(bright upbeat music) - Good evening and welcome to "Horizonte", a show that takes a look at current issues through a Hispanic lens.

I'm Catherine Anaya.

Today we are starting our show with a look at an issue that affects everyone, the teacher shortage.

In particular, there is under-representation of Latino educators, with about 16% of the teaching workforce being Hispanic, and about 13% being members of school boards.

Here to talk more about that is Stephanie Parra, executive director of the group, ALL In Education.

It's a group looking to increase representation of underserved communities.

Stephanie, thank you so much for being here.

- Thank you for having me.

- So let's talk a little bit about the report that ALL In Education is talking about here and what it's suggesting behind the Latino teacher shortage.

- Yeah, so we publish our annual report it's called MAPA, it is the state of Latino education, power and influence.

So how are our kids performing academically, and then where do we sit as far as representation goes, as leaders in the classroom or leaders in a boardroom?

And what we have demonstrated in our MAPA report is that while we are 46% of the K-12 student population, as you just pointed out, we're only 16% of teachers, 16% of administrators, and less than 14, 13% of school board members.

And so there's a major gap in representation, and what does that mean on the back end?

And that's really what we highlight in the report because we include the academic attainment of our students, is that there's also a gap in academic achievement.

So while we are, again, that 46%, our students are not graduating at the same rate as their white peers.

So we're at about in the 70% while 83% of white students are graduating from high school, just as an example.

And those gaps in attainment carry all the way down to third grade reading, and that's where we start measuring the gap in entertainment.

- Well, and we already saw these huge gaps during COVID, especially when it came to technology.

So when you're talking about this lack of representation among teachers, how does that deepen the impact that we're already feeling, that we're already seeing?

- Yeah, so you mentioned it, right?

I think schools are all facing, and we're grappling with a really big challenge.

There is a lack of talent in the teaching profession and in the talent pipelines.

But the gap in representation, again, how that's showing up.

When young people can see themselves in their educators, there is research that tells us that if I can see myself in the person that's leading my classroom, I am more likely to come to school, my attendance rates increase, my behavior issues, discipline issues go down, I attain higher, and I'm achieving and going to college at higher rates.

And so there is academic research to back this up.

And so for us it makes sense that we really start to prepare a more diverse education workforce.

- So let's talk about how then we go about doing that.

What can and should be done now to address this Latino teacher shortage?

- So just like we do for any other teaching profession or any other profession, rather, we really have to start with the talent that's in our community.

So from students, how are we encouraging them to see the education profession as an opportunity?

But then as teacher preparation programs, whether it's a two or a four-year college, or even the systems themselves, the K-12 systems themselves, how are they building and growing their own models?

One thing that we work on at ALL In Education is our Parent Educator Academy.

That program is really inspiring parents to be more involved, to understand the education system and how to navigate it.

And what's been really cool and kind of an unexpected outcome for us is that we're seeing that parents are now seeing themselves as potential educators- - [Catherine] I Love that.

- And have an interest.

So again, there's talent in our community if we choose to see it that way.

- So your program is working?

- It's working.

- But there are challenges out there.

What are the challenges that you face to really making the difference that we need to see?

- There's the systemic challenges, I think that we continue to face funding issues of course.

And then the teaching profession really we have to start looking at it through a lens of respect.

I always say if we're gonna change outcomes for students we have to change outcomes for educators as well and make sure that we are starting and ending any conversation about policy differences around respect for the profession, and that includes investing in the talent that is in our workforce.

Teachers remain one of the lowest paid college-educated professions in the country.

And so that just is not valuing the profession the way that we need to.

So we have to both invest in our teaching workforce but then also aggressively work to diversify and not let them be mutually exclusive efforts.

- Well, and our teachers have faced so many challenges just within the last couple of years with the pandemic.

Have you seen any improvements for them in the last couple of years?

- Yeah, well, it has been a tough couple of years, the last two and a half years did a number on all of us.

I can tell you myself as a school board member, I see it day in and day out in our school communities, the climate is different.

I think for me, the biggest thing that we are seeing in real time is the social-emotional wellbeing of the community as a whole is a struggle and a challenge.

Our students, our employees, you mentioned it, if the students are struggling, our employees are certainly struggling too, to navigate.

So we really have to think bigger about how we are coming together as a community to ensure that we have safe and socially, emotionally well functioning schools.

- It doesn't just affect our community but it affects the entire state.

- Correct.

- Stephanie, thank you so much for joining me.

I appreciate it, great discussion.

When we come back, we'll talk about a disease that is rising among Latino kids at a disproportionate rate.

(upbeat music) From children's education we now turn to children's health.

Cases of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease are rising among children in the country, with Latino kids being hit disproportionately hard.

This disease can progress to more severe forms of liver disease.

At this point those in medicine have a lot of unanswered questions about the disease, but researchers from the Translational Genomics Research Institute and Arizona State University's Edson College of Nursing and Health Innovation have partnered with Phoenix Children's and Cincinnati Children's on a new study to get those answers.

Here to tell us more is Dr. Johanna DiStefano, head of TGen's Metabolic and Fibrotic Disease program and lead investigator on this project.

Thank you so much for being here, we appreciate it.

- It's a pleasure to be here.

- So let's talk a little bit more about this disease.

It's a chronic disease that is typically silent.

Is that correct?

- That's correct.

And not only is it chronic, it's also progressive, which means that it gets worse over time.

- So with the rise among Latino youth, do experts know what that's associated with?

- It's associated with obesity and diabetes but it's also associated with lifestyle and genetics.

- So what can lead to this disease?

When you're talking about a lifestyle, what can be done to treat children who are dealing with this?

- That's a great question.

Even though the disease is a horrible disease, the good news is it does respond favorably to lifestyle modifications.

And that includes weight loss, and not a huge weight loss, three to 5% weight loss is enough to reduce the amount of fat in the liver.

And in addition, changing the diet.

So for example, reducing the amount of refined carbs in the diet, reducing the amount, not even reducing, but just avoiding soft drinks, any sugar-sweetened beverages at all, sugary cereals, anything with sugar in it will help a lot.

And then also reducing the amount of saturated fat like fast food, animal fat, cheese, those kinds of things are all heavy and saturated fat.

So just those simple changes can help to resolve the fat in the liver.

- But if you're talking about lifestyle, are there efforts to educate the community, particularly parents about some of these changes that you're talking about that can make such a big difference?

- There are programs to educate parents, but not enough.

Even at the level of the primary care physician, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease is not a well understood disease.

And most docs aren't even looking to diagnose this disease in children.

- Is there a way to tell which children are more at risk for the disease progression?

- No, this is part of what our project is, is seeking to find out.

- So tell me a little bit about what you're hoping to learn from this project.

- Absolutely.

So with this project, what we really want to do is to be able to identify signatures of fatty liver disease in Latino children.

So that's being able to identify children with fatty liver because it's a silent disease as you mentioned, and if you're not looking for it you're not gonna find it.

This will help us to identify the disease and it will be able to identify children who are at highest risk for progressing with the disease.

- And so once you're able to do that then how would you go about treating it?

- Well, intensive lifestyle modifications.

My partner at ASU, Dr. Shaibi, he's actually shown that even with simple changes in physical activity and eating behavior, in the absence of weight loss, it can still reduce the amount of fat in the liver.

- That's incredible.

- It is.

- So what is the timeframe that you're hoping that this project will be complete, and when would we start to learn what you learned in this process?

- Well, those are two different questions.

The project is for five years, but as soon as we start learning things, we make that information available to the public.

We're both very committed to the public and public education.

- Do you have a strategy as far as educating the public about the findings of this project?

And not only that, but the importance of it, just how critical it is?

- We do through media, and then also through the efforts at PCH.

- And how long would you say that you prepared for a project like this?

I would imagine quite some time.

- Oh, it took a long time, yes.

- When did you start to notice that this was disproportionately affecting Latino kids?

- Well, we've known about this for a while.

And Latinos across the board are disproportionately affected by fatty liver disease.

Not only developing at an early age but also having more severe forms of the disease, including liver cancer.

So among the Latino population, it's a big deal.

- Well, so that I think is key to helping the community understand that it can lead to so many more severe issues, correct?

- Correct- - Some of which are?

- Some of which are liver inflammation, liver cirrhosis, and liver cancer, as well as an increased risk of heart disease and diabetes.

- So what you're doing is, like I said before, very critical.

I thank you so much for joining me today to share that, hopefully we can help in the education of getting our parents and children to really start making those lifestyle changes.

- Thank you, Catherine.

- Well thank you for all your hard work.

Certainly appreciate it, Doctor, and thanks for joining me.

- Thank you.

- Well, that is our show for tonight for "Horizonte", and Arizona PBS.

I'm Catherine Anaya, thank you so much for joining me.

Have a great night.

(upbeat music)