New survey of Latino teens and young adults shows attitudes toward school and work + a day-long conference on Latino youth and education on Oct. 6, 2009

Education Writers Association, The Pew Hispanic Center and the National Panel , education researchers are collaborating on a day-long conference on Latino youth and education on Oct. 6 at the Pew Hispanic Center in Washington, DC.

The Pew Hispanic Center will release preliminary findings from a survey of Latino teens and young adults about their attitudes toward high school and whether they plan to go to college or to work. Another panel will examine new federal policy toward Latino education.

Featured speakers are Juan Sepulveda, executive director of the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for Hispanic Americans; Veronica Garcia, New Mexico secretary of education.

In addition, many prominent researchers including Mark Lopez and Richard Fry of the Pew Hispanic Center and professors Eugene Garcia of Arizona State University, Cynthia Garcia Coll of Brown University, Carola Suarez-Orozco of New York University, Andrew Fuligni of University of California at Los Angeles and Bruce Fuller of University of California – Berkeley. Los Angeles school board member Yolie Flores Aguilar will address needed community responses to Latino children and youth.

Journalists Claudio Sanchez of NPR, Linda Lutton of WBEZ, and Jenny Medina of the New York Times will discuss coverage of Latino students and whether journalists resort to stereotypes and myths.

The conference will bring together policymakers, journalists and academics to explore issues around the schooling of Latino children, and will look at the cultural strengths Latino children bring to school and whether educators use those strengths to their full advantage, the attitudes of Latino youth toward education, and the coverage of Latino education issues by journalists.

It is open to journalists, researchers and those interested in the Latino community. Here is a link to the agenda. Non-journalists can register here. Reporters register separately and journalists can also apply for a fellowship stipend to pay for travel.

The meeting is sponsored by The New Journalism on Latino Children project which offers a fresh perspective on reporting and research on Latino families and schools.

It is a collaboration between the National Education Writers Association (EWA), based in Washington, D.C. and the National Panel on Latino Children and Schooling, based at Berkeley’s Institute of Human Development. You can see our special section on the issues, with emphasis on the latest research.

The project has two reports on Latino students, one focusing on high school and the other on positive attributes Latino students bring to school. A third will be available at the conference on issues affecting Latino children in early childhood programs, including Head Start and Early Head Start.

For more information, contact Education Writers Association (www.ewa.org), the national network of reporters and editors covering education. 202 452 9830 – 2122 P Street N.W. #201, Washington, D.C. 20037.
CONTACT:
202 452 9830
Lori Crouch, lcrouch@ewa.org
Lisa Walker, lwalker@ewa.org
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