At our Board of Trustees Meeting held on March 16, our Student Board Member, Xitlalic Palacios, a senior at Rosemead High School, presented the Board of Trustees with a recent article she wrote titled, “The Achievement Gap at RHS: Are We, as a School Community, Doing Enough?”. Xitlalic is the Editor-in-Chief for “The Panther Post”, the school’s newspaper, where the article was recently featured. Xitlalic writes about her personal experiences with the school’s Advanced Placement (AP) program to raise awareness of the underrepresentation of Hispanic students enrolled in the majority of AP courses offered when compared to Asian American students. In 2014, El Monte Union HSD was named the College Board Advanced Placement Equity and Excellence District of the Year for being the nation's leader, among medium-sized school districts, in simultaneously expanding access to Advanced Placement Program (AP) courses and improving AP Exam performance. Although we are proud of the recent achievements with our District’s AP program, patterns of disproportionality in AP access and enrollment for Hispanic students, who comprise 78% of the district’s student population, are evident. Xitlalic’s story emphasizes the importance of understanding the impact educators have on students every day. Students rise to the level of expectations we have of them, even in the most challenging learning environments. As a District, we strive to work alongside our school community to improve systems of support and recruitment for our Hispanic students and families interested in AP courses. As a school community, we must work to remove existing systemic barriers and reduce the achievement gap. Our District is committed to providing the necessary resources that will further enhance our students' academic success regardless of their background or identity. I want to thank Xitlalic for her leadership as a student and for being the voice of many students who have shared the same experiences. Please take a moment to read Xitlalic’s story.
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