(upbeat music) ♪ Hey hey ♪ Hey hey hey ♪ Hey hey - Hello and welcome to "Horizonte."

A show that takes a look at current issues through a Hispanic lens.

I'm your host, Catherine Anaya.

ALL In Education, a non-profit organization dedicated to closing the gap on education and inequities among Arizona Latino youth recently held its 2025 MAPA Summit, where it unveiled its annual MAPA Report.

It's a report that measures and analyzes the state of Latino education, power, and influence.

- If you're not in school, you're not learning, okay?

And so having our kids attend school regularly addressing this chronic absenteeism issue is critical going forward.

- Joining me now to talk more about the results of the MAPA Report is ALL In Education Chief Executive Officer, Stephanie Parra.

Always good to see you, Stephanie.

- So good to see you.

- Thank you.

- Thank you for having me.

- Congratulations on five years of ALL In Education.

- Thank you.

- What a success, especially with the MAPA Summit.

- Yes, it was a wonderful event.

Thank you for joining us.

It was beautiful.

- It was very exciting to have so many supporters in one room together.

Before we discuss the MAPA Report, can you explain the mission of ALL In Education, and some of the opportunities that you've been able to create the last five years?

- Yeah, so we exist to ensure that the individuals that are impacted by the inequities in the education system truly have a voice and a seat in decision-making.

And in Arizona, the large population here is Latino students and families.

And so we are working to ensure that representation of the Latino community exists from the classroom to the boardroom, and at every level of the system.

And so our work over the last five years has been to build the capacity, the leadership capacity of the Arizona Latino community, from parents and caregivers, to emerging and established leaders.

And we've been very excited about the growth of our programs, and the impact that they're having.

- Yes, it takes a village, for sure.

So let's dive into the report, the MAPA Report.

What is the purpose of it for people who don't know, and what do you exactly track?

- Yeah, so we're looking at some key educational attainment factors.

So third grade reading, eighth grade math scores.

And then we're also looking at the representation of our Latino community in the education sector.

So those are our key indicators for the report.

Unfortunately, the data over the last five years has been pretty stagnant when it comes to literacy and math rates.

This year we unveiled that Latinos are attaining at 30% in literacy, and at 18% in math.

And so the scores are really low for Latinos, but I will also point out that we're seeing low scores across the board.

And so we have a lot of work to do to increase the literacy proficiency rates of all students in Arizona.

- How much is poverty tied to some of the results that you're seeing with math and proficiency?

- Yeah, so you look at in our report we do disaggregate the data to include economically disadvantaged students, there's a very close correlation, a very close line with students of color.

Latino, Black, Indigenous young people are closely linked to the economically disadvantaged.

And so we know, a couple of years ago we included what we call the social determinants of education into our MAPA Report.

So these are the factors that exist outside of the classroom that impact attainment, and poverty was the number one on the list of, you know, poverty, housing, food security.

It was poverty that was really closely linked to the educational attainment of students.

And so when we think about advocacy, if I'm an education advocate, one of the things we started saying, if I'm an education advocate, I have to ensure that I'm also addressing the poverty issues that are impacting our students.

- And as you mentioned, it is the major factor, but there are a lot of factors.

Are the numbers that we're seeing unique to Arizona?

- No, unfortunately.

We just saw new data come out nationally.

Our proficiency across the country is at an all-time low post-pandemic and declining.

And so we have a lot of work to do when it comes to addressing increased academic achievement for students, not just in Arizona, but all over the United States.

- One of the, I think, important points for the MAPA Summit this year was the fact that I looked at it as a theme of this year's summit.

It focused on the power of multilingualism, and the critical role that it has in the state's future workforce, education workforce.

What does Arizona need to do to better leverage that power that we talked about?

- Yeah, so we wanted to place an emphasis on multilingual learners this year certainly as the core theme of the MAPA Report, because the reality is that they are attaining.

So I mentioned that Latinos are at 30% and 18%.

English learners in Arizona are at six and 4%.

- [Catherine] Wow.

- And so there's an even bigger gap in academic achievement for multilingual students.

And what we really wanted to do this year is kind of flip the narrative from a deficit-based perspective on English learners to a more asset-based.

If we invest in these students, if we develop their talents and their leadership, they are the future workforce that we need.

Multilingualism in Arizona is a critical component of healthcare, education, and tourism.

And it generates a ton of revenue for the state.

A multilingual workforce generates a ton of revenue in trade, and in our local economy.

And so the more that we can focus on cultivating our young people learning more than one language.

The other thing is, is that it's not just about the dichotomy between English and Spanish, Arizona, there are actually over 90 languages spoken in our communities.

- [Catherine] It's amazing.

- It's incredible.

We have this rich diversity of language that we really wanna uplift and celebrate.

- When we're talking about education, how important is representation not just in the classroom, but on the school boards, and beyond?

- It's incredibly important.

So there is a lot of research linked to a teacher diversity, increasing academic achievement, not just of students of color, but of all students.

And so in Arizona, that is as one of the key indicators in the MAPA Report, 48% of our students are Latino.

We were actually excited to see an increase.

In our 2020 report, the State Boards of Education were 13% Latino, and this year we reported they are 27% Latino.

So in the last five years, there's been a significant growth in representation at the state level, and we're very excited to see that.

Unfortunately, though, in the classroom, and at the school level, the teaching workforce is still at 18%, which has remained stagnant.

In the administrative workforce, school principals and school leaders is also at 18%, which is a slight decline from last year where we were at 19% in administrators.

So, you know, again, because it is so closely tied to academic achievement, we want to see these numbers grow.

- Well, I love that you also talked about some of the programs, the leadership programs that you provide with ALL In Education.

And you have built this alumni network of more than 800 alumni in five years, which is incredible.

A lot of these folks are parents and caregivers, and I loved that you talked about what a difference they can make.

Can you tell me about that?

You called it untapped talent that you've described, and how they can influence increasing that educator workforce.

- Yeah, so, you know, the more that we get to work with parent alumni that are coming out of our parent educator academy, we're really seeing the leadership and the talent that is so rich in our communities.

And so being able to continue to invest in them as rising leaders, and true partners in increasing educational attainment of students has been critical over the last five years.

And now, you know, we've seen kind of, it happened almost organically and on its own, where our parents are graduating incredibly motivated to do more for themselves and their families.

They're actually re-skilling and reentering the workforce.

Some of them are going back to school, and maybe they're starting places getting that GED, or going back to college.

Some are signing up for English classes.

And the group that I'm really excited about are the ones that are becoming educators.

- [Catherine] Yes.

- They are pursuing.

So we have a librarian, you have classroom aides.

- And these are people who've been entrenched in the community for a long time.

- A very long time, exactly.

And that's such a great point because when you look at educator retention and recruitment, teachers are turning over one to two, every one to two years.

Administrators every two to three years.

School board members four to eight, but parents and families are there for over 18 years.

And so we want to invest in them, our alumni, to be the future education workforce.

- Well, as we discussed, it does take a village and there is power in numbers.

So when you're talking to the community at large, what can we collectively do to improve the numbers, the education workforce, you know, what can we be doing out in the community to make a difference?

- Yeah.

It definitely takes a village.

We at ALL In Education are doing our part, but we certainly can't do it alone.

We're always looking for folks to partner with.

As we started off with talking about these social factors, so having the expectation that schools be everything, and solve poverty while they're attempting to educate kids is an impossible ask.

And so we would love to see our community partners really wrap their arms around our school community, around our families, to provide the support that they need to be successful.

And if folks wanna get involved with our organization, our leadership programs are also for emerging and established leaders in the community who want to do more and really be advocates.

It's gonna take all of us.

- Yes, mentorship makes a big difference.

- Absolutely.

- And if people are interested in reading the report, it is on the website, correct?

- On the website.

allineducation.org/mapa.

- Stephanie, always good to see you.

Thank you so much, and congratulations on five years.

- Thank you so much for having me.

- Yes, much continued success.

- [Stephanie] Thank you.

- That's our show.

For "Horizonte" and Arizona PBS, I'm Catherine Anaya.

We'll see you next time.

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