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A Hispanic Perspective: Oregon School Superintendent Susan Castillo

Susan Castillo has racked up an impressive list of “firsts”: first Hispanic woman to serve in the Oregon State Senate; first Latina elected to statewide office in Oregon; and Oregon’s first Hispanic state school superintendent. The former television journalist has overseen the state’s half-million students and 1,200 public schools since January 2003 and recently announced her candidacy for a second four-year term.

During her tenure, Castillo’s main push has been to shrink the achievement gap, and there’s evidence that the state is inching closer to that goal. According to an analysis of 2005 state test scores by the Oregonian newspaper, “passing rates among white students went up in every grade in reading and math. But the scores of Latino, Native American, and low-income students shot up dramatically at most grade levels, putting those students closer to matching the attainment of white and middle-income students.”

In an interview with Northwest Education, Castillo reflected on her crusade to close the gap and her role as the Northwest’s only Hispanic school superintendent.

Q: How has your own family experience and Latino heritage colored your views on education?

I grew up in a household where my mother dropped out in the eighth grade and was very challenged throughout her life on the kind of work that was available to her. Growing up and seeing your parent experience that, you really do make that connection between education and opportunity. For me, closing the gap is also really important because we know we need to have all kids be successful for economic reasons. We can’t afford to lose anyone in our schools today and it’s even more critical because of the changes in our world, the skill levels needed, and the urgency to compete in this global economy.

This year, Oregon experienced its greatest enrollment increase in nearly a decade—largely due to a 10 percent jump in Latino youngsters, who now make up 15 percent of the total student population. What do you feel is important in serving this growing demographic?

I really see how important it is to make progress in the area of parental involvement. I can remember that my mother was not exactly comfortable in the school environment because of her own experience with school. But, it’s so powerful for parents to be involved and know [their children’s] teacher and what they’re doing in school. We need to help our schools be successful in reaching out and help them connect with best practices around the state.

Also, for children who don’t have English as a first language, we’ve been focusing on early learning—getting them into preschool and full-day kindergarten. When we called that out as an issue and started providing more leadership at a state level, we helped districts connect with other districts that are retargeting their federal dollars to create more opportunities for extended day or full-day kindergarten. As a result, we have many more children in full-day kindergarten today and we want to continue to build on that.

We certainly want to continue our efforts to get all children who qualify for Head Start into Head Start. We’re not covering those children and they are the poorest of the poor kids in Oregon. We need to make that a priority: It will make an enormous difference in what happens with the success of those children and all of us will benefit.

What do you see in the future for ELL education, especially as the rhetoric grows louder around “English-only” programs?

I think there are important lessons to be learned from the whole English-only wave out there. That’s my prediction for those states: We may see them rethink what they’re doing. I think here in Oregon, we’re about trying to find solutions to help all kids be successful, to honor all children, to honor what languages they speak, and to help them be proficient in English because we know that’s very important to be successful and get into higher levels of education.

I think what’s exciting in Oregon is that we are open to experimenting and trying to understand what does work for children to help them be successful. Maybe there isn’t a silver bullet, and we need to be open to watching for results. What are the results we want? Where we’re getting those results, let’s learn from that and build on it.