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Saturday, January 02, 2010

Mom's Persistence Helps Sons Excel

By Andrea Schoellkopf
Copyright © 2010 Albuquerque Journal
Journal Staff Writer
          Editor's Note: Lawmakers and education experts have identified the achievement gap between Hispanic and Anglo students as a serious problem that has vexed the state for years. Today, the Journal continues its spotlight on the issue. For previous stories, such as last week's on the low number of Hispanic teachers, go to ABQ journal.com and click on the Education Achievement Gap blog.
        Single mom. Low income. Learning English as a second language.
        Gloria Ramirez knew her boys had three strikes against them before they even set foot in the classroom.
        But Kevin and Dennis Paiz-Ramirez had something else that would help them succeed: their mother's persistence
        "She gave up her whole life for us," said Dennis, now 23 and in his first year of a doctoral program at University of Wisconsin. "... I don't know how to thank her enough for us. I continue to try to do my best, because that's what she taught us to do."
        Both boys attended Ernie Pyle Middle School and went on to become valedictorians at Rio Grande High, where about one-third of students last year were proficient in reading and less than a quarter were mastering math.
        Both boys also won the prestigious Gates Millennium Scholarships for low-income students of color. "Of course, I wanted them to have a better life than I had," said Gloria Ramirez, who grew up in El Salvador but moved to San Francisco to live with her aunts when she was 18 because her mother wanted her to have a better life.
        "They never said you don't go to the university," she said. "But to be able to graduate and be a secretary. Oh boy, that was good."
        Judy Mast, who has been working with gifted South Valley students for 20 years, agreed that Gloria Ramirez is indeed the key to her sons' success.
        "Their mother really had the boys at heart, and she knew what she wanted," Mast said. "What Gloria used to do is make sure they had every benefit they could get."
        Opportunities
        Ramirez pushed for the best her boys' school could offer. While Dennis was placed in the Armijo Elementary gifted program early, Gloria had to fight to get the school to test Kevin, who struggled with language and had to work harder to succeed.
        "Nobody had any high expectations of either one of them," Ramirez sighed.
        In second grade, Kevin was reading at a fifth-grade level. But when he tried to check out a chapter book, he was told he could only check out picture books. Ramirez went to the librarian and got the policy changed.
        Her efforts to get her boys in the gifted program paid off.
        "It's an environment where you have a choice to see where you can go," said Kevin, who is now 21 and studying marine biology and theology at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles.
        Typically, with the South Valley's best and brightest, there is at least one parent advocating for the child, keeping track of grades and making sure he or she is in school every day.
        Mast described Ramirez as a "parent that follows them through their education and doesn't let go of them just because they go into middle school and high school, making sure they got the best that they could get."
        Since then, Albuquerque Public Schools has targeted both Ernie Pyle and Rio Grande for a redesign that includes new principals and other changes that seek to improve student achievement.
        Involvement
        Ramirez married at 24, but found herself supporting her husband and two babies and then returning to her husband's home in Guatemala so he could go to college. Hungry and with no one providing food, she left and eventually moved to Albuquerque to help her sister run a restaurant.
        When the business failed and her sister moved, Ramirez found herself alone with her two boys.
        "I was scared to death," said Ramirez, who had become a permanent resident.
        Her eldest, Dennis, started school as a monolingual Spanish speaker at Armijo Elementary, and younger brother Kevin was in Head Start. Ramirez found work as an educational assistant at the school, and later as a community liaison — jobs in which she could have the same hours as her children and summers off to visit the library, zoo and aquarium.
        "We would learn together," Ramirez said. "If I didn't know (an answer), let's look it up."
        When Ninja Turtles were popular, she found them books about Ninja Turtles. When Dennis giggled over Garfield cartoons, she found Garfield books for him to read.
        "I always read to them," she said. "I liked to read. ... My mom didn't have enough time to read to me."
        She never told the boys to do something "because I said so," realizing they needed to understand outcomes in order to make better decisions themselves.
        At Ernie Pyle Middle School, Ramirez had to step up the fight to get Dennis bused to Rio Grande for math class when Ernie Pyle officials said they had no higher-level classes for him.
        "I cannot stress enough the parent involvement," she said. "You get what you put in."
        Expectations
        When Kevin was diagnosed with celiac disease, a digestive disorder, Gloria took a job with a medical lab company to help meet the expenses, as well as to pay for the special gluten-free diet he needed.
        That meant the boys needed a place to go after school. They started out walking to the Westside Community Center on Isleta. Eventually, Intel opened a computer clubhouse next door, where Dennis created his first video game and fostered a love of educational software. The program got him a trip to Boston with the Intel Teen Technology Program, and he was featured in a New York Times article.
        The boys said the bar was set very low around them, as classmates dealt with pregnancy, drugs and gang involvement. Kevin tried to follow his brother's lead.
        "There were a lot of classes where things were working against us," Dennis said. "There weren't very high expectations. And when there aren't high expectations for the students, it's kind of difficult to rise above what you're asked to do. That's where the support of my mom came from. We had to look inside ourselves to get more out of the program."
        He said he's taken the same tack in college to succeed, despite advisers and other students telling him not to take so many classes. He finished his degree from UNM in four years magna cum laude, then finished his master's in a year at Stanford University learning design technology. He graduated summa cum laude and is now at the University of Wisconsin.
        When he graduates, Dennis wants to come back to Albuquerque and send the next family member to college: Gloria, who has always wanted to become a teacher.
        "I've been encouraging her to take classes at CNM and other places," he said.
        Tips for parents
        • Emphasize the value of education, because your children are listening. If the importance of education is instilled early, your children will know you expect them to graduate.
        • Provide moral encouragement and emotional support. You may not be able to help your children with homework or college applications, but they will appreciate your backing.
        • Provide your children with a quiet place to study. If your family lives in a one-bedroom apartment, monitor the noise level of other family members or assign the bedroom as the study room.
        • Express pride in their work. Celebrate their achievements, no matter how small they may seem. For instance, if your child did not get a good grade on a spelling test one week, celebrate the passing grade the following week.
        • Keep an eye on your children's schoolwork, attendance and activities. Latino adolescents who perceive their parents as "keeping an eye on them" have been found to be more likely to succeed in school.
        • Become more involved in school activities. Many schools have programs specifically targeted to promote the involvement of ethnic minority parents.
        Source: www.education.com; Mayra A. Bámaca, assistant professor of Human Development and Family Studies, Pennsylvania State University.
       

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