Designing schools for Hispanic learners

John Morefield has said, “I have come to believe that a school designed to work for children of color will work for White children. The reverse, however is not true. Consequently, if we design schools to work for children of color, they will work for all children.”

The trick is to learn and understand what does work for children of color and for this blog, specifically what works for Hispanic students. We obviously know what isn’t working. Patricia Gándara says in her book, Over the Ivy Walls:

Our increased understanding of the factors that lead to failure has not appreciably diminished the rate of failure. Perhaps a better understanding of what leads to academic success will yield more fruitful outcomes…an important element missing from most research has been the insights which can be gained from an understanding of how students who don’t fail, in spite of adverse circumstances, manage to escape that fate (pp. xii, 9).

What we will explore and share on this blog is what we can learn from a variety of research sources as to what works for Hispanic learners.