El Centro Comunitario de Educación

About ECCDE

El Centro Comunitario de Educación, founded in 2005 and recently incorporated as a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization, is a community-oriented organization offering Latino immigrants access to educational resources.  Operating in partnership with the Consulate of El Salvador and Ascension Lutheran Church on Long Island, ECCDE has close ties with both organizations’ leadership, enabling it to share and build on their civic and social bases.  

The program is held two nights a week at both locations for ten weeks over the summer.  High school and college-age volunteer teachers lead dynamic sessions developed around students’ specific needs, and anchored by ESL lessons.  Diversity is celebrated through a multicultural expo.  Community members provide workshops on professional development, legal council and healthcare. 

Through citizenship classes, English as a Second Language, GED, TOEFL and computer classes, immigration workshops, employment services, legal counseling, translation services, K-12 tutoring, K-12 ESL and childcare, we use language as a tool to stimulate the integration of communities where teachers and students are socially empowered.

Beliefs and Values

We believe that students are not empty beings but filled with personal experiences, wisdom and worthy of dignity.   We offer a living curriculum where our teachers create lessons specific to their individual students' needs.  We believe that students and teachers are equal partners, working collaboratively in the classroom to build meaningful relationships beyond the classroom that reflect the values needed to transform the quality of each others’ lives.  To teach effectively, we first connect with students affectively; we speak their language and we know their culture as we inculcate mutual collaboration and collegial learning.  We pride ourselves on teaching what our students can benefit most from – in work, in life or in school.