Spreading Our Wings 5K & 1 Mile Run/Walk

OUR STORY

In February 2015, several administrators from Illinois embarked on the journey of establishing the Illinois state affiliate of the national organization, Association of Latino Administrators and Superintendents (ALAS). ALAS aims, "To provide leadership at the national level to assure every school in America effectively serves the educational needs of all students with an emphasis on Latino youth by building capacity, promoting best practices, and transforming educational institutions." (www.alasedu.org).

With over 4,000 members across the country, ALAS is the premier professional organization among Latino administrators and educators focusing on professional development, information sharing and policy advocacy.

As the Latino student population continues to soar in Illinois, with Latino children representing more than 25% of all public school students (Illinois Report Card, 2014-15), the need to network and build capacity among Latino educators is a greater need than ever before. The vision of IALAS to unify and cultiave educational leaders to serve all students served as the fuel to establish IALAS.

After almost a year of working to launch IALAS, earning our 501 (c)(3) status, finalizing our bylaws and becoming officially recognized as the Illinois state affiliate at the national ALAS Summit in Albuquerque, New Mexico of October 2015, we are excited about the work and future of IALAS. On January 1, 2016, IALAS began to accept membership from educators across the state.

Our founding partners have been instrumental in helping us reach our goal. They will forever be in our hearts as the trailblazers that believed in the work of IALAS to serve all students. A huge THANK YOU to Achieve3000, Curriculum Associates , Imagine Learning, Lexia Learning and Matific for their unwavering support. Please visit their page to learn more about our partners.

For more information about how you can support our vision and mission, please email rhernandez@ialas.org

IALAS Scholarship Program

It is the goal of the IALAS Scholarship Program to support our vision of unifying and cultivating Latino educational leaders for the purpose of empowering and inspiring all students.

Why a IALAS Scholarship Program?

As you may be aware, Illinois is currently facing a shortage of teachers due to factors such as State funding issues, licensure difficulties and other issues. It is time, as educators, that we unite forces and seek ways to support those who aspire to become teachers and make a difference in our students’ lives. Remember that teaching creates all other professions and, as educators, we all need to be supportive of one another.

This scholarship program will offer financial assistance to undergraduate and graduate students towards either a Bachelor’s degree or a Master’s degree in those hard-to-fill positions in education. Hard-to-fill positions include Bilingual teachers at all grade levels, Bilingual Special Education teacher, Psychologists, and Speech-Language Pathologists.

This may be a small contribution, but it is IALAS’ contribution towards the dream of all school districts being able to staff every single classroom with teachers, including those hard-to-fill positions that, often times, remain unfilled; affecting the quality of instructional time and curriculum provided to our students.