RealAudio

One of Minnesota's newest charter schools is using Latino culture, bilingual instruction and rigorous academics to help students who've had limited success in other schools. The founders of Academia Cesar Chavez in St. Paul say their school provides families with an important educational option and could also lead to improvements in the larger public school system.

	Ramona de Rosales and other Latino parents fought for years to ensure their culture and language were part of every St. Paul classroom. She says Academia Cesar Chavez is the result of parents' frustrations. (MPR Photo/Tim Pugmire)

Ramona de Rosales spent 30 years working on educational issues with St. Paul's Latino community. She ran an outreach program at the University of St. Thomas the last 10 years to push minority students toward college. Through her association with the National Council of La Raza, a Latino advocacy group, de Rosales gained specialized training to help Spanish-speaking students succeed in the classroom. She tried to share the strategy with the St.Paul school district.

"It just didn't work," said de Rosales. "I mean they just weren't real receptive. The partnership was really difficult to get them to be open, to respond, to see the need for change."

De Rosales and other Latino parents fought for years to ensure their culture and language were part of every St. Paul classroom. The settlement of a 1976 lawsuit brought improvements, but drop out rates remain high and test scores low among Latino students. She says Academia Cesar Chavez, named for the late farm worker's advocate, is the result of parents' frustrations.

"Families needed another option," de Rosales said. "Families were asking for another option and another choice, because the schools that they'd been sending all these years their children to were failing them."

	Autumn Koch's, a former parochial school teacher, says the charter school approach lets her try different ideas in her 5th-grade classroom. (MPR Photo/Tim Pugmire)

The new charter school opened last fall in a former Catholic school on the city's east side. There are 170 students enrolled in kindergarten though fifth grades. Most are from low income families. A recent visit by U.S Education Secretary Rod Paige highlighted the school's innovative approach. Classroom instruction is bilingual, and Latino culture and history are included throughout the curriculum.

Students in Autumn Koch's fifth grade class sit at tables molding clay into various objects. Koch, a former parochial school teacher, says the charter school approach lets her try different ideas in the classroom.

"Right now we're doing a clay project because tomorrow we're going to talk about a book by a woman who does clay, a Pueblo Indian book," Koch said. "And so I'm trying to get them to think about what it would be like to work with clay and things like that. So, in other schools there maybe isn't time for this kind of stuff, to explore this and work with it before they actually read the story and work on the concept."

Academia Cesar Chavez is a public school, but operates independently of the traditional school system. All students are welcome, but the specific focus, not surprisingly, has resulted in a 97-percent Latino enrollment. Amber Martinez, 10, is among those students who've responded favorably to the school's cultural content and the language instruction.

	Amber Martinez, 10, is among those students who've responded favorably to the school's cultural content and the language instruction. "They teach us Spanish, and at home it's really important to me because my dad comes from Mexico and he speaks Spanish to me, and I need to understand it and need to talk back to him in Spanish," Martinez said. (MPR Photo/Tim Pugmire)

"They teach us Spanish, and at home it's really important to me because my dad comes from Mexico and he speaks Spanish to me, and I need to understand it and need to talk back to him in Spanish," Martinez said.

The school is part of a national movement. LaRaza is working with its local affiliates to open up to 50 charter schools within the next five years. Thirty schools are already open. Anthony Colón, vice president of LaRaza's Center for Educational Excellence, says traditional public schools have not always done a good job for Latino students. He says the charter school initiative is an opportunity to show those schools a model for quality instruction.

"It would be foolish of us to think we can break away and do this on our own," Colón said. "It just won't happen. Primarily because the majority of our kids will continue to go to the public school system. So, it behooves us to try to form a very strong partnership with the public school system."

Colón says St. Paul's Academia Cesar Chavez is an example of the type of charter school La Raza wants to see open in other cities across the nation. The national organization has already raised more than $10 million for the project from various foundations.