When Isabella Stinnett wants her 7-year-old son, Leo, to study, she takes him to the park, and before he can soar on the swings, he has to dive into his homework.
Stinnett, born in Peru, even brings a timer like the one she saw in his second-grade class at Ashley Elementary School. She sets it to train Leo to work more quickly.
Her goal was to help her Spanish-speaking child excel in English and class.
It wasn’t until she went to a parent workshop Tuesday that she realized she was also preparing him to succeed on the Colorado Student Assessment Program tests that he’ll take next year.
Stinnett and 24 other Hispanic mothers met in Ashley Elementary’s library to learn how the American school system works and how they can help their children cope with cultural barriers and perform well on exams such as the CSAPs.
“Parent involvement is the key to children’s success,” said Ivonne Cuevas-Torres, bilingual counselor with KidSuccess, an outreach program sponsored by the Jewish Family Service of Colorado. Cuevas-Torres, who ran the workshop, offers counseling at Ashley and two other Denver public elementary schools.
Ashley, which is 71 percent Hispanic, has struggled to do better on CSAPs and other tests. Its scores have improved over the years from 1998, for example, when only 11 percent of Ashley’s third-graders were proficient or advanced in reading.
When parents know what the test is about, they are less anxious and can help their children prepare, Cuevas-Torres said.
“These are people coming from places of few opportunities,” she said. Many “don’t have a model of a parent graduating from a university or even high school.”
Cuevas-Torres can relate because she grew up in Mexico and her parents only finished the sixth grade. But good grades and a strong mentor at school helped her get a scholarship. The idea of achieving was drilled into her by people who cared about her.
“Even when they haven’t been to school, they can still encourage their kids,” Cuevas-Torres said. “If I can train parents to be the kids’ best coaches, I know (the kids) can make it.”
Cuevas-Torres and her workshops have been enormously helpful to Spanish-speaking parents, said Ashley principal Kenneth Hulslander.
Hulslander said the CSAP is always a struggle for children who are learning English because they find the questions complex. “I want (the kids) to do well, not for the state or district, but for themselves,” Hulslander said.
Staff writer Julianne Bentley can be reached at jbentley@denverpost.com.
How Ashley compares
Ashley Elementary School profile
Enrollment: 373
Grades: Pre-kindergarten through fifth
2004-05 student population:
Hispanic: 71 percent
African-American: 20 percent
White: 8 percent
Asian: 1 percent
Native American: less than 1 percent
English-language learners: (Spanish) 59 percent
Students receiving free or reduced lunch: 86 percent
Overall academic performance on state assessments: low
Third-grade reading for Hispanics: 36 percent proficient
Denver Public Schools:
Third-grade reading for Hispanics: 42.4 percent proficient
Statewide:
English-language learners (Spanish): 14 percent
Third-grade reading for Hispanics: 53 percent proficient
Source: Colorado Department of Education
