SANTA ANA, Calif. (Business Wire EON/PRWEB ) June 19, 2008 -- As family members and friends cheered them on, hundreds of Hispanic adults received certificates today from the Santa Ana Unified School District (SAUSD) and the California State Senate and Assembly signifying that they have successfully completed a Limited English-Proficiency (LEP) educational pilot program provided through the English Works initiative of the Greater Santa Ana Business Alliance. The event took place at the Valley High School Auditorium in Santa Ana.

We are very pleased at the large number of our parents who have taken the next step in ensuring the success of their children by learning themselves so that they too can become more involved with the academic process. We hope to see more parents such as these participate in the program next year

The magnitude of this graduation ceremony speaks to the determination that parents, given the right learning tools and environment, have for learning the language and participating in their children's education

In total, more than 1,000 adults who are parents of children enrolled in 40 District schools participated in the program, which took four to six months to complete.

Attending the ceremony were California State Assemblyman Jose Solorio, SAUSD Superintendent Jane Russo, Alfredo Amezcua, Greater Santa Ana Business Alliance trustee, attorney and SAUSD graduate, Alliance president and CEO Mike Metzler, and Bill Groux, CEO and founder, Retention Education/Sed de Saber.

"We are very pleased at the large number of our parents who have taken the next step in ensuring the success of their children by learning themselves so that they too can become more involved with the academic process. We hope to see more parents such as these participate in the program next year," said Russo.

The program relies upon Sed de Saber, (“Thirst for Knowledge”), a portable, electronic learning system developed by Retention Education, Inc. of Newport Beach, California that uses storytelling, voice recording, games and review exercises to build and improve English language skills. The school district allowed participants to borrow the systems at no cost.

"The magnitude of this graduation ceremony speaks to the determination that parents, given the right learning tools and environment, have for learning the language and participating in their children's education," said Groux.

Sed de Saber combines an English as a second language (ESL) curriculum with the LeapFrog ® Quantum LeapPad® Plus Microphone, allowing the learner to record, play back, and compare his/her voice to the word or phrase being learned.

Sed de Saber is currently teaching conversational English to roughly 55,000 Hispanic workers in the foodservice, hospitality, and construction industries, as well as 10,000 Hispanic parents of English language-learning children via our nation’s school systems.

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