PROJECT SYNOPSIS

The focus of the Soluciones Education Campaign is to address the concerns of Hispanic Ohioans as it relates to education, especially regarding the biggest challenges for Latino students - including English-language acquisition, the academic achievement gap, high school drop-out rates, and access to post-secondary education opportunities.

The current work of the Ohio Latino Affairs Commission in the area of education began in 2001 with its work on the seminal report on the status of Latino students in K-12.  The Soluciones Education Campaign formally began in 2005, and additional research can be found in the OLAnet Reports Library & Database in the Community Issue Brief on Education.

For the current 2008-2009 biennium (July 2007 through June 2009) the campaign is back in an information-gathering mode, with a series of Education Mini-Conferences during autumn 2008. 

During the mini-conferences, expectations include: 

• Conduct a conversation with local Latino leaders and community representatives on the status of issues affecting Latinos’ education in the area. The conversations are designed to address the pressing issues on education, provide the Office of Latino Affairs with up to date information that can be used to advice policy makers and others in order to build greater awareness and understanding of the issues faced in the area of education.  
• Re-visit identified solutions and consider possible new alternatives to improving the state of Latino education in each community.  This includes identifying local partnerships and resources to increase the spirit of collaboration among the different groups (community leaders, parents, educators, administrators, policy makers, etc.)  
• Continue building the distributed leadership model initiated during the Soluciones Conference of 2006. Strengthening the distributed leadership model will help to ensure that plans and solutions are built around the particular needs of each community.

UPDATE - 27 October 2008

Six out of the eight mini-conferences have taken place in Columbus, Youngstown, Cleveland, Lorain, Cincinnati and Dayton.  Notes from the conferences can be found here.

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As a part of the Commission's Strategic Initiatives for the 2008-2009 biennium, the Soluciones education campaign is an initiative under the leadership of the Education (EDU) committee of the Board of Commissioners.

Additional updates will be available on this web page.

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