Troubled Schools Don’t All Opt for State Aid

By JOHN SENA

Program’s all-or-nothing offer makes America’s Choice problematic for some

Aid: America’s Choice makes schools expand both math and reading

Zuni Public Schools Superintendent Kaye Peery and her staff were pleasantly surprised when they found out the state was going to fund a program to help with school improvement next year.

Because Zuni Middle School failed to meet testing requirements for more than five years, it is designated Restructuring 2, the lowest classification under the federal No Child Left Behind Act, and the state could replace its staff or take over the school.

At the school, which is located at the pueblo 35 miles south of Gallup, a little more than one-third of the seventh- and eighth- graders are proficient in reading and less than 13 percent met state standards in math last year. And, like other struggling schools, Zuni has received some professional-development help but little real support from the Public Education Department for improvement.

“We were all very apprehensive when we were told that the PED was going to come here,” Peery said. “Nobody really wanted them to come yet again.”

This year, though, the district was offered the option of using America’s Choice, a comprehensive reform program that includes extra math and reading periods for students who are not meeting New Mexico standards.

The state is using $3.2 million in federal improvement money to pay for the program in 22 of the lowest-performing schools, said Karen Harvey, an assistant secretary of education. She hopes to get funding from the Legislature to bring the program to eight additional schools.

This is the first time the department has paid the cost of comprehensive reform, but schools must agree to use the entire package.

Even if a school failed to meet requirements because of its math scores, it couldn’t choose to implement only the math portion of America’s Choice.

Peery admits that, initially, she didn’t like that idea. But after doing some research, her staff felt it was “a very positive program for our kids,” she said.

Peery said she was concerned that students will miss out on some electives because of the extra reading and math periods. “We are very concerned about students who might excel in some of these electives,” she said. But, Peery added, “We are taking a stance that if you cannot read and cannot do math, you cannot and will not be successful as an adult, and that has to take precedence.”

America’s Choice, she said, is actually very similar to what the district wanted to do anyway, and this way it’s paid for by the state.

Zuni staff members liked America’s Choice so much, they’re thinking about using it in Zuni’s two high schools.

Corrine Salazar, assistant superintendent and director of instruction for Espanola Public Schools, said her district is implementing the program in one of its middle schools. Still, the all-or-nothing offer was hard to swallow, she said.

“It’s kind of a sore issue for school districts around the state, not getting a choice,” Salazar said. “We’ll see how that goes. We want to do what’s best for our students in our district.”

Margo Shirley, former co-principal of Ortiz Middle School, an R- 2 school in Santa Fe, said her staff members decided not to use America’s Choice because they wanted to stick with a number of programs already in place rather than adopting Ramp-Up to Algebra, the program’s math component.

Over the past four years, Ortiz has received $45,000 annually from the state to partly fund after-school tutoring and a summer program. Shirley and co-principal Denine Mares also attended training in the Baldridge model that uses tests and other data to guide instruction. But they didn’t finish the program because money ran out, Shirley said.

Theresa Archuleta, principal of Valle Vista Elementary in Albuquerque, said America’s Choice wouldn’t work with her school’s dual-language program because “it didn’t have any Spanish materials.”

Next year, students will attend school for 25 extra days, and Valle Vista will reform its math and reading programs. The school looks to the district’s regional quality center for help more than the state, Archuleta added.

Another Albuquerque school, Ernie Pyle Middle School, also chose to go its own way. “We decided to opt out of (America’s Choice),” Principal Bernadette Cordoba said.

She admitted it “sounds crazy” for a school to refuse extra help, but because her school met requirements in math but not in reading, the whole package was not a good idea. Cordoba said she also relies more on her district’s resources.

Schools in R-1 or R-2 had to submit an alternative governance plan to the state for approval by this week.

Harvey, the assistant secretary, said their plans must fall into one of four categories: replacing all or most of the school staff; entering into a contract with an entity with a demonstrated record of effectiveness; turning the school over to the state; or other major restructuring.

Staff at schools who didn’t choose America’s Choice will have to prove that what they are doing will be enough to improve performance, Harvey said. “If they are not putting things into place, then the state has to step in,” she said.

Contact John Sena at 995-3812

or jsena@sfnewmexican.com.

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