Thread: Midlands Voices: OPS needs diversity focus Omaha NE

Midlands Voices: OPS needs diversity focus

By Carolina Quezada

The writer, of Omaha, is executive director of the Latino Center of the Midlands.

With an increasing change in the city's racial and ethnic makeup, Omaha's next school superintendent must focus on incorporating the diversity of its students, families and staff into an overall strategy for academic success.

An important aspect to ensuring an excellent educational experience for all involves the acknowledgement that the student body has significantly changed over the years; so has the make-up of parents and families in the district.

As the search to replace Dr. John Mackiel is underway, we wish to express our support for a process whose ultimate outcome is to identify a superintendent who will ensure that all children attain the highest quality of educational instruction and experience. Dr. Mackiel has laid the foundation for all students to succeed academically, and we are hopeful that the next superintendent will build upon that foundation.

As such, we recommend that the Omaha school board take the following into consideration when selecting the next superintendent:

>> Proven success in increasing parental engagement, in particular immigrant parents. This is particularly important for parents whose first language is not English and who are acclimating culturally to their new environs.

>> Experience in implementing recruitment and hiring practices of ethnically diverse faculty and staff to reflect the cultural, linguistic and socioeconomic diversity of our communities.

>> Demonstrated ability to work collaboratively with community agencies that provide academic support services and a proven capacity to form partnerships that are aligned to the district's strategic goals.

It is our purpose to support initiatives that promote the self-sufficiency of Latino families in this region. The attainment of educational goals is an indicator of improved quality of life and self-sufficiency for families. Acknowledging and embracing diversity demonstrates that we are working to prepare the future citizens and work force of a region that is quickly becoming global in nature.

We trust that the Omaha Board of Education will consider all of the recommendations set forth by all community partners and that it will do an excellent job in identifying the most suitable candidate.

http://www.omaha.com/article/20111030/N ... /710309999

Experience in implementing recruitment and hiring practices of ethnically diverse faculty and staff to reflect the cultural, linguistic and socioeconomic diversity of our communities.

It is our purpose to support initiatives that promote the self-sufficiency of Latino families in this region. The attainment of educational goals is an indicator of improved quality of life and self-sufficiency for families. Acknowledging and embracing diversity demonstrates that we are working to prepare the future citizens and work force of a region that is quickly becoming global in nature.

Can someone explain to me where the diversity is in this article? Doesn't "diversity" mean a variety, different? All I see is the writer talking about ONE segment of the population, how is that diverse?

Hiring more latino teachers in a heavily latino "community" is not diverse, it is the exact opposite.