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Course Teaches Parents to Push Kids to Achieve Academy Encourages College Emphasis

Posted on: Wednesday, 15 February 2006, 00:00 CST

By Kerry Cavanaugh\ Staff Writer

SUN VALLEY - Hoping to create a community where parents prize education and children are on the college track, Fernangeles Elementary School teamed up with Los Angeles nonprofit One-LA to offer parents a four-week crash course in academic achievement.

Early Saturday morning, while the neighborhood around Fernangeles was still asleep, some 20 parents gathered in the school's auditorium over coffee, pastries and cut vegetables for the achievement academy's second session.

What's the difference between desire and expectation, academy leader Joaquin Sanchez asked the parents. It's action.

And that's one of the key lessons of the academy, school officials said.

"The parents want their child to do well, they want their child to go to college, but they think it's like winning the lottery," said Maria Sesma Sooy, an outreach consultant with Fernangeles.

"We're trying to get more parents in the know with the relationships and skills it takes to get a child to college."

Fernangeles is the first school in the San Fernando Valley to hold an Achievement Academy, but One-LA and the Los Angeles Unified School District offered the workshop to parents at 11 Boyle Heights Schools last year.

The project enlists parents to help raise student performance, cut the drop-out rate and increase the number of students from low- income, minority communities who go to college.

The reality now is grim: Of 30 children in a typical Fernangeles class, 14 will drop out before high school graduation. Four will go to college and only one will graduate from college.

The son of immigrant parents, Sanchez graduated from University of California at Berkeley, and he attributes his success to high expectations.

His parents owned a piano-refurbishing shop and from a young age they introduced every customer to their son, Joaquin, who was going to college. Soon, folks were always asking him about his plans for the future.

"Expectations occur when a lot of adults ask you about your education, and I realized that was missing in a lot of places in Los Angeles," Sanchez said.

The parents' homework for the week was to talk to nine adults - three relatives, three neighbors and three fellow parents - and encourage them to ask the parents' children about their education, their favorite subject and what they want to study in college.

Marisela Soto said she found the academy helpful as she prepares her five children for the future.

"I want the best for my children. We can do this together. I want them to decide for themselves what they want and I can support them."

Rita Sanchez has lived in Sun Valley for 45 years and she believes the community would improve if parents put a higher priority on education.

Inspired by the Achievement Academy, the grandmother has begun talking to her fourth-grade granddaughter about what she's learning in school.

"We try to encourage her. She knows she has to continue her education to go where she wants to go."

Kerry Cavanaugh, (818) 713-3746

kerry.cavanaugh(at)dailynews.com

Source: Daily News; Los Angeles, Calif.

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