Policy Symposium

The goal of the Center is to provide public charter school staff with tools and opportunities to work through a process of personal investigation, training, and dynamic exchange of ideas so they in turn can effectively serve their Latino/Chicano students in a culturally relevant manner. In addition, to the technical assistance Luz provides to charter schools, the Center will conduct one invited professional symposium in which experts in the fields of Hispanic school retention, health and prevention services and programs address major policy issues related to instituting cultural competence into the teaching framework of charter schools.

Keynote speaker Dr. Rodolfo F. Acuña has authored hundreds of articles and books on the Chicano experience. Don't miss the opportunity to participate in making policy. If you would like to participate, please contact Anna Burke, (520) 882-6216.

The theme of the symposium is"Latino Cultural Competence in Education Beyond 2003". This topic was chosen because the overwhelming issues impacting Latinos in Education. Some of these challenges include high drop out rates, lack of culturally based curriculums, and lack of culturally competent teachers, to name a few. Luz Social Services, Inc. is currently sponsoring the symposium.

The symposium will have 3 tracks; these tracks are: (1) Administration, Leadership and Policy Issues, (2) Teacher and Curriculum Development, and (3) Community and family Development. The purpose of the symposium is to determine what is the state of cultural competence in teacher training and curriculums in charter schools, what are the gaps in cultural competence in teacher training and curriculums in charter schools, what policy recommendations are needed to establish cultural competence education guidelines for schools, and to develop a cultural competent teacher training model and culturally competent curriculum.

Highlights of the symposium include, keynote speaker the eminent Chicano Historian Dr. Rodolfo F. Acuña, guest speakers John Garcia, Ph.D., professor at the University of Arizona Political Science Department speaking on "Latinos of the Southwest" and Iliana Reyes, Ph.D., professor at the University of Arizona College of Education speaking on "The Educational Status of Latinos in Arizona and the Role of Cultural Competence on Education". In addition there will be two panels, the first panel will be comprised of administrators, teachers, students, and parents who are currently involved in cultural competence at their schools and the second panel will be comprised of elected officials and key policy makers in the field of cultural competence.

Dr. Reyes is currently an assistant professor in the department of Language, Reading and Culture, and affiliate faculty in the Interdisciplinary Graduate Program in Second Language Acquisition and Teaching at the University of Arizona. For her postdoctoral research, she investigated teachers' practices and conceptions about science instruction and literacy development with linguistically and culturally diverse students. She teaches courses on bilingual and multicultural education, qualitative research, language socialization and language acquisition.

The symposium will be held at the beautiful Downtown Radisson City Center on October 9th and 10th, 2003. For more information on the Center for Cultural Competence Education Policy Symposium please contact Anna Burke at 882-6216 or email her at aburke@luzsocialservices.org.