Conference to Explore Diversity Issues in Education

WACO, Texas -- Challenges that Texas education professionals face when dealing with a diverse student body will be the subject of an April 3 conference sponsored by the Baylor University and Texas Tech University Partnership Grant along with Baylor's Partners Project, the Region XII Education Service Center and the Waco Independent School District. "Diversity and School Improvement" will be the theme of the conference to be held from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at Eastland Lake in Waco.
Featuring five experts in the field of education, the conference will explore four issues of cultural diversity -- language issues, cultural issues, socioeconomic issues and the role of the family.
The speakers scheduled to address these topics include Dr. Michele Hewlett-Gomez, associate professor of education and director of bilingual education and English as a second language programs at Sam Houston State University; Dr. Josefina Villamil Tinajero, professor of education and associate dean of the College of Education at the University of Texas at El Paso; Dr. Van S. Allen, former vice president and CEO of Paul Quinn College; and Dr. Mario Benitez, Distinguished Teaching Professor at the University of Texas at Austin and currently the Robert Foster Cherry Chair in Distinguished Teaching at Baylor.
The keynote address on multiculturalism, scheduled to begin at noon, will be delivered by Dr. Philip Chinn, professor in the division of special education and the director of the Center for Multicultural Education at California State University, Los Angeles.
Prior to his present position, Chinn served for six years as the special assistant to the executive director for multicultural and ethnic concerns at the Council for Exceptional Children. A board member of the National Association for Multicultural Education, he is a commissioner on the California State Advisory Commission on Special Education.
The fee to attend the conference is $15, which includes lunch, refreshments and conference materials. For more information, contact the department of educational administration at (254) 710-3117