RISE - Elevating Parent and Student Voice

As a leader of the Bhutanese Nepali immigrant community in Aurora Colo., Lagan Rai was dismayed when he heard in July that the inner-ring suburban school district would start the 2020-21 school year with at least eight weeks of remote learning. During the final three months of the previous school year, the 40,000-student district had been forced into remote learning by the explosion of the COVID-19 pandemic. Those months had been largely a waste of time for Rai’s two elementary school-aged children, and many of the other 280 Bhutanese Nepali students and their families with whom he works.

Obama Foundation - Face to Face with the Fellows

Decades ago, two women—one in Colorado and one in the Philippines—overcame obstacles to seek an education. That decision changed the trajectory of their lives and those of their families for generations. Today, their granddaughters are fighting to give every child in their communities the same choice for a quality education. It started with their grandparents. In Colorado, Veronica Crespin-Palmer’s grandmother overcame overwhelming obstacles to earn her GED and pursue advanced degrees. On the other side of the world in the Philippines, Clarissa Delgado’s grandmother had her medical studies interrupted by World War II, but still found a way to both fight for her country and complete her medical degree. In both cases, their pursuit of an education helped set their families on a course for a better life for decades to come.

The Coronavirus Exposed Colorado’s Racial Inequities in Health Care. Community Health Centers Are Trying to Help

In April, Dr. Abbey Lara worked her first shift treating pulmonary and critical care patients in the COVID-19 section of the ICU ward at University of Colorado Hospital in Aurora. She counted 16 patients: two African American patients, one Filipino patient and 13 Latino patients. “It was incredibly striking,” said Lara, the daughter of migrants from Mexico. She didn’t have a single white patient that week. “That was a personal ‘aha’ moment for me.”

Cultivating postsecondary aspirations in immigrant and refugee families through community education, engagement, and empowerment

Community-based and participatory action research partnerships between community organizations and postsecondary institutions offer powerful possibilities for expanding educational opportunity, capacity building, and social change. When family members of the local community are included in such partnerships, opportunities for equity-focused transformation becomes even greater. The purpose of this article is to describe a community partnership between the University of Denver and RISE Colorado, including family members from local Burmese, Nepali, and Spanish-speaking immigrant and refugee communities. We offer an overview of the methodology, process, and purpose of the research partnership, highlighting the importance of collaborating with and centering community knowledge and cultural ways of knowing among refugee communities.

SACPIE Best Practice Highlight by CDE

A collection of initiatives from districts and schools about working with families and community partners for student learning.

homework Campaign:

Homework for preschoolers? Aurora parents make the case

A group of preschool parents from Aurora Public Schools made a surprising request last spring. They asked administrators to give their 3- and 4-year-olds homework. More specifically, they asked for a year-round homework calendar detailing things they should be working on at home with their kids — not hours of pencil-and-paper work, but rather daily activities with an educational twist. They also asked the district’s Colorado Preschool Program Advisory Council to add a section on homework to the parent handbook.

Resolution Campaign:

Aurora school board approves resolution to protect immigrant students, though some raise questions

The Aurora school board unanimously approved a resolution Tuesday aimed at helping immigrant students feel safer, but not before fault lines emerged over its title and intent. The board debated whether the resolution supported all students or just some, and one board member suggested immigrants in other parts of the country were making people feel unsafe. The resolution, proposed and written by a group of parents and community members, largely reaffirms district policies for dealing with federal immigration enforcement actions.

Parents, students press Aurora school district to pass resolution assuring safety of immigrant students

As a mother of four U.S.-born schoolchildren, but being in the country illegally herself, Arely worries that immigration agents might pick her up while she is taking her kids to school one day. But what worries her more is that her children could be picking up on her fears — and that it might hurt their focus in school. She’s also concerned for those immigrant students who could be at risk for deportation.

PERRY: Immigrants fighting fear with fire to protect children, families in Aurora schools

Immigration is becoming synonymous with fear in Aurora. It’s not just Aurora. Illegal immigrants across the region and the country make it clear that almost the very day after President Donald Trump was elected, their tenuous world in the United States started becoming scarier. A group of about 50 documented and very legal immigrants and their friends and families filled the Aurora Public Schools board room Tuesday night to talk about how fear and immigration — legal or otherwise — seem to go hand in hand in a country built on immigration.

Language Equity Campaign:

Aurora school board approves resolution to protect immigrant students, though some raise questions

The Aurora school board unanimously approved a resolution Tuesday aimed at helping immigrant students feel safer, but not before fault lines emerged over its title and intent. The board debated whether the resolution supported all students or just some, and one board member suggested immigrants in other parts of the country were making people feel unsafe.

Alianza empodera a familias multilingües de APS

Aurora Public Schools y la organización RISE Colorado celebraron una asociación de varios años para empoderar a las familias multilingües en Aurora.Recientemente, las Escuelas Públicas de Aurora centralizaron los servicios de idiomas en el departamento de comunicación del distrito, lo que esto permitirá al distrito brindar un mejor apoyo a las escuelas para satisfacer las diversas necesidades lingüísticas de las familias de APS.

We shouldn’t be surprised by the power of parents

Just as women led the suffrage movement, Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta led the farm workers and Dr. King and African Americans led the fight for civil rights, low income families and families of color are leading a revolution to eradicate educational inequity in Aurora. Less than a year ago they initiated the battle for language equity—and this year, they’re winning.