![](https://i0.wp.com/spokesman-recorder.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Alvarez.1.jpg?resize=771%2C453&ssl=1)
Her own advanced studies set an example for her students
Throughout her career in education, Leticia Alvarez has been guided by the desire to cultivate a more equitable learning environment not often found in the traditional classroom setting.
As a paraprofessional at Kennedy Senior High School, Alvarez returned to higher education to obtain a degree to help her meet her goal of supporting young children of color in gaining their full potential despite the obstacles stacked against them. Having graduated from Bloomington Public Schools, Alvarez has personal experience and insight into the district’s students’ needs.
Her love for working with children dates back to when she helped her auntie Tamara operate a daycare on the South Side of Minneapolis. She enjoyed her time working with the kids and took on more responsibility. Alvarez soon secured a similar position with a childcare program in Bloomington, where she then pursued a career with the district.
As a special education paraprofessional, Alvarez supports teachers in the classroom and works alongside students to ensure they get the best education. Her passion for her students led her to advocate for them, and she began to explore opportunities to facilitate restorative practices in the classroom.
Having discovered her passion for this high-level work in education, Alvarez sought out the opportunity to specialize in her field even further. That’s when she came across the SpedUp program at Normandale Community College, a two-year program that recruits people of color to become educators who confront the educational equity gaps in the K-12 classrooms and help diversify the special education workforce.
Alvarez is the first student to graduate from the cohort after joining the program in 2022. She described SpedUp as an uplifting and empowering experience that supported her despite her busy life.
“It removed that big barrier of the financial aspect that allowed me to go back to school, being a mother, being a wife,” she said. In reflecting on what motivated her to enroll in the program, Alvarez simply credited her students.
“It was important for me to actually go back. Once I could show my students that if I could do it, they could do it,” she said. “We’re in a phase right now that we’re telling students, especially students of color, that college is for them, but also starting to find that we’re not truly filling the gap of what are those other opportunities.”
Kenny Chan is the program coordinator for SpedUp and has over 15 years of experience in special education. He explained that the program was first created after Normandale was approached with a generous grant from an individual who wanted to address the disparities in educator representation and student outcomes.
![](https://i0.wp.com/spokesman-recorder.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Alvarez.2.jpg?resize=771%2C581&ssl=1)
According to Chan, less than 6% of special education teachers in Minnesota are people of color despite the large number of Black and brown children in these programs.
SpedUp students are supported through various wrap-around services, including financial assistance, career readiness, and mentorship. Administrators from school districts in Edina, Eden Prairie, and other metro suburbs have stopped in to speak with students and form relationships in the hopes of one day offering them positions.
Chan spoke about Alvarez’s accomplishments in the program and hailed her as an example for other students in the cohort to see where their hard work can one day take them.
“All of us have now talked to Leticia, and you can just tell whatever she does, she’s going to have an impact,” he said. “She is a change maker, and she is the person who is ready to make an impact wherever she goes and whatever she does.”
Steven Geller, Normandale’s director of media and public relations, underscored how the institution has utilized these specific programs to supply students with the tools for their own success.
“One of the strengths of Normandale is being able to meet our students’ needs wherever they’re at,” he said. “When you take programs like Sirtify and SpedUp, which have that cohort model, then you have a lot of organization in place to be with students who are going through either similar journeys or different journeys to be able to learn from each other and build off each other’s experiences and create those relationships that last.”
Chan said five employees from Bloomington Public Schools, including Alvarez, are in the program, along with six employees from Edina Public School staff. This illustrates how SpedUp serves as a stepping stone for those advancing their careers.
As a behavioral specialist, Alvarez wants to reduce the disciplinary disparities disproportionately faced by young Black and brown boys. Even in her current position, she ensures that students sent to her classroom for disciplinary reasons are still receiving an education and not wasting time in school.
“What I tried to cultivate was a space of healing, of love, of care, of connection, of community, but also restoration,” she stated.
In her final paper for the program, Alvarez discussed non-exclusionary discipline practices and their connection to the school-to-prison pipeline. She argued for dismantling the systems currently in place across the country and finding new solutions that do not further marginalize young students of color.
Support Black local news
Help amplify Black voices by donating to the MSR. Your contribution enables critical coverage of issues affecting the community and empowers authentic storytelling.