Alumna becomes President Bush's advocate for education reform

Adela Acosta

School principal Adela Acosta's calendar has boasted some impressive appointments in recent years: lunches and receptions at the White House, an appearance at
Maryland Gov. Robert Ehrlich's 2003 State of the State address, and an entrance on horseback in the Houston Astrodome.

Acosta, a daughter of Spanish Harlem who now leads an elementary school in Hyattsville, Md., is quick to credit the origin of her horsemanship. "I learned to ride in Kansas," she volunteers as she joyously recalls the surprises that have swept her onto the national stage as a symbol for President Bush's education reform proposals.

Her newsmaking adventures began with the advent of the Bush Administration in 2001, but their roots lie in her challenging childhood. Born in Puerto Rico, she immigrated as a young girl with her parents to New York City, where her mother worked in a sweatshop and her father overcame heroin addiction and an assault that left him blind. In first grade, Acosta found herself in a special-education classroom, labeled as learning-impaired because of her difficulty with English. At 17, she entered a convent.

Later, in a series of twists that Acosta calls miraculous, she learned about the University of Kansas. Shortly after she turned 21, she sang at church wedding. One of the guests was so impressed that he talked to her about her interests: music and psychology. Would she like to study music therapy? Yes, she replied. From the guest she learned there were two such programs in the nation-the first had been founded at KU. Months later, with grants and loans and a $5 weekly allowance scraped together by her mother, Acosta began her education in Lawrence.

"I cried the first year, " she recalls. "I had no friends and no family, but that experience laid the foundation. Kansas taught me how to go out there and not be afraid. In retrospect, God placed me where I needed to be."

After beginning her career as a mediator with the U.S. Justice Department, Acosta became a teacher and school principal. Four years ago, she became the first Hispanic principal in Prince George's County, Md., leading Cesar Chavez, a 450-student school that is predominantly Hispanic and African-American. Nearly 100 percent of the students qualify for free or reduced-price lunches.

In January 2001, Acosta received a call from the White House, inviting her to meet with President Bush on the day after he took office. She would participate in a 14-member discussion about education reform, which Bush had summarized in his presidential campaign under the slogan "No Child Left Behind."

As the guests left the Roosevelt Room that morning, Acosta approached the president. "I thanked him and told him my story," she says. "I explained that the experience was such a miracle for me because I was almost one of those kids left behind."

A few weeks later, Acosta was a guest of President and first lady Laura Bush for the State of the Union address. And in February 2001, Mrs. Bush visited Cesar Chavez school, where she and Acosta formally launched the administration's education initiatives.

The wonder of it all still wafts through Acosta's conversation as she describes even more surprises. "Did it end there? No! Next I get appointed to the President's Commission on Excellence in Special Education," she says. "We traveled and held hearings throughout 2002. One day we were sitting in the Brooklyn judicial chambers, hearing testimony from chancellors and educators, and it finally hit me: Because I went all the way to Kansas all those years ago, now I have come back to New York."

Her service on the national scene has continued through numerous policy hearings (the Houston session with Education Secretary Roderick Paige included the rodeo appearance). She lobbied for the re-authorization of the Individuals with Disabilities in Education Act. She has served on educational panels devoted to teaching strategies for struggling readers, and she has written articles for national journals-all while completing a book project for her doctoral dissertation.

In January 2003, Acosta was in the spotlight again, this time as one of Gov. Robert Ehrlich's "Faces of Maryland" in his State of the State speech. "I believe in charter schools, and he does, too," she says of Ehrlich.

And it is educational policy that motivates her, she says. "I enjoy the show and the party; it's been fantastic," she says. "But all of these blessings come because there is work to be done in the vineyard; there is lots of work to be done in education."

Acosta's book will recount her life and the lessons she hopes will help recruit and retain future teachers. "Young people must be prepared at the university level with practical methods," she says. "They cannot just learn the foundations of education. What you really need to do as a teacher is walk into a classroom and manage that classroom. We need to offer practical tips on how that can happen. Teachers need to diagnose problems and prescribe interventions so our children can read and compute."

And even though she now is a public advocate, Acosta does not forget the practical applications and the personal stories of teachers and students.

"If someone had told me that this would happen to me, I would never have believed it," she says. "Educators don't get too many accolades, and President and Mrs. Bush and Gov. Ehrlich have been so generous.

"But at the bottom of all this I feel very humble. I know where I came from and I know how easily I could lose it."

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