Chapman to host Fourth Annual Closing the Latino Achievement Gap Summit

Elected officials, school and business leaders and community members will gather at Chapman University on Friday, Sept. 14, for the 4th Annual Closing the Latino Achievement Gap Summit, whose theme this year is
En Colaboracción
:  A Call for United Action.



The daylong collaborative summit is aimed at discussing strategies and solutions to closing the academic gaps that exist between Latino students and the general population.

“The 4th Annual Closing the Latino Achievement Gap Summit is a wonderful opportunity for Orange County and Chapman University to  work together with the Latino community, strengthening existing partnerships and creating new ones, with the goal of improving the educational performance of students,” said Gerri McNenny, associate professor and chair of the summit.

Among the guest speakers will be
Senator Lou Correa
, author, adjunct faculty and
OCWeekly
editor Gustavo Arellano ’01; author and educator
Alma Flor Ada
, a professor emerita at the University of San Francisco; and Mildred García, president of
California State University, Fullerton
. Also lending their support to the summit are honorary chairs
Rep. Loretta Sanchez
and actor
Edward James Olmos
.

In a welcome letter to the summit’s attendees, Sanchez underscored the importance of closing such achievement gaps as being “crucial for America in preparing our next generation of students to compete in a 21st century workforce.”

Last year
a report
released by the U.S. Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) showed that the gap between Hispanic students and white students has changed little in the past two decades.

Attendance at the event is free, but advance online registration is requested. More information is available at the
summit website
.