Aurelio M. Montemayor, M.Ed.

Family Engagement Coordinator

Aurelio M. Montemayor, M.Ed., is IDRA’s Family Engagement Coordinator. Currently serving as the professional development team leader for IDRA, he brings extensive experience in working with school personnel, parents and students. His career in education spans four decades and has included teaching at the high school, middle school and elementary school levels.

Mr. Montemayor received a bachelor’s degree in English and philosophy from St. Edwards University Austin and a master’s degree in bilingual education from Antioch Graduate School of Education in Ohio.

Mr. Montemayor believes in the power of community engagement for leadership development and effective education. He was the lead developer of IDRA’s Family Leadership in Education model. One sustained effort of the leadership process is with ARISE, a south Texas community organization, where a new Education CAFE (formerly called Community PTA) was organized that epitomizes the IDRA family leadership process. The Education CAFE movement is spreading to other organizations with IDRA’s guidance and support.

He previously directed the U.S. Department of Education’s Investing in Innovation (I3) program to further develop the PTA Comunitario process and rigorously document and evaluate the successful practice in expansion to 20 campuses in five school districts. In 2017, the name PTA Comunitario was changed to Education CAFE, emphasizing the diversity of communities who are engaged in impacting their public schools.

Mr. Montemayor currently directs IDRA’s Education CAFE work and, specifically, IDRA’s Texas Education CAFE Network, funded by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. Through this project, IDRA is establishing a Texas Education CAFE Network of community-based family and educator groups that help inform public education policies and practices related to implementation of the Every Student Succeeds Act.

Mr. Montemayor was instrumental in co-designing and implementing IDRA’s federally-funded parent information and resource center: Texas IDRA PIRC. The center brought together parents, schools, universities, community organizations and businesses to support under-served student populations. As its director for 12 years, he led in the formalization of its innovative and results-oriented approach to strengthening partnerships between parents and school personnel in serving children, the working relationship between home and school, and enhancing the developmental progress of the children assisted in this program.

Mr. Montemayor has served on several national boards, including the National PTA, Parents for Public Schools (PPS) and the National Association for Bilingual Education.

Although currently focusing a major portion of his time on family engagement in education, Mr. Montemayor has done much work in training of trainers for professional development. He has directed programs and conducted staff development for teaching English language learners in key content areas, for assessing and reducing teacher burnout, and creating and supporting professional learning communities among elementary and secondary teachers.

Mr. Montemayor created the WOW! Workshop on Workshops training and guide, which includes a challenging, highly participatory two-day session that – with a touch of humor – gives practical, research-based tools for preparing and leading a superb workshop with minimal stress.

He has directed efforts to create and support collaborative efforts such as the Texas Latino Education Coalition, the San Antonio Coalition for Educational Excellence, and Parents Bilingual Education. He was lead trainer for 10 years with the Community Education Leadership Project in San Antonio and has conducted leadership training for youth organizations, non-profit groups and civic organizations.

His administrative roles at IDRA have included acting as the general manager for a project on enhancing the quality of retention of minority teachers and teachers in critical shortage areas, serving as director of IDRA’s training institutes for school administrators, board members and parents, and acting as manager of general education assistance services with the South Central Collaborative for Equity at IDRA, the equity assistance center that served a five-state region.

Mr. Montemayor writes regularly for the IDRA Newsletter, has published several collections of essays and is a lead contributor to IDRA’s Classnotes podcast.

Publishing

Lenguaje Dual ¡Si! Abogacía comunitaria efectiva para educación bilingüe, Eva Carranza, Lourdes Flores and Aurelio Manuel Montemayor, in press

El Curso de la Raza: The Education of Aurelio Manuel Montemayor, by Thomas Ray Garcia & Aurelio Montemayor. Foreword by Norma E. Cantú. (in press). Texas A&M University Press.

IDRA and ARISE Expand Servant Leadership to Advocacy and Action in South Texas, By Aurelio M. Montemayor, Nancy Feyl Chavkin, & Lourdes Flores. In Cases on Servant Leadership and Equity, 2023

Strategic Partnership for Family Leadership: Education CAFÉ, by Aurelio M. Montemayor, & Nancy Feyl Chavkin. In Research Anthology on Balancing Family-Teacher Partnerships for Student Success, 2023

The Dialogical Journey of Aurelio Manuel Montemayor, chapter by Aurelio M. Montemayor and Thomas Ray Garcia. In Radically Dreaming: Illuminating Freirean Praxis in Turbulent Times, May 2022

Unmet Promises in Texas Education, chapter by David Hinojosa, Maria “Cuca” Robledo Montecel, and Aurelio M. Montemayor. In Martínez, R., Brischetto, R., & Avena, J.R. (eds), Mexican American Civil Rights in Texas: 1968 – 2018, 2021

Liderazgo Familiar Intergeneracional: Intergenerational Family Leadership as a New Paradigm of Family Engagement, by Aurelio Montemayor and Nancy Chavkin, for VUE Voices in Urban Education, September 2016

Media featuring Aurelio Montemayor

How second- and third-generation Latinos are reclaiming the Spanish language, by Karen Garcia, LA Times, January 31, 2023

Better Schools Through Parent Empowerment, Integrated Schools Podcast, featuring Aurelio Montemayor, April 28, 2021

Webinar Helps Teachers Connect with Students, Families, By Stefanie Jackson, Easter Shore Post, August 20, 2020

Profile interview published in Our Children magazine

How ‘Comunitarios’ Are Changing the Way Schools and Communities Collaborate, by Aurelio Montemayor for the National Association for Family, School, and Community Engagement (NAFSCE) Blog, May 23, 2016

“Communitarios” – A New Approach to Family Leadership in Education, by Aurelio Montemayor for the National Association for Family, School, and Community Engagement (NAFSCE) Blog, May 23, 2016

Video: Communities Using Data – IDRA OurSchool Portal, Aurelio Montemayor interview, 2015

Video: National PTA – Emerging Minority Leaders Conference, Aurelio Montemayor presentation, 2013

Univision Video: Latinos with the Highest Dropout Rates, Aurelio Montemayor interview, 2011