The content and the length of each of the following seminars can be modified to meet the needs of the school or district.
Let’s Empower Them! /Increasing Hispanic Parental Involvement (6-Hour)
One of the leading indicators of student academic success is parental involvement. This seminar opens the floor for teachers, school administrators, guidance counselors and social workers to discuss the following two questions: What is parental involvement? What kind of parental involvement do we need? What kind of parental involvement can we get? Participants learn the basic components of a successful school parental involvement program and are provided with strategies to get the kind of parental involvement that would improve Hispanic student academic achievement.
Increasing Latino Student Academic Achievement (3-Hour)
This seminar promises to provide guidance counselors, social workers, and teachers and school administrators a deep understanding of the challenges that the Latino student population faces on a daily basis. Participants hear the students’ “voices” and learn how to see the world through their eyes.
Participants are empower to serve the Hispanic student population not only with a greater awareness and understanding but also with practical classroom and school strategies that can increase Hispanic academic achievement and performance on standardized tests.
Increasing African-American Student Academic Achievement (3-Hour)
This seminar promises to provide guidance counselors, social workers, and teachers and school administrators a deep understanding of the challenges that the African-American student population faces on a daily basis. Participants hear the students’ “voices” and learn how to see the world through their eyes.
Participants are empower to serve the Black student population not only with a greater awareness and understanding but also with practical classroom and school strategies that can increase the African-American academic achievement and performance on standardized tests.
The “No Tener Papeles” Internal Tug-of-War: The Impact of the Undocumented Status on Student Academic Achievement (3-Hour)
School psychologists, social workers, guidance counselors, teachers and school administrators become aware and experience some of the challenges that undocumented high school students face on a daily basis. Participants learn about the negative forces involved in the students’ internal “tug-of-war”. People who attend this seminar are provided with down-to-earth strategies to become a positive force, decrease drop-out rates and increase enrollment in post-secondary programs.
The Power of the School Culture! /Building a Culture of Achievement for All (3-Hour)
The school culture is so powerful that is can accelerate or hold back any school improvement initiative. This seminar allows school staff to genuinely discuss the differences between a school culture in which only a few students reach academic proficiency and a school culture in which most students reach academic proficiency. Participants in this seminar go over the ten components that are needed to engineer a strong and sustainable school culture that all students can achieve academic success.
Family Divide: The Greatest Challenge Hispanic Families Face Today in America (3-Hour)
Educational practitioners who work with Hispanic immigrant families awake to the reality of the ever-growing gaps that exist within the Hispanic family. Participants discuss how the linguistic, cultural, educational, immigration-status and digital gaps affects parents’ ability to navigate the American Educational System and monitor their children’s education. This seminar provides realistic strategies to empower parents to parent their children and reduce these family gaps.
Why so much assessment? /Increasing School Assessment Literacy (3-Hour)
This seminar can improve the attitudes and perceptions of the school staff towards testing in general. Teachers, school administrators, and district instructional staff develop a better understanding of the beliefs, trends, and events that led to the current standard-based school reform movement; the connection between standards, assessment, and accountability; and, the differences and similarities, in terms of purpose, use, content, and format between criterion-referenced and norm-referenced tests and between national, state, district, and classroom level assessments.
Developing Quality Classroom Assessments (6-Hour)
Teachers, School Administrators, and District Instructional Staff increase their awareness of the function and importance of teacher-made classroom assessments; how to align their daily instruction and assessments to the state standards and assessment; and how to develop classroom assessments that have a clear purpose, are aligned to the state standards in content and rigor, use the appropriate methodology and sampling, and are free from biases and distortion.
Helping Students Become Test-Taker Experts (3-Hour)
Hispanic, African-American, English Language Learner (ELL) and Low Income students face great challenges in testing situations and some of these challenges have little to do with the content being tested. This seminar not only provides teachers and school administrators with a deeper understanding of the challenges these student populations face but it also grant participants proven-to-work school/classroom practices and test-taking strategies that will allow students to improve their performance in any testing situation.
Mining, Analyzing, Communicating, and Using Data (6-Hour)
Teachers, School Administrators, and District Instructional Staff learn how to analyze, communicate, and use aggregated and disaggregated student assessment data to find out the needs of the school’s specific groups (White, Black, Limited English Proficiency (LEP), etc.), establish realistic school academic goals and ascertain classroom and school strategies to improve the students’ performance in any on testing situation.
Generating Student Motivation to Learn (3-Hour)
Teachers and School Administrators increase their awareness of the role that student motivation plays in academic achievement and learn about research-based and proven-to-work school/classroom practices that can generate student motivation to learn and improve performance in any testing situation.
Building the Dream Team (3-Hour)
Teachers and School Administrators learn about the advantages of teachers working together in grade level/subject area teams to get all students to proficiency; the characteristics of effective teams; and, the challenges that team members need to overcome to reach their goals.
Reaching Proficiency in Mathematics Teaching/A Mathematics Boot Camp (5-Day)
Elementary School Teachers deepen and strengthen their mathematical knowledge in Number Sense and Operations, Algebraic Thinking, Geometry/Spatial Sense, Measurement, and Data Analysis and Probability; increase their capacity to solve word problems, communicate findings, use reasoning and critical thinking, and make connections to other sciences; learn teaching strategies to communicate hard-to-teach mathematical concepts; learn how to use Power Point and Excel programs for instructional purposes; and, build the self-confidence that will empower them to teach mathematics to a diverse student population.