Smaller Schools’ Grades Released

     Only one high school situated within the 5,896-square-miles that encompass Rio Arriba County, earned an above average grade on the annual assessment recently released by the New Mexico Public Education Department.

    For the second consecutive year, Mesa Vista High School received a B on the annual report cards published Aug. 22, which is much better than the high schools in the Chama Independent, Jemez Mountains, Española and Dulce School districts, as well as McCurdy Charter School.

    Mesa Vista High School wasn’t the only school to receive a favorable grade.

    Ojo Caliente Elementary School’s grade increased from a D in 2016, to a C this year. The other two schools, El Rito Elementary School and Mesa Vista Middle School both earned Fs, which is the same grade they earned for 2016.

    State law allows parents to transfer their child out of a school that earned two Fs in the past four years.

    Mesa Vista School Board Vice President Marvyn Jaramillo said he believes the poor letter grades, along with other issues, may have prompted parents to send their children to schools outside the District.

    However, he doesn’t know how many may have left.

    The District has a total of 254 students this year, which is 77 less than the 313 that were registered at the end of the 2016 School Year.

    Mesa Vista Consolidated Schools Superintendent Ernesto Valdez said although he is proud of the high school’s grade, he would like to learn more about how the grades are tallied.

    He thought the District would do better, considering the growth students exhibited on this year’s Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) and Standards Based Assessment (SBA) exams.

    “I am very proud of the high school,” he said. “I don’t know how they were calculated or what formulas were used. Our test scores were high, but our grades didn’t show it.”

    Valdez said he believes the test scores and the overall grades will continue to improve, as long as instructors like agriculture teacher Connie Lujan continue to incorporate available resources into their lessons.

    “At first, students not using the library concerned me,” he said. “But, she (Lujan) had them in there, doing research. If you don’t use the resources, you can’t master the skills.”

    Valdez said he believes the death of one of the more popular teachers also contributed to El Rito Elementary School’s poor grade.

    Third-grade teacher, Denise Archuleta, died in an automobile accident during the early part of the 2016 School Year and he said the loss had a profound effect on the students.

    “For the longest time, we had subs and they struggled to get the kids to learn,” he said.

    Half of the Chama Valley Independent School District’s schools received a satisfactory grade on this year’s report card.

    Both, Chama Elementary School and Chama Middle School earned Cs this year.

    While the middle school’s C represents a whole letter grade decrease from the B it received in 2016, Chama Elementary’s C is a improvement from the D, it got a year earlier.

    Both, Tierra Amarilla Elementary and Escalante Middle/High School administrators saw their grades drop, compared to 2016.

    Tierra Amarilla Elementary officials saw their grade fall two letter grades, from a B to D. The Middle/High School grade dropped one letter grade from a C to a D.

    Anthony Casados, Chama Valley Independent School District superintendent, said he believes Tierra Amarilla Elementary test scores had a negative impact on the school’s overall grade.

    “The T.A. Elementary School had a significant decrease in reading growth for lower-performing students and a significant decrease in math proficiency, which negatively impacted the final grade,” he said. “We need to take into consideration the number of students enrolled. One student’s test results in a small school such as ours will significantly impact test scores across-the-board.”

    Nearly all the schools in the Jemez Mountains School District earned lower grades on this year’s report card, compared to last year, except for one.

    Gallina Elementary School earned a B, which is an improvement over last year’s D.

    Gallina’s neighbor to the northwest, Lybrook Elementary School, earned a C, compared to the F from last year. Coronado High School’s grade fell from a B to a C, while Coronado Middle School earned the same F, it received last year.

    The only Jemez Mountains charter school, Lindrith Area Heritage, earned a C compared to the B, it earned in 2016.

    Jemez Mountains Charter School Superintendent Norma Cavasos said she can’t pinpoint one particular reason why the District’s schools earned lower grades this year, compared to last, but she and her staff will review both, the student test scores and teacher evaluations, to see what improvements need to be made.

    “We have to regroup, study the student and teacher data and use this data to guide us,” she said. “We need to work harder and provide more support to our teachers and hold all educators accountable.”

    To improve teacher accountability, she has instructed the school principals to visit each teacher’s classroom at least twice a week. The idea is to give the teachers immediate feedback that they can implement in their lesson plans.

    Cavasos said her District will also provide on-site professional development that targets areas where a teacher may need support.