences, parents spoke only Spanish and nobody translatedand the parents were scared of talking to the principal and not understandingthe conversation. In the case of the suspended students, if they have sixunexcused absences they would fail the semester and there was no reason forreturning to school. They become �dropout statistics,� he said.[20]

[1]    Amy Nazario, Statement before the Oklahoma Advisory Committee to the U.S.    Commission on Civil Rights, community forum, Oklahoma City, Sept. 29, 1998,    Transcript, p. 113 (hereafter cited as Transcript).

[2]    Ibid.

[3]    Ibid.

[4]    Ibid., p. 115.

[5]    Ibid.

[6]    Ibid.

[7]    Ibid., p. 116.

[8]    Sergio Gallegos, Jr., Transcript, p. 128.

[9]    Ibid., p. 132.

[10]    Ibid., p. 139.

[11]    Ibid.

[12]    Ibid., pp. 140�41.

[13]    Ibid.

[14]    Ibid.

[15]    Ibid.

[16]    Johnny Charqueno, Transcript, p. 214.

[17]    Ibid., p. 215.

[18]    Ibid..

[19]    Ibid., p. 220.

[20]    Ibid.