Moriarty Schools Earn Kudos From Magazine ; Reading First Gets National Attention

By BETH HAHN Mountain View Telegraph

The Moriarty Municipal Schools district has garnered statewide attention for its implementation of a reading program and, in the coming months, two education magazines will put the district in the national spotlight.

The first article appears in the current issue of Scholastic Administrator magazine and provides a glowing page-anda-half glimpse of Moriarty’s implementation of the Reading First program.

Reading First is a federal program designed to encourage underachieving lowincome schools to get students in kindergarten through third grade reading at grade level.

Moriarty was recognized by the state Public Education Department last year as a model district — meaning school officials from around the state study Moriarty’s implementation of Reading First in hopes of replicating its success.

In the Moriarty district, Edgewood Elementary, Moriarty Elementary and Mountainview Elementary are participating in the program.

The district’s other elementaries, Route 66 and South Mountain, do not qualify for Reading First funding, according to district federal grants coordinator Laura Moffitt.

Funding is based on the number of students at each school who qualify for free and reduced-price meals and the academic need of each school, she said.

Moriarty receives about $800,000 yearly for the program, which funds training for teachers and reading coaches who assist classroom teachers during reading times each day.

Moriarty district Superintendent Karen Couch said the interviews and materials for the Scholastic Administrator article were done about a year ago.

Juliette Heinze, a freelance writer who submitted the article to Scholastic Administrator, was part of a national Reading First evaluation team that visited New Mexico about a year ago, Couch said.

During the evaluation, Heinze witnessed how Edgewood Elementary staff used Reading First and mentioned the experience in the Scholastic Administrator article.

EES could be closed if the district does not come up with about $1.5 million to cover a projected budget shortfall. School board members voted 3-2 last May to close the school if student enrollment declined by 40 or more during the fall semester of the 2006-07 school year.

The district’s most recent numbers show a decline by 200-plus students.

The state funds public schools by the previous years’ enrollment, and Moriarty has lost about $7 million in state funds since the late 1990s. The district has also cut more than $3 million in expenses and 81 staff positions since 2001.

Couch said Edgewood Elementary was not chosen for the magazine article purposefully.

“They only had time for one site visit,” she said. “They chose Edgewood (Elementary) randomly and they just happened to be having their Reading First meeting.”

According to its Web site, Scholastic Administrator is a national magazine with about 240,000 subscribers.

Couch said the district will be featured a second time in Education Week, another national magazine, sometime in the spring.

A team of writers and photographers spent several days last week observing reading classes in each of Moriarty’s five elementary schools, Couch said.

That article, she said, will also focus on the district’s implementation of Reading First and how teachers are using wireless technology to improve student literacy.

Reading First requires students to take a test on a PalmPilot or similar handheld device. The results of the test are sent to a computer server that charts each student’s progress. Teachers and administrators can view the test results by classes, grade level or individual student to plot their reading strategy.

The publicity, said Couch, means the district is doing something right when it comes to educational programs.

“It’s something that we can show that we are doing a good job with addressing student achievement with limited resources,” she said. “That’s something we’ve tried to emphasize with both of the magazines.”

While the national publicity probably will not sway New Mexico legislators to give Moriarty an extra $1.5 million to keep Edgewood Elementary open for the next two years, Couch said the added attention can’t hurt.

“We’re going to try to get some of this information up on our Web site,” she said. “I think any positive publicity is a plus for our district.”

Scholastic Administrator can be found on the Internet at www.scholastic.com/administrator/feb07. The article featuring Moriarty is “A Better Road.”.

Education Week is also available online at www.edweek.org.

(c) 2007 Albuquerque Journal. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.