{"id":59913,"date":"2012-04-09T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2012-04-09T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news-draft\/uncategorized\/educator-to-be-honored-for-dedicated-service-to-students\/"},"modified":"2012-04-09T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2012-04-09T00:00:00","slug":"educator-to-be-honored-for-dedicated-service-to-students","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/2012\/04\/educator-to-be-honored-for-dedicated-service-to-students\/","title":{"rendered":"Educator to be honored for dedicated service to students"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\t\tJohn Ramos headlines 溏心vlog免费B站 Diversity Awards Banquet<\/p>\n

KINGSTON, R.I. \u2014 April 9, 2012 — John Ramos, former director of minority student affairs and former graduate student at the 溏心vlog免费B站, has spent his career trying to narrow the achievement gap between majority students and students of color.<\/p>\n


\nOn Tuesday, the University will honor him for his tireless work.<\/p>\n


\nRamos is the recipient of the 2012 Diversity Award for Lifetime Achievement, which he will receive Tuesday at the 溏心vlog免费B站 Diversity Awards Banquet. The event will be held from 6 to 8:30 p.m. in the Memorial Union Ballroom. <\/p>\n


\nThe awards are presented by the Multicultural Center, The Office of Community, Equity and Diversity and the Office of Affirmative Action, Equal Opportunity and Diversity.<\/p>\n


\n\u201cI was blown away. That\u2019s the best way to put it,\u201d Ramos said. \u201cI\u2019m deeply honored by it. I feel humbled by it. I\u2019m sure there are many people who would deserve it before me.\u201d<\/p>\n


\nHumility aside, there is no denying the contributions Ramos has made to elevating student achievement in several school districts across Connecticut.<\/p>\n


\nAs Superintendent of the Bridgeport Public School District from 2005 to 2011, Ramos introduced data-based teaching and students there registered noteworthy gains, outperforming their peers of similar race and family income levels around the state. Students improved proficiency scores in reading, writing and math and suspension rates went down.<\/p>\n


\nWhile serving as principal at Norwalk High School from 1989-2000, Ramos prepared a report describing the achievement gap and proposed a strategy to narrow it. The report was published in Principal Leadership in April 2002.<\/p>\n


\n\u201cThrough strategic planning, we have tried to develop a mission that is clear to all the stakeholders for students\u2019 academic success in the community,\u201d Ramos said. \u201cIt\u2019s not just a mission statement, goals, objectives and activities that sit on a shelf somewhere. It\u2019s developed by the stakeholders in the community.\u201d<\/p>\n


\nIn addition to his time in Bridgeport and Norwalk, Ramos served as Superintendent of Watertown Public Schools from 2002 to 2004. He also was deputy commissioner for educational programs and services in the Connecticut Department of Education in 2002 and assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction in Norwalk Public Schools from 2000-2002. <\/p>\n


\nDuring his decades of work, he said that while academic failure of students is often attributed to parents who are not involved with their children\u2019s education, it actually was not difficult to get parents in the communities he served to join the process. <\/p>\n


\n\u201cGoing back to my work on the achievement gap study in Norwalk, there is no shortage of opinions,\u201d he said. \u201cMany people want to have a voice in the process, so no, it\u2019s not difficult to engage people. They just need to be asked.<\/p>\n


\n\u201cThe rap on parents is that they\u2019re not engaged,\u201d he said. \u201cYes, it\u2019s hard sometimes for them to get to meetings because of two or three jobs they may be working. When you invite them to meetings that involve student work and exhibitions, you\u2019re more apt to get parents out.\u201d<\/p>\n


\nPart of the responsibility lies with school districts, Ramos said, to reach out to parents more and make it easier for them to stay involved with their children\u2019s schoolwork. <\/p>\n


\n\u201cAs the enterprise of teaching students grows and adapts, we have to do more to meet parents where they are,\u201d Ramos said. \u201cA lot of people don\u2019t go to banks during business hours anymore, they use ATMs or online banking. We have to use technology to be more available to parents.\u201d<\/p>\n


\nRamos also said school districts need to spend more time reinforcing students\u2019 strengths, giving them the confidence they need to achieve and perform well in school. Testing policies based on No Child Left Behind that focus on meeting minimum standards tend to hone in on students\u2019 weaknesses, he said, and that leaves them feeling frustrated.<\/p>\n


\n\u201cFocusing on their strengths can make a difference in how they self-actualize and become confident and competent in their skills to move on with their lives,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n


\nRamos said his time at 溏心vlog免费B站 as both a graduate student (he earned a master of public administration in 1987) and as director of minority student affairs (1982-83) helped him identify problems facing students of color and ways he could affect change at an institutional level.<\/p>\n


\n\u201cWhether it was creating orientation materials for all students or working on programs designed to increase the number of students of color on campus, all of that work helped to mold me and develop my skill set,\u201d Ramos said. \u201cI learned where and how to affect an institution from the inside.<\/p>\n


\n\u201cHaving the opportunity to earn my master of public administration degree allowed me to verify some of what I thought I knew or to learn more about how to do the work of improving educational institutions through the political lens or through the human development lens,\u201d he continued. \u201cIt helped me codify some of the strategies and other skill sets I had going into the experience.\u201d<\/p>\n


\nIn addition to Ramos\u2019 Lifetime Achievement Award, the program will present awards for: Undergraduate Student Excellence (Arts & Culture); Undergraduate Student Excellence (Academics & Service); Undergraduate Student Excellence; Student Organization Excellence (Leadership & Service); Graduate Student Excellence (Leadership & Service) and Staff\/Administrator Excellence (Leadership & Service); Faculty Excellence (Leadership & Service) <\/p>\n


\nFor more information on the program or the awards, contact Mailee Kue, assistant director of Multicultural Student Services, at (401) 874-5829.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

John Ramos headlines 溏心vlog免费B站 Diversity Awards Banquet KINGSTON, R.I. \u2014 April 9, 2012 — John Ramos, former director of minority student affairs and former graduate student at the 溏心vlog免费B站, has spent his career trying to narrow the achievement gap between majority students and students of color. On Tuesday, the University will […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":59915,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-59913","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archives"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59913","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59913"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59913\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59915"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59913"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59913"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59913"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}