Interstate High School Requirements Meeting

People from Texas, Florida, Michigan, New Mexico and Mexico met for the first time at the McAllen School Independent School District Facilities Center on July 2 and 3 of 1997 to present the graduation requirements for each of these states and Mexico. Maria Luisa Garcia, coordinator for grants and proposals for McAllen Independent Schools in Texas provided the meeting room for the group of more than 15 people. The meeting was an idea of Dr. Edgar Leon- Consultant for the Michigan Department of Education based on the feedback from many parents and teachers.

All states presented not only the new requirements for graduation but also the proficiency tests required in order to get a diploma. Among the people present in this meeting were Prof. Victor Perez - Michigan, Eula Tarantino-Michigan, Carla Wilson-Florida, Ociel Wences-Reynosa,Mexico; Arnaldo Alvares-Reynosa,Mexico; J. Cesar Durand - Reynosa,Mexico; Dora Rivera - New Mexico; Maria Teresa Milan - Mission, Texas; Lydia Ortiz-McAllen,Texas; Dr. Edgar Leon- Michigan Department of Education, Manuel Aleman, Reynosa-Mexico; Blanca Olaguibel, McAllen,Texas; Elena de Los Santos Mycue, McAllen, Texas; Maria C. Austin, McAllen, Texas; Maria Luisa Garcia, McAllen, Texas; Consuelo Santos, McAllen,Texas; and Tomas Yanes, Pharr,Texas; It is the first time in 20 years that there is an activity of this magnitude.

The results of this meeting will not only benefit the students and parents but also will provide a vehicle of information for regular year school counselors and teachers. Delegates for I.N.E.A. , Mexico also pleaded for the need for adult education and literacy programs for migrant parents. The parent from New Mexico, Dora Rivera, also stated that "the results of this meeting will be very valuable because it will give parents a direction to take. Sometimes the materials provided by school districts are too complicated and are not directed to migrant parents but only to local parents".

As part of this meeting the teachers from Reynosa, Mexico the need for more information from the receiving states. Professor Manuel Aleman - Director of the Binational Program, Reynosa, Mexico said that " special programs are ready for all the students who are being deported and who know very little Spanish. These special schools started this summer due to the immigration laws in the USA.

The results of the meeting will be a course and credit graduation requirements table for all participating states and Mexico. A new curriculum for human development was also presented.

It was said by the Mexican teachers that the class sizes in Mexico are 50 students per class. They also have a national curriculum which every school follows by law. The main difference is the primaria and secundaria. The secundaria is almost equivalent to our high school. But the high school courses are taught in seventh, eighth and ninth grade. The preparatoria is composed of college pre courses. When students come out of secundaria they are also ready to work in any technical field of their choice or go to college.

Finally, the idea of creating an interstate credit accrual and clearing house was discussed. The idea is to have the states of Michigan, Texas and Florida share the responsibilities for consolidating credits and helping students with high school credit requirements. The other responsibility would be to have all state proficiency tests available for the benefit of all migrant students. It was proposed by the group that Texas should prepare a video tape about the TAAS test. This will save a lot of money and will have the same repetitive information for all states. It was suggested that the video is to be presented in all public cable channels during the summer for the benefit of all migrant children.

It was also proposed that Texas should give Michigan 10 copies of the project SMART video tape sets so that the students from Texas can continue their education while studying in Michigan.