Santa Fe/ Academy for Technology and the Classics Aims to Buy Building
By Robert Nott
The New Mexican
September 26, 2012
The Academy for Technology and the Classics wants to purchase its building and expand the facilities to include a gym, a cafeteria, science labs and perhaps a library.
ATC's board president, Tannis Fox, confirmed Wednesday that the school has entered into a purchase agreement with its nonprofit foundation to buy the building, located on Avan Nu Po Road in Rancho Viejo, for $4.6 million. She said the charter high school's governance board will likely vote to formally approve the purchase agreement at its next meeting, scheduled for Wednesday, Oct. 3.
"The agreement assumes we will get financing and then consummate the agreement within the next 12 months or so," Fox said. "We are exploring various finance options, including through the New Mexico Finance Authority, local banks and national lending agencies that lend to charter schools. We think we will be able to do it."
In addition, she said, the academy intends to ask Santa Fe Public Schools to include the school in its next general obligation bond election, scheduled for early 2013.
- ATC also hopes that the school board will approve about $300,000 in planning and design funds as part of its Facility Master Plan funding. (The district's most recent project-priority list ranks ATC's capital-improvement needs at No. 19 and notes that the school's expansion/improvement costs would top $5 million.)
"I'm feeling very confident that the building plan will go forward and we can leave the uncertainty behind," ATC Principal Susan Lumley said Wednesday. She said purchasing the building will allow the school, which serves about 350 students in grades seven through 12, to offer more academic, college-preparatory and athletic programs to students.
Student council President Pablo Guss, a senior, said by phone Wednesday that the school "was built for us, by us, and if we can stay and expand it to include all of our necessary facilities, it will be an amazing place for years and years to come."
But school board President Frank Moņtano said Wednesday that he is concerned about ATC's ability to pull off the deal: "Trying to purchase their own building has been a struggle for them; I'm worried about ATC's financial status going into the future."
Through last spring, the charter school had been paying about $45,000 in monthly rent to its foundation, which in turn had reimbursed its bondholder, the Hamlin Management Group of New York. More than half of the school's annual rent is covered by the state's Public School Capital Outlay Council funding, but the rest of the rent came out of the school's operational budget.
ATC's leaders spent much of last year debating whether to relocate to a less-expensive site, focusing much of that attention on the vacant Kaune Elementary School. The school board voted 3-2 last April to enter into a lease agreement for Kaune with ATC, but the charter school decided shortly thereafter to renegotiate a better rent deal with Hamlin and its foundation.
According to Lumley, Kaune is still a distant option should plans to buy the ATC building fall through.
According to public documents on the deal, Hamlin hired the Colorado-based Trophy Property Company to appraise the 10.5-acre ATC site last spring. It appraised the site at a little more than $5.5 million last spring.
The Academy for Technology and the Classics in turn contracted Pendleton Appraisal Ltd. of Santa Fe to appraise the property over the summer, and that appraisal came in at about $4.6 million.
The charter school's current challenges seemed to start in spring 2011, when a district audit uncovered numerous problems with ATC's financial management, human-resources department operations and its governance-council procedures. Shortly thereafter, the district temporarily suspended ATC's charter status until it got its affairs in order, and restored the charter in May 2012.
Both Fox and Lumley said they are confident the deal will go through. "Right now we are focusing our energy on purchasing the facility," Fox said.
Lumley said the school remains under-enrolled by about 10 students per grade in grades 10 through 12, and that ATC is holding open enrollment - meaning students do not have to enter a lottery to gain admission - in those grades through Friday, Oct. 5. Call the school at 473-4282 for more information.
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Santa Fe/ Vacant Manderfield Elementary School Eyed by Nonprofit
By Robert Nott
The New Mexican
September 26, 2012
If all goes well for both buyer and seller, a Chicago-based charitable nonprofit may open a Family Educational Foundation and Art Museum on the site of the vacant Manderfield Elementary School.
School board President Frank Montaņo confirmed Wednesday that the board voted Monday to enter into a purchase agreement with The Carl and Marilyn Thoma Foundation to sell the school site for $1.4 million. The Thomas have a home in Santa Fe.
- The deal is contingent upon Santa Fe Public Schools receiving approval for the sale from the state board of finance and upon the buyers completing due diligence requirements, including zoning approval, for the property with the city and county of Santa Fe.
- Among other terms within the 12-page purchase agreement, the offer also depends upon the buyers' verification that walls and portions of the site not designated as historic can be altered or removed.
- The agreement's mutually-agreed closing date is Nov. 20, according to the purchase deal. The Thoma Foundation made an earnest deposit of $25,000.
Carl Thoma is a managing partner of Thoma Bravo, LLC, a private-equity company with offices in both Chicago and San Francisco. The Thomas started and still operate Van Duzer Vineyards in Oregon.
Among other entities, their foundation made 2011 contributions to the Chicago Shakespeare Theater, the Museum of New Mexico Foundation, and the Oklahoma State University Foundation. In 2010, it gave money to those three organizations as well as The Santa Fe Opera, The Lensic Performing Arts Center, the New Mexico School for the Arts and SITE Santa Fe, among other artistic, literary and educational nonprofits.
The school, which opened in the late 1920s and was named after former board member Eugenia Manderfield, is located at 1150 Canyon Road. The school board closed the 12,000 square-foot site in the early 1970s and transferred most of its students to the new Atalaya Elementary School at that time.
Presbyterian Medical Services opened an early childhood Head Start program in Manderfield in the 1990s, but closed it about five years ago when the school board announced it had plans to sell the property to raise capital for the district. The $1.4 million can be rolled into the district's operating budget.
The school has remained vacant since Head Start moved out, although two films - including a 2010 production of Bless Me, Ultima, based on Rudolfo Anaya's novel - used it as a movie site over the past few years.
Reached by phone at her home in Santa Fe, Marilyn Thoma declined comment on the sale or plans for the site.
Shirley MacDougall, property-assessment manager for the school district, said neighborhood groups and representatives from the Upper Canyon Road area have told her that "having the school sit empty with a chain-link fence around it isn't helping the neighborhood.
"It would cost too much to renovate it [as a school]; neither the classroom sizes or the land area meet state standards for an educational facility. It would be hard to use for any kind of school unless it is a preschool or a small private school."
The district made at least seven additions to the school between the mid-1940s and 1970. It sits on 1.4 acres of land.
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ABQ/ UNM-CEPR Presents at Strive Network 2012 Convening
UNM Center for Education Policy Research
September 26, 2012
CEPR, in collaboration with the Network for Education Renewal and the United Way of Central NM, presented "Using Geospatial Mapping to Support Collective Impact" at the Strive Network 2012 Convening. Click here to download the presentation:
http://cepr.unm.edu/news/41/15/CEPR-Presents-at-Strive-Network-2012-Convening.html
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ABQ/ EDITORIAL: More Students Taking College Exams a Start
ABQ Journal
September 27, 2012
The good news? A much more diverse group of students is taking college entrance exams.
The bad news? More than half of them tanked.
That's true nationally and in New Mexico. And it does not bode well for an educated and prepared workforce to turn this economy around, much less make it sustainable.
It is a real advance that the class of 2012 was the most diverse class of SAT test-takers ever - with 45 percent of participants minorities and 28 percent not claiming English as their exclusive first language. But taking the test is just the beginning.
Getting into college based on the test score and doing well there is the finish line.
Unfortunately, just 25 percent of ACT takers nationally scored at or above the benchmarks that give them a 50-50 shot at earning a "B" or better in first-year college courses on the subject. The ACT examines student knowledge of English, math, reading and science. In New Mexico only 17 percent of students hit the benchmarks in all four subjects.
And while New Mexico outperforms national numbers on the SAT, that's typical in states where a only small percentage of college-bound students often looking to attend prestige schools out of state take that test. Just 13 percent of New Mexico students in the class of 2012 took the SAT, compared to 75 percent who took the ACT.
And New Mexico's higher SAT scores still didn't meet the benchmarks predicting college readiness and success. That number is a combined score of 1550. New Mexico's average SAT scores were 550 in reading and 546 in math - a combined score of 1096.
State education chief Hanna Skandera is correct that while increased participation is important, "the next, more vital step, is to make sure student performance on those exams show marked improvements in college and career readiness."
The state's new school grading system includes a component that gives credit for having students not only take the tests but perform well. These entrance exam scores show measuring that college readiness in the upper grades is important.
And doing well on college entrance exams has real-world relevancy.
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Clovis/ COLUMN: Schools Expanding 'Family Centers'
By Cindy Kleyn-Kennedy [Instructional technology coordinator for the Clovis Municipal Schools]
Clovis News Journal
September 26, 2012
There is a great deal of research on the critical importance of parent involvement in education. From parents establishing high expectations, to providing a supportive home environment, the role of parents in student academic success is extremely important. Research suggests that "lack of parental involvement is one of the biggest problems facing public schools" and that "family participation in education was twice as predictive of students' academic success as family socioeconomic status"
Valuing parent involvement opportunities in our schools, we are working towards establishing or expanding "Family Centers" at our elementary school sites.
- Eva Garcia, director of Federal Programs at Clovis Municipal Schools, explained. "We now have Family Centers at James Bickley, Highland, Cameo, Lockwood, and Parkview to encourage parent - and community - involvement." Garcia has been in education since 1978, as classroom teacher, instructional coach, administrator, and bilingual director, covering a wide geographic range from Texas, to Arizona, California and New Mexico.
The Family Center is any space at a school designated for use by families, students and staff.
- This may be an unused classroom, an empty room in a portable building, or a re-purposed teacher lounge. The idea is to have a place for parents to come to be a part of school life.
- There are usually a couple of Internet-accessible computers with currently used educational software installed.
- In addition, there are books, donated and/or recycled from classroom collections and standard school supplies, such as paper, crayons and markers.
- There is a comfortable "living room" feel with various pieces of furniture donated by individuals or groups, such as Mat. 25 or local businesses.
Standard hours of operation and scheduling of activities are maintained, with the Family Center overseen by one of our trained volunteers or staff member. There may be different types of student mentoring taking place, or possibly students coming in to do an Accelerated Reader quiz, receive tutoring, read, or whatever is deemed needed to support student learning.
Diana McGhee, Family Services liaison, and Christina Martinez-Guajardo, Family Services specialist, recently described the Family Center at James Bickley Elementary. "Kids have been eagerly coming in to the Family Center before school to read quietly or get some help with homework, rather than playing outside or going to the computer lab."
At Cameo Elementary, there are future plans to have presenters come in and do focused workshops for parents during the day or evening on parenting skills, computer skills, or other topics. Raymond Beachum, Family Services liaison and JoNella Bocanegra, parent volunteer, have been active in building community between school and families.
To participate as a volunteer - parent or community member - it is necessary to go through training/screening conducted by our Human Resources Department. Details are right on our website clovis-schools.org under "Sub/Volunteer," or contact the principal at your child's school.
Our kids are our most precious treasure, and any time spent supporting their education is well worth the effort.
Sources: www.michigan.gov/documents/Final_Parent_Involvement_Fact_Sheet_14732_7.pdf
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ABQ/ OPINION: Classroom Observations: Tough Part of Teacher Evals
By Hailey Heinz
ABQ Journal
September 25, 2012
Welcome to my blog! I'll be using this space to interact with parents, teachers and other readers with an interest in education in NM. It will include tidbits that don't make the paper and, knowing me, will probably be pretty heavy on research and wonkery.
Today I spent a few hours listening in on a meeting of NM TEACH, the panel convened by Education Secretary-designate Hanna Skandera to hash out the details of teacher evaluation. I've written about this effort a lot. [http://www.abqjournal.com/main/2012/07/19/news/battle-over-teacher-evals.html]
Lots of people get worked up about the test score portion of this evaluation system. But today's discussion was about teacher observation protocols.
- Under the PED's rule, observations account for 25 percent of teacher evals.
- A lot was said, but my read is that the crux of the issue is this: how do we give principals the time and resources they need to do meaningful evals?
- There was lots of talk about the role of the principal, and how much paperwork and management has become part of the job. Is there a way to make the principal job more focused on instructional leadership?
- Other ideas being discussed were certifying other administrators or even outside consultants or peer teachers to be evaluators.
Also lots of talk about inter-rater reliability, which is a fun stats term that means that if several evaluators observe the same lesson, they would evaluate it similarly.
This is going to be important going forward if teachers are to have confidence in the process.
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Denver CO/ Janus' $2.1 Million Grant to Boost Blended Learning in City Schools
By Karen Augé
The Denver Post
September 27, 2012
The investment firm Janus is giving Denver Public Schools $2.1 million to link teachers, students and software in what some say is a promising mix of high- and low-tech learning.
Blended learning - as the pairing of human instruction and personalized computer curriculum is known - gives teachers and students the ability to discover immediately what a child's strengths and weaknesses are in a particular subject.
- "This allows teachers to spend time doing what they do best, which is delivering quality content, and then giving them access to real-time data so they can know where kids are at any given time," said Casey Cortese, president of the Janus Foundation, which offers grants and charitable gifts.
- "We're not replacing teachers with technology," she said. "We're giving teachers access to better technology so they can assess students' skills."
Several charter schools in the district are already using blended learning.
The approach puts in classrooms computers loaded with software that complements lessons that teachers present live.
- "We see tremendous potential for technology to be such an important and useful tool for teachers," said DPS Superintendent Tom Boasberg.
- "The key element is a student can tell you where they are and what some of their needs are," he said. "If we can empower some students with that knowledge, we can see initiative for them to master their own learning."
The grant money will be used to hire a director of blended learning, train teachers and buy software and hardware. It will focus the grant on six pilot schools, including West Generation Academy, one of two schools that opened last month on the West High School campus.
Janus plans to track the effectiveness of different software and teaching methods, and the district will take the best of them to schools throughout Denver.
Boasberg said ballot initiatives going before voters in November would, if passed, provide money to sustain blended learning once the three-year Janus grant ends.
Janus recognizes that a well-educated workforce benefits them, Cortese said. But more than that, she said, "it's imperative that every child have access to a quality education."
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Washington DC/ Latest States in Hunt for NCLB Flexibility Include Rural Players
Fresh batch of applications hits Education Department
By Michele McNeil
Education Week, Vol. 32, Issue 5 [Edweek.org]
September 26, 2012
The seven states that have applied for the latest round of waivers under the No Child Left Behind Act represent a large swath of rural America, ensuring that the U.S. Department of Education's experiment in awarding flexibility in exchange for certain education-improvement promises will play out in a diverse set of states with vastly different geographies and student populations.
- At least half the schools in Alaska, Maine, New Hampshire, North Dakota, and West Virginia are considered rural by the National Center for Education Statistics. Alabama also has a high number of rural students, while Hawaii's single, state-run school district educates some students who live in remote island areas.
Those seven met the Sept. 6 deadline for a third round of judging under the Education Department's waiver process, announced last year by President Barack Obama as Congress continued to stall in its efforts to rewrite the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, of which NCLB is the latest version.
So far, the Education Department has granted waivers to 33 states plus the District of Columbia. With the addition of the seven new applications, 44 states in all have asked for flexibility.
Greater Appeal
While rural states largely sat out the Obama administration's other trademark programs-such as the Race to the Top grant competition-the offer of flexibility to any state that could agree to certain principles (such as creating teacher-evaluation systems that incorporate student growth) was far more enticing.
- "We were extremely interested from the beginning; we just wanted to move ahead with all due diligence," said Robert Hull, the associate state education superintendent in West Virginia. For example, he said the state wanted to wait to submit its application until a new law had been signed by the governor creating a teacher-evaluation system that uses student growth as one metric. That system is already in the pilot stages, and is scheduled to go statewide by 2014.
Mr. Hull said that the challenges his office faced weren't necessarily because West Virginia is rural, it's just that "we had some things we needed to align." Among them: ramping up the state's efforts to develop a student-growth model as a better measure of student and school progress.
- Maine and New Hampshire had expressed concern in a February letter to U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan about how they would make waiver requirements work in their rural states, indicating they needed more time.
"For us, the challenge was in the timing of being able to pull it together in the available time," said David Connerty-Marin, a spokesman in Maine's education department. In a small state with a small number of school districts and educators, he said there are a lot of expectations that everyone's opinion will be considered.
"As a rural state we don't have a sort of faceless, monolithic school system," Mr. Connerty-Marin said. "Collaboration, for us, really had to be important."
In addition to revamping teacher-evaluation systems, states hoping to get a waiver have to adopt college- and career-ready standards and tie state tests to them, and adopt a differentiated accountability system that focuses on 15 percent of their most troubled schools.
In return, states will no longer have to face the 2014 deadline for bringing all students to proficiency in math and reading, and their schools will no longer face NCLB-law sanctions such as providing school choice. District officials also will have more freedom to move around federal Title I money for disadvantaged students.
Common Approaches
While the seven third-round states are putting their own spin on accountability, they also share some common approaches.
Generally, these states are using just mathematics and reading in their accountability systems, whereas many early-round states incorporated other subjects, such as science and social studies.
They're sticking with the existing NCLB-specified subgroups such as English-language learners and students with disabilities, versus combining at-risk students into one large "super subgroup," as many previous waiver applicants had done.
And they are generally farther behind in implementing teacher evaluation systems that incorporate student growth.
But a few features in the applications stand out.
- North Dakota, for instance, felt that aiming for a 50 percent reduction in the achievement gaps among various student subgroups was too ambitious and unrealistic. That's one of the three choices the Education Department gave states in place of the 100-percent proficiency target under NCLB. Instead, the state is proposing its own goal-a 25 percent reduction in the achievement gap.
- Alaska becomes the second state to ask for flexibility when it has not adopted the Common Core State Standards or signed on with one of two state consortia working on common assessments. Neither is required, but adopting the common core and joining a consortium are encouraged by the Education Department and are the fast-track way of proving to federal officials that a state's standards, and tests, are up to snuff. Virginia, in the second round, became the first state to win a waiver without participating in either.
- Alabama is one of the few states that plans to incorporate the percentage of effective teachers and principals in each school into that particular school's rating system.
- Hawaii, which won a $75 million Race to the Top award in 2010, is one of the few that is incorporating into its accountability system the number of graduates that enroll in two- and four-year postsecondary institutions. Of the seven third-round states, Hawaii is the only one that says it has met the teacher-evaluation requirements-the piece that has caused Hawaii the most trouble as it seeks to implement its Race to the Top award.
In rural states where teachers are teaching multiple subjects, the teacher-evaluation piece can be the most challenging, said Chris Minnich, the senior membership director of the Council of Chief State School Officers.
"You have to have a conversation about how [these initiatives] play out in really small schools. I think these states are really thinking about this in a serious way," he said.
But rural applicants may also have been challenged by the size of their state education departments.
"These states tend to be smaller at the state education level. The [state education agencies] don't have quite the capacity ... the number of bodies to simply put together the application," Mr. Minnich said. "It is a bit more challenging."
NCLB Waiver Proposals
7 more states are seeking flexibility under the No Child Left Behind Act in the third round of proposals. The U.S. Department of Education has already approved the applications for 33 states and the District of Columbia.
To win approval, a state had to address a number of factors:
- The scope and details of the state's accountability system, including how student subgroups will be treated and the minimum number of students (or "n" size) that a school must have for that subgroup to factor into the state accountability system.
- If subjects other than reading and math will be used in accountability systems.
- Whether the state has met all the federal guidelines for implementing new teacher-evaluation systems that incorporate student growth.
- Whether a state plans to keep supplemental education services, or SES, and public school choice, which were consequences for schools that failed to make the grade under the NCLB law, and if it will still require districts to set aside Title I funds to pay for them.
- Whether any legislative changes are being sought.
SOURCES: Education Week; state applications
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New York NY/ Education Nation: Revived Support for Grammar Instruction
By Jackie Mader
Hechinger Report [Hechingerreport.org]
September 25, 2012
With American schools focused on raising reading and math scores to meet accountability requirements, writing often takes a backseat. The class of 2012 posted the lowest average writing score on the SAT this year since writing became part of the exam in 2006.
But with 45 states adopting Common Core standards that include writing and specifically grammar, some educators are examining new ways to bring grammar back into the classroom.
- "I think increasingly there's an understanding that while we don't ever want to go back to the drill and kill approach, from research and educators, we know that [explicit grammar instruction] is a critical component in education," said Roberta Stathis, executive director of The Teacher Writing Center, which runs the Grammar Gallery, an online resource for writing and reading instruction.
Day three of NBC's Education Nation summit featured the winner of the $75,000 Citi Innovation Challenge, a website called NoRedInk! that helps students improve grammar and writing skills. The website incorporates popular culture into student lessons and allows teachers to track progress on individual writing concepts, with lessons aligned to the Common Core standards.
Currently, emphasis on grammar in curriculum varies from state to state. The Teacher Writing Center has seen an increase in districts using its online writing program, with about 50 currently participating. But Patrice Gotsch, associate director at the Center, says there are some teachers and administrators who don't embrace explicit grammar instruction.
While grammar was one of the most-emphasized subjects during the 1950s, schools have shifted away from it since then, according to one study. "There's plenty of research that traditional grammar instruction and diagramming sentences does not work," said Sandra Wilde, a professor at Hunter College in New York City.
When the Common Core standards are rolled out in 45 states in 2014, teachers will be expected to explicitly teach concepts like participles and infinitives, and students will be expected to explain usage of such terms.
Wilde says she expects that the revival of grammar will prompt companies to develop new products and textbooks. She added that developers should ensure that online sites aren't replicating the old grammar workbooks in a high-tech package.
"To be good," she said, "the developers would be well-served by really working with some literacy people who are up to date in the field and have some innovative ways of thinking about it."
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Denver CO/ EDITORIAL: Best DPS Schools Refute Critics
Local leaders should heed the lessons of successful charter schools, not try to obstruct their growth.
The Denver Post
September 27, 2012
So much education news is discouraging these days - stagnant SAT scores for the class of 2012, for example - that when good news appears, it's worth highlighting. And in the case of Denver Public Schools, the good news is particularly worth noting because some local leaders continue to resist the lessons involved.
Just last week, for example, school board member Andrea Merida suggested, according to EdNews Colorado, that the district "consider postponing the opening of the STRIVE Prep High School for another year." Merida is one of three board members who repeatedly find excuses to obstruct or complicate the growth of successful charter schools in Denver despite clear evidence they are among the highest-performing facilities around.
Merida opposed co-location of the STRIVE high school (formerly West Denver Prep) at North High when it was first proposed this year. And last week she voted with two other members against a resolution to set a timetable to examine whether the leading alternative to the North High plan - which was offered by a citizen committee - is workable.
Plans for a STRIVE high school are worth dwelling on because of the release this week of the district's annual School Performance Framework, which ranks schools from "distinguished" and "meets expectations" down to "on probation."
Of the 15 distinguished schools, three are STRIVE middle schools. And the remaining STRIVE school with a rating meets expectations. Given that these campuses serve primarily students who qualify for free and reduced-price meals, it would amount to an abdication of duty for the board to postpone the high school and deny students a place to flourish in this learning environment.
By the way, of those 15 distinguished schools, seven belong to just three charter systems: STRIVE, DSST and KIPP.
No less encouraging, a growing number of neighborhood schools also show up on the district's top rankings - reflecting, according to the district, that "DPS has seen more academic growth than any medium or large school district in the state."
Not all is well, by any means. There are more students now in the two worst categories of schools than a year ago, which is cause for genuine concern. But if there is a cure for such dismal performance, it surely lies in replicating what has been found to work rather than throwing up roadblocks.
