Group Tries To Help Latino Students State Hispanic Student Numbers Increase 115 Percent In 10 Years

A nonprofit organization has been formed to help improve the education of Washington’s growing Hispanic population.

Educators and Hispanic leaders say they created the Latino Educational Achievement Project to boost awareness about the abilities and needs of Hispanic students and their families.

The group, known as LEAP, also seeks to improve teaching methods and services provided to all Hispanic and monolingual students who cannot speak English.

Providing monolingual students skills tests in Spanish would enable them to show their abilities before they make the transformation to English, executive director Ricardo Sanchez said.

“We’re not just here to say we’re over 300,000 (Hispanics statewide) and you owe us something,” said Sanchez, who served as executive assistant to Judith Billings during her two terms as state superintendent of public instruction. “We want to be partners with school districts, and we have to work at it because nothing good comes easy.”

Last week, LEAP officials met with about 40 educators from the Pasco School District to discuss the future of Hispanic students there.

“Achievement levels of Latino students, and other students who are heavily impacted by poverty, no matter what race, are low - along with incomes of their parents,” Pasco School Superintendent George Murdock said in a statement.

State figures show the Hispanic student population in Washington’s public schools increased by 115 percent from 1986 to 1996, with the largest increases in the Wenatchee, Yakima, Pasco, Tacoma and Seattle school districts.

Hispanic students drop out at much higher rates than non-Hispanic whites and blacks, Sanchez said.

“Why are our kids struggling to learn?” he asked. “They are not getting the kind of instruction they deserve, and I don’t think developing new standards will do the trick.”