BTB: ALAS's membership is composed of not only superintendents but also aspiring superintendents. Do you envision mentoring and preparing these superintendents to-be as part of ALAS's goals?

HM: Absolutely. We encourage individuals to look into taking the next step in their careers. We always have headhunters available at our conferences. This year, I brought a team of eighteen principals to our national conference, and I see within that group of individuals people who will be stepping into greater leadership roles. I mentored many of them as teachers, assistant principals, and now as principals. I've seen them take the leap through three different levels, and I will see several go on to become superintendents after a few more years.

Teachers, principals, assistant principals, and central office personnel attend our conferences. Our goal is to groom new leadership at the national level. At the same time, we want to make sure we have a network of individuals that can provide advice and support. We want to be supportive, and, again, build a greater capacity not only within this organization but also nationally, to have diversity within leadership roles across the country.

BTB: From a leadership perspective, what are your thoughts on how to expand ALAS's membership?

HM: I think that we already have a very good distribution of members. One of the plans of ALAS is that we have an international summit every summer. This year was our fourth year, and we held it in the Dominican Republic. We've had it in Puerto Rico, Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, and Costa Rica. The conference also has a national reach, taking place in various cities like Chicago, Atlanta, Austin, and Orlando. I think we're setting up an infrastructure and a culture that help our members become interested because we offer a very strong national network and opportunities to travel. In Florida, I received a lot of compliments from people who said, "We want to join because you really reach out to us, and you've touched on issues that are very common here."

We've also done a lot to recruit people to attend our conferences. Dr. Wilfredo Laboy, past-president of ALAS, went to Orlando and met with local superintendents. In turn, they got the word out about our conference, and so we had a really good turn out. Another strategy uses local talent. We bring in entertainment, and we've been getting a lot of good feedback. So, we are already using various strategies to increase our membership nationally, and I think we're significantly gaining momentum. This conference is a lot better than the previous one, and hopefully next year's conference will double our participation. The word is out, and people are starting to realize that ALAS is really taking off. I think that we're going to see a great increase. Meanwhile, we're going to strengthen our infrastructure, incorporate the organization, and bring on an executive director. We've been working with a shoestring operation, but now we're ready to break out big time.

BTB: With the upcoming national elections, what do you feel are some of the important education issues presidential candidates need to address?

HM: The growing Latino population is like a sleeping giant—we have, based on census data, more than 14 million identified Latinos. It's now the largest minority population in the country, yet there's still a gross underrepresentation in significant areas, such as in academia, entertainment, athletics, and education. It's a serious concern.

Because of the attrition in our school districts, we're not producing new leadership at the rate that we should. When you look at the eighth-grade demographic on graduation day, you see districts that have 50 percent Hispanic populations, but when you look at their high school graduation rate, that 50 percent becomes 20 percent. The white population may be 20 percent of the overall eighth grade, but it is 60 percent of the graduating class. So we have nothing short of a tragic scenario right now that absolutely needs to be addressed by a diverse group—a group that not only understands, but also accepts responsibility. New legislation needs to intervene.

In YISD, we are training new leadership beginning at the middle-school level. We actually have a Socratic Institute, which trains high-school students to be teachers, with student teaching beginning in their junior year of high school. There is a direct partnership with a local university, the University of Texas at El Paso, in which students enter the College of Education, and we award scholarships. I personally put in $8,000 for scholarships for students who want to enter the field of education. Along with the scholarship, they receive a contract for employment. When I first started as superintendent, these students were just entering college. This year we've hired six graduates who had graduated high school when I first became superintendent. They've received the scholarships and now they're returning to the district as educators.

The grooming of new leadership requires support systems, intervention, and financial backing. I came through the Teacher Corps program and would not be sitting here otherwise. I went to Georgetown and taught under a fellowship. Those federal grants that help diversify the landscape make a huge difference. A lot of people I know came through the ranks as a result of federal funding for certain specialized programs. Then, once you become a leader in one of those programs, you can create a support system to help the next generation be successful.

BTB: If you could speak to the publishing industry at large, what would you want it to consider in developing new content for Latino students?

HM: We have such a diverse instructional landscape that districts oftentimes try to align their programs to the needs of the population, but sometimes even if the demographic changes, the districts continue to teach and do what they have been doing for decades. We feel that the publishing industry is trying to address these challenges and opportunities. For educators it gets confusing because there are so many products and services that are almost identical. When you talk about assessment, there are a dozen companies that offer assessment. When you talk about textbooks, you have hundreds of publishers that produce textbooks.

Now, you have the age of digital textbooks. It becomes more difficult because the infrastructure in school districts doesn't always support the access and utilization of those resources. I do think that the traditional teacher-centered instructional methodologies are becoming increasingly obsolete. The focus now is differentiating instruction with a diverse population. So as you roll out new resources, the age of accountability has to be addressed. Is it aligned to the state standards for which we are held accountable? If not, how can we use these resources to align to what the expectations are?

The use of instructional technology is on the rise, and teachers are not being trained during their education to be competent instructional technology users. Consequently, they have to develop those skills on their own or a school district needs to take responsibility for that level of professional development. Meeting that very inconsistent and diverse landscape must be very difficult for a publishing company.

BTB: How do you think we should address the needs of the next generation of graduates and future leaders?

HM: I think that the twenty-first century is calling on a new generation of leadership that has diverse experience and is also focused on instructional leadership rather than just management and maintenance. I think this generation of students requires a different level of thinking to prepare them for jobs that don't yet exist. We need to move beyond the traditional medium of instruction to a more versatile, diverse, and technologically based learning environment that gives students what they need to know and prepares them for a society that is evolving. We cannot be stagnant. As a new generation of leaders, we have to remain visionary to know how the budget, program design, and staffing fit together for a new formula to ensure greater success. We are losing too many students before they reach their senior year of high school. And they will become a drain on the system rather that a value-add. We want every child, no matter where they are from or what socioeconomic background they have, to graduate and continue their education so they can become reliable leaders, entrepreneurs, and sources of revenue to create a more secure society.