Former Bay City Superintendent Joe Gonzales Makes NBC World News
"Expectation of Excellence" is Educator's Watchword at Austin Texas Charter
October 23, 2010
By: Dave Rogers
Dr. Joe E. Gonzales, former Bay City Schools Superintendent.
At age 68, Joe E. Gonzales has come out of retirement and is making headlines as principal of a charter school for dropouts in Texas.
Gonzales, who earned several degrees in education from Michigan State University as well as a doctorate from Wayne State University, was interviewed on national television this week as part of a report on Hispanic students.
After decades of sparring with bureaucratic school boards as superintendent, Gonzales returned to the front lines -- as principal in an alternative school -- to make his "expectation of excellence --statement.
NBC correspondent Rehema Ellis visited Gonzales at the Austin Can! charter school, which he took from 88 students to 400 in two years.
The graying educator, a Saginaw Arthur Hill High School graduate, revealed he was once a dropout himself in an interview with the Texas Tribune sponsored by the Austin Chamber of Commerce.
The Huffington Post reported: "National attention has turned to Hispanic educational achievement following President Obama's latest executive order.
"Dr. Joe Gonzales, Principal at Austin Can! Academy in Texas, provides an example for how one school is narrowing the achievement gap.
NBC Nightly News profiles Gonzales whose "expectation of excellence" turned the charter school's dismal record around with "strict discipline, a dress code, longer school days."
Austin Can! is part of a network of nine "dropout recovery" charter schools with campuses in Dallas, Fort Worth, Houston and San Antonio.
The Gonzales interview came in the wake of a Presidential Executive order. President Barack Obama Tuesday signed an executive order updating and enhancing a 1990 presidential initiative intended to boost education for Hispanic students.
President George H. W. Bush initially launched the White House Initiative on Education Excellence for Hispanics. The initiative seeks to improve educational opportunities for Hispanic students at every level, Obama said in a White House news event.
Fewer than half of Hispanic children attend early childhood education programs and more than half drop out of high school, the President said.
"This is not just a Latino problem; it's an American problem," Obama said, "We've got to solve it."
Obama called ensuring a top education for all children, regardless of race, both a moral obligation and an "economic imperative" for America's future success.
The event followed a Department of Education summit on Monday involving administration officials, education experts and Hispanic community leaders.
The White House said the new executive order is based on feedback gathered in more than 100 "community conversations" across the country with experts in education, community leaders and ordinary Americans on how to develop real solutions to the challenges confronting Hispanic education.
The White House said ramping up the initiative will increase the engagement of communities across the county in the process of improving the education of Latino students.
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