Clinton School student Jessica Rice undertook a six-month study of a program that provides adult education to the Latino community in Northwest Arkansas.
In order to strengthen the program’s process and outcomes, Rice investigated operations, stakeholder perceptions and participant needs of Plaza Comunitaria. The resulting report is intended for the use of the Springdale, Ark.-based program as well as other up-and-coming Plazas Comunitarias within the wider region served by the Mexican Consulate in Little Rock.
The Plaza Comunitaria was created in 2010, under the Diversity and Inclusion Department at the Jones Center for Families community center. As the first Plaza Comunitaria in Arkansas, it provides literacy, primary and secondary education in Spanish with the goal of closing the gap between zero-education and higher-level academic programs.
“It’s very good that [the program] educates adults because in Mexico, there are many people that drop out of school and do not have primary or secondary [education],” said one student who has participated in the program (Quote translated from Spanish).
In addition to establishing the academic foundation for individuals seeking continuing education opportunities for English as a foreign language, U.S. citizenship, high school equivalency and instruction at the tertiary level, Plaza Comunitaria seeks to raise the general quality of life of Northwest Arkansas’ Spanish-speaking residents.
The report will be finalized and distributed to key stakeholders in April with the hope that other similar programs may benefit from the processes and lessons learned by the first Arkansan Plaza Comunitaria program, Rice said.
Rice completed the project for her final Capstone requirement in the Clinton School’s Master of Public Service degree program.
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