Helping Hispanic Students Prepare to Lead in Business

The Importance of Family Support

Many Latino families with a stay-at-home parent don’t understand why it’s important to invest in preschool for their children. Preschool exposes children to the language, vocabulary and literature that are vital to success in elementary, middle and high school as well as beyond.

“When our students enter kindergarten and they haven’t been in school they are already so far behind their peers. It’s not because they only speak Spanish, it’s the exposure they’ve had to different vocabulary, whether it’s in their first language or whether it’s in English,” she says.

It’s also a common misconception among non-native English speakers that once their children start school they should only be speaking English at home because that will help them in school. That’s not the case, according to Espinosa. “The more developed their Spanish is—the more developed whatever their first language is—the easier it will be to transfer that into English,” she explains.

“Once they’re in school, they’re only doing work in English, at home having higher-level conversations and reading to them in their first language is really important. And that’s something we try to talk to parents about. We have workshops about it because it is a really common misconception that parents can’t help their children in school because they can’t speak the language.”

Mapping out a long-range plan with students is also vital. For instance, if the ultimate goal is for a student to attend a college or university, the school and parents need to come together and determine what levels the student should be achieving in elementary school and what classes the student should be taking in middle school to get them prepared for the advanced placement classes in high school.