State of Academics Discussed at Pojoaque Valley School District School Board Meeting
By David Neal
On January 30th I attended the Pojoaque Valley School District academics work session. The session was for the Board of Education to present input from the various schools regarding academic needs for the upcoming Spring budget planning process.
Each school principal, with help from their staff , gave a presentation on the strengths and weaknesses of each school’s academic program and proposed measures to improve the academic performance of our students. In one sense it was like a “State Of Academics” presentation for PVSD.
I was impressed by the programs and new initiatives being undertaken by the schools to improve academic proficiency but a lot of improvement is still needed.
The District’s educators are extremely dedicated to improving the performance of our students but like so many other schools in New Mexico and nationally, our students are not achieving proficiency in many areas of education.
It appears to me that PVSD has created an environment where students can achieve a good education but as the old saying goes, you “lead a horse to water but you cannot make it drink i.e., a school can create an environment for academic excellence but it is the student’s choice to achieve that excellence. Now having said this, a lot PVSD graduating seniors still must take remedial college courses during their freshman year because something is lacking in their high school education. Some of these seniors
still must take remedial courses after completing some of the PVSD’s Advanced Placement (AP) classes
It was encouraging to observe that all presentations included comments regarding the State’s recent A-F grading results. See http://webapp2.ped.state.nm.us/SchoolData/SchoolGrading.aspx) for Pojoaque School State grades. Several Pojoaque schools received low grades in certain areas and the educators showed a sincere concern about these grades and wanting to improve the grade. I found this good because some people could have taken the stance the grade or the grade criteria is unfair and therefore choose not to do anything to change it.
Some of this thinking occurred when the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) program was started and a lot of people did not agree with the program’s criteria on how to measure progress.
One very disturbing fact that was reported is there are some students entering high school with reading proficiency of a 5th grade
level student. The number of these students was extremely low, maybe around 5 or 6 , but it certainly supports Governor Martinez’s push to hold back 3rd grade level students if they are not proficient in reading at the 3rd grade level. Granted holding back a student certainly does not address or fix the issue of why a student is not reading at an appropriate level but it certainly will increase the student’s chance of achieving academic success in high school resulting in graduation.
PVSD continues to improve on measuring student performance based on “data-driven decision making” (DDDM) using both long and short term assessments i.e., testing. Using the State’s Student Based Assessment (SBA) and Northwest Evaluation Association’s Measure of Academic Progress (NWEA/MAP-www.nwea.com) for long/yearly progress, educators are identifying students needing improvement and the areas needing improvement. Both of these programs are State mandated.
What I found encouraging was the additional use of Renaissance Learning’s (www.renlearn.com) short term assessments in reading and mathematics. This assessment tool allows teachers to evaluate a student’s progress on a weekly sometimes daily basis and gives immediate feedback to the teachers with the information needed to change a student’s instruction to improve the student’s performance.
Several schools reported increased proficiency in both reading and math as a result of using this new tool. See http://www.rand.org/pubs/occasional_papers/OP170.html for what DDDM is all about. DDDM has been around for years but recent improvements in PVSD technology infrastructure has allowed for the expanded use of DDDM.
It seemed to me there is a problem in grades 4 thru 8. Inconsistent test scores, some test scores showing a declining in proficiency, and the State’s A-F grades indicated to me that something is not happening in these grades for the students. For example, there is a gradual decline in math proficiency starting with 3rd grade students and continuing through the 5th grade.
On a positive note, the educators are now aware of this decline and are working to fix it. But this decline may be indicative of a bigger problem, leadership. All of the schools from grades 4 through 8 have recently appointed principals. However, should a new principal cause student proficiency to decline. I hope not. One of my favorite sayings is “there are no bad crews, only bad leaders” … so maybe it is leadership at a higher level.
One possible explanation might be that the District’s curriculum is not vertically aligned/in agreement across these schools resulting in “different” text books being used at different schools. This could result in students becoming proficient in a certain area and then losing this proficiency when they advance to the next grade level because of a different curriculum. Not sure what the cause is but it is good to know the educators are fixing it. Maybe the Common Core State Standards
Initiative will fix this problem. See (http://www.corestandards.org/)
After each presentation, principals were asked what process was being used to monitor the quality of instruction being given in the classroom and the effectiveness of the teachers. All schools indicated that the principal routinely visits the class room to observe how the instruction is being presented. This is a good thing. It is like getting the project manager out of his/hers office to find out what is “really” happening in the “field”. It looks like PVSD has got a good start regarding the recommendations in the
State’s Effective Teach Task Force. See http://www.ped.state.nm.us/ttf/docs11/NM .
I would recommend that PVSD really consider starting a district wide summer school to allow students to improve their proficiency in certain areas. This would be a big cost to the District and initial results will probably not be significant for a couple of years. So this would have to be a long term commitment in order to realize any improvements. However, students are not improving under the current approach and something needs to be done differently. If my memory is correct, summer school was suggested by a
couple of the presenters as one possible way of improving our students.
Another item I think PVSD should work on is expanding the curriculum for students who would like to remain the community after graduation and work at some of the local businesses. The current culinary program is an excellent example since Santa Fe and the surrounding areas have a lot jobs in the hospitality industry. Currently, the high school is using a software program to help students, parents, and counselors to determine what the student would like to do after graduation. Aside from the culinary
curriculum and there may be others, it is not clear to me that PVSD has a curriculum designed specifically for local businesses.
