Chapter 7: Echando Pa’ Lante with Mentoring Networks: Latinas Being and Becoming Community School Leaders

Correspondence concerning this book chapter should be addressed to Sandra Quiñones, Department of Instruction and Leadership in Education, Duquesne University, 600 Forbes Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15282, quinoness@duq.edu.

There is a need to increase the numbers of Latina/o educators in leadership roles in U.S. public schools (Méndez-Morse et al., 2015; Rodríguez et al., 2015). Demographic research indicates Latino students (27.8%) are less likely to interact with or be influenced by Latino teachers (9%), principals (8%), and superintendents (less than 6%) (Snyder et al., 2019). Many factors influence the recruitment and retention of Latino leaders in schools and districts. As noted by Castro et al. (2018), factors include the “lack of culturally relevant leadership training among existing school and district administrators, limited mentors and role models, racism and resistance, wages and fewer promotion opportunities, and over-assignment to schools with difficult working conditions and fewer resources” (emphasis added, p. 2). Thus, in this chapter, we turn our attention to the importance of mentoring and networking for Latinas leading schools.