Bilingual GED
Founding the 1st BILINGUAL General Equivalency Diploma (GED) program in Virginia.
In November 1976, Arlington Public Schools hired me as the first Bilingual Resource Teacher and Community Specialist, a federally funded position. I started convening Latino parents at Key elementary school. I learned that many parents had not graduated from high school in their home countries and desperately wanted to continue their own education alongside their children’s. They wanted to take GED preparation classes in Spanish so they could improve their economic situation. Bilingual GED was offered in Washington D.C. as well as other forty-four states. Virginia Adult Education department did not approve the Bilingual GED test.
We formed a coalition of Hispanics and with the support of Arlington Public Schools Superintendent, Larry Cuban we started the first Bilingual GED program in Virginia and lobbied the VA State Department of Education to approve the Bilingual GED test in 1980. I do believe that the creation of this program is one of the most important far-reaching accomplishments of my life.
For the first time, Arlingtonians could study for the GED in Spanish