Nearly 500 participants in the statewide Parent Mentor Program
“graduated” Tuesday morning, as they successfully completed at least
one semester of assisting teachers and students in the classroom.
The event marks the first parent mentor graduation since the program expanded across Illinois
last spring. From 28 schools last year, to 59 today, trained parents
are incorporated into more than 400 classrooms statewide, from Moline to
Aurora.
Attendees, numbering roughly 700, also celebrated
the reallocation of a $1 million grant from the Illinois State Board of
Education (ISBE).
The event was hosted at Charles Darwin Elementary School — which had 18 parents graduate — on Chicago’s Northwest Side in Logan Square.
“Many
moms, especially immigrant moms like myself, they don’t know how to
approach the school, but the Parent Mentor Program opens the doors of
the school and they are more likely to bridge some of the barriers they
might face in every day life,” said Leticia Barrera, 40, education
organizer for the Logan Square Neighborhood Association (LSNA). Read more »
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