Improving Math In Silicon Valley - Valdés Math

Meet the Foundation: Cheryl Lawton, President

2009-08-31T22:39:00.000-07:00

The next few blog posts will focus on the Board Members of the Jose Valdés Math Foundation. First up is Cheryl Lawton, the President of the Foundation.

Cheryl is currently a co-principal for Hillsdale High school in San Mateo. She was drawn by the successful Smaller Learning Community Design of the high school, which accentuates a personalized learning experience for every student, giving students the opportunity to develop a stronger student-teacher relationship that increases learning and achievement. It comes as no surprise that what drew Cheryl to this school is a concept that is very similar to one followed by the Valdés Math Institute.

Cheryl began her involvement with Valdés as a math teacher in the summer of 1993. For the next 10 years, she taught classes ranging from Math 1 to Math Analysis, which is a preparatory class for Calculus.

When asked about the Valdés Institute’s format of 7 hour instructional days for 7 weeks over the summer, Cheryl said that she looked at it as a fantastic opportunity to teach math the right way. To her, the extra time meant that she could teach important concepts in deep and creative ways.

As Cheryl progressed in her career and became an administrator at Hillsdale High School, she had to give up teaching full time during the summer. But Cheryl still stayed active by attending Parent Meetings, fundraisers, and filling in as a substitute teacher before later helping to found the Jose Valdés Math Foundation and being unanimously voted into office as the Foundation’s President.

2nd Annual “College, Here I Come” Walkathon!

2009-07-10T19:14:00.000-07:00

The message below borrows heavily from a press release written by Krystal Carter, Vice President for the José Valdés Math Foundation, for last year’s walkathon. I’ve changed some of the content, but the message is still the same:

San Jose, CA – Students around the state are being affected by budget cuts that are devastating their schools. This summer East Side Union and surrounding School Districts’ middle and high school students will take part in a demonstration showing their resolve. They will not let these budget cuts sway them in their efforts to move on to higher education! On the morning of July 11th, students from the José Valdés Math Institute will take the trying four and a half mile walk from Andrew Hill High School to San Jose State University. With their banners and high hopes in tow, those nearby might here their chants of “College, Here I Come,” as this walk is fittingly named.

For the students taking part, this demonstration is one of aspiration. Andrew Hill High School is home for many of them and this walk is symbolic of their current journey. In spite of what comes down from the state, these students are determined to persevere. For the institute which these students represent, this demonstration means much more.

This summer, for the first time since its inception, the José Valdés Math Institute opened its doors to students with absolutely no monetary support from the East Side Union High School District or any of the surrounding School Districts. Thanks to the generosity of supporters of the program over the past two years, the José Valdés Math Foundation was able to provide the resources necessary to run the program this summer.

The Institute began because of a need to address what we call the “achievement gap” today. When Mr. Valdés saw that Hispanic and African American students were grossly underrepresented in Andrew Hill’s calculus courses, he was determined to make a change. The goal of the José Valdés Math Institute is to continue the legacy and dream of Mr. Valdés -- to prepare students, especially underserved minorities, to successfully complete calculus before exiting high school. But, with shrinking budgets, the José Valdés Math Institute has also shrunk. These past few summers, the Institute had to do things unheard of in the past, like turning students away and charging an enrollment fee.

So this July 11th demonstration is also of hope. The “College, Here I Come” walkathon is being organized by the José Valdés Math Foundation. Says Foundation President of the board, Cheryl Lawton, “We formed the Foundation so that community members like ourselves, who have been touched by the Institute, can offer our support. Our goal is to be able to bring Valdés back to its former glory, where it was offered to all who applied without a fee.” With help from its supporters, the José Valdés Math Institute is looking to continue helping students unscathed by the change in tide for education. Students on the walk are walking for the ideals of the Institute and education in general. When they end their journey by stepping onto the San Jose State campus with their “College, Here I Come” credo, hopefully it will symbolize a prelude to their future.

José Valdés Math Foundation: Humble Beginnings

2009-06-06T10:34:00.000-07:00

As previously mentioned in our first Blog post, the entity, that we will refer to from this point on as “Valdés”, is actually made up of two nonprofit organizations. I spoke a little about the José Valdés Math Institute, which was the first of the two to come into existence. It is the educational branch of Valdés. Our summer program and year-round tutoring services are provided by the Valdés Math Institute.

The Valdés Math Foundation is the branch of Valdés that provides the funding and resources necessary to run the Valdés Math Institute. It was because of the budget cuts in education in recent years that made it necessary for the Valdés Math Foundation to come into being. Before that, the East Side Union High School District and the Valdés Math Institute worked together to provide the necessary funds to run the program through government ADA money as well as grants from local companies and Philanthropic organizations. This partnership allowed the Valdés Math Institute to offer summer math classes to students without asking their families to pay for the program.

That was then. Today, the educational landscape in Silicon Valley has changed, and continues to change. But that is a discussion for another day. The topic for today is the Valdés Math Foundation and its humble beginnings. Below is an excerpt from the José Valdés Math Foundation’s Business Plan explaining how it came to be:

“In the Spring of 2007, a group of former Valdés Math Institute students, Parents, Teachers and Program Assistants convened to discuss the current state of the Institute. The discussions included the lack of monetary support by the school districts that were being serviced by the Institute as well as the necessity by the Institute to charge the families of students who wanted to attend the program. Also discussed was the plan of the district to cut funding to the program and the need to increase awareness of the program to draw in more support to not only preserve Valdés Math Institute, but also to raise funds to take the burden off of the school districts.

At the conclusion of this meeting, it was agreed by all those present that the José Valdés Math Foundation be created, consisting of current and former parents, students, employees of the Institute, and others interested in preserving the Valdés Math Institute. In order for the Institute to continue serving students, it had to go against its original mission of helping under-represented, minority children succeed in math by charging students to attend the program. It is the hope of the newly formed Valdés Math Foundation, that it can bring the necessary support to help bring the Institute back to its origins of offering free education in mathematics to those students in need of it as well as those looking to increase their math education.”

We’ve come a long way as a Foundation from those early meetings to discuss the formation of the José Valdés Math Foundation. While we are proud of the work that we have done up to now, we know that it is still an uphill climb to try to get the Valdés Math Institute back to where we want it to be. We are an eclectic group made up of, among other backgrounds, Engineers, Teachers, Parents, former students of the Institute, and former employees of the Institute. The common thread between all of us is our belief in what Valdés is trying to do and in José Valdés’ vision of equal opportunity for all students to excel in mathematics.

I hope this gives you a better idea of Valdés and our goals. In the next few blog posts, we will be spotlighting some of the people who dedicate their time and energy to the Valdés Math Institute and the Valdés Math Foundation. Who are they? What do they do? What makes them tick?

Welcome to the new José Valdés Math Blog

2009-05-27T21:48:00.000-07:00

Welcome to Improving Math In Silicon Valley - José Valdés Math. This is a new blog for the state of Math Education today in the eyes of members of 2 non-profit organizations known as the José Valdés Summer Math Institute and the José Valdés Math Foundation.

My name is Eugene Manalo and I am honored and humbled to be the first person to post on this blog. Over time I, along with other members of the Valdés Math Family, will attempt to bring you inside the worlds of both the Valdés Math Institute and the Valdés Math Foundation, as well as the world of math education in general. There are always exciting things going on, many of which are not communicated as widely to our parents, students, volunteers and fellow educators as we would like. Hopefully this blog will bring to light not only some of these exciting conversations, ideas, significant accomplishments and educational milestones, but our frustrations and setbacks as well.

Throughout the course of this blog, we also plan to share little-known details about the Valdés story with our readers. But let us start at the beginning:

Founded in 1989 by Andrew Hill High School math teacher, José Valdés, the José Valdés Summer Math Institute was originally started to improve the mathematical skills of under-represented minority students feeding into Andrew Hill High School. The program was a success and quickly grew in size and scope to eventually include students from throughout the East Side Union High School District (ESUHSD) as well as its feeder districts.

After years of success with middle school students, a few high school enrichment classes were added to provide for students wanting to get ahead and expand their knowledge and skills in math. At its peak, the Valdés Summer Math Institute offered courses covering standards from 3rd grade math all the way through pre-calculus and served as many as 1,500 students each summer on seven college campuses throughout Santa Clara County, all free of charge. However, due to a variety of district leadership changes and budget cuts over the past several years, the number of students served by the José Valdés Math Institute has been steadily declining (only about 300 could be accommodated in 2008), and all high school/enrichment classes have been eliminated.

This summer, the program was in jeopardy of closing its doors for the first time in 2 decades due to a lack of funding by the East Side Union High School District. But at an important meeting between the Board of Directors for the Valdés Math Foundation and the Program Director for the Valdés Math Institute, it was decided to go ahead and hold the Program for another summer using the funds raised by the Foundation.

Despite the fact that the program would have to be scaled back considerably, we felt it important to continue the Program in order to help the students that we could help. Just like the story of the boy who threw as many starfish as he could back into the ocean, we may not be able to help all of the children, but we will make a world of difference to the ones we are able to reach and help.

For more information regarding the program, head over to www.valdesmath.org. You can also follow us on Twitter at www.twitter.com/ValdesMath.