Hello everyone:
Two things this week:
1. The APS Redistricting Committee meets at Cibola High School on Thursday, Nov. 3 from 6 to 8 p.m. This is an opportunity for you to see how the school board boundaries are being redrawn as a result of the 2010 census. It's an opportunity to have your voice heard if you believe the West Side needs more representation on the Board of Education.
2. Below is my letter to Republican state Senators Vernon Asbill and Sander Rue. I have also attached the draft A to F reform regulation and the Board of Education's questions/concerns regarding it.
I implore all of you to look at the attached document by the Board of Education and at my letter below. I implore all of you to write your letter to our Public Education Department regarding the A to F draft regulation. Public comment ends TOMORROW, NOV. 2. (Moderator's Note: This can be found in our files section: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Volcano_Vista_HS/files/)
You may cut/paste from my letter or the attached questions. I don't care. But we parents and teachers constantly gripe about AYP and here we have a chance to actually have our input heard! I get very frustrated that we parents don't talk more to our legislators and public officials! Get involved! Be an advocate for our kids -- for your kids -- in this state!
Here is my qualifying statement: A to F at its core is a better approach than AYP because it offers a clearer way of identifiying schools and their performance. (Who really understands what Restructing 1 or Corrective Action 2 mean?) However, the draft has some mandates that are questionable.
I am NOT against reform! I do believe we can do even more for our students!! I abhor the politics of education reform. Reform on paper means absolutely NOTHING if it is not thoughtfully written. It's just like the parent engagement policies all of our public schools must have as part of their Educational Plans for Student Success each year. On paper, it looks great. In implementation, it stinks at some schools because there's not a will to really carry the plan through or the plan isn't based on reality.
Please get involved in the A to F discussion that is being held in this state.
Dear Senator Asbill,
I would like to thank you for your comments regarding A to F as written today in the Albuquerque Journal.
I have had a conversation with Secretary Skandera and Senator Rue regarding my serious apprehensions about the draft regulation. You spoke of a few of my own concerns in the article.
I took it upon myself to not only read the draft line for line and draw up a list of questions and concerns, but I also gathered input from my fellow APS Board of Education members. We sent our letter and the full list of questions/concerns to the PED a week ago last Friday. I have attached our questionnaire for you to consider.
I told Secretary Skandera and Senator Rue that there is no doubt our schools have need for improvement! However, as I sit and have an intimate front seat to the efforts being made by APS and the realities of what the district faces, I have a real problem endorsing the A to F approach. My view is further entrenched after visiting the Council of Great City Schools conference in Boston last week, where I learned from other large district officials that the challenges they face mirror our own.
Our public schools do not have the ability to cherry-pick the type of student they serve. We must serve them all and that is a difficult thing to do, especially when a lot of our students come to us in kindergarten not even knowing how to hold a pair of scissors!
Here is my laundry list of problems regarding the draft: Unfunded mandates. Transportation costs. Remediation. Free transfer to any school without the Title I funding following the student. A weighted system based almost entirely on SBA scores (just like AYP). An unclear proposal that cites "proven methods" of remediation. "College and career readiness" that isn't spelled out at all nor takes into consideration that this year's APS 9th graders will need to have an honors, AP or dual credit college course to graduate. Lack of collaboration with the state's largest district. And these are just a few of my problems with the draft.
Can APS and the state of New Mexico do better? You bet we can! But I don't understand how the PED (and state lawmakers) can tell me that writing down something on paper without consulting the actual practitioners will help our education system. Regardless of what anyone believes or feels about Superintendent Brooks, the district is on an upward trend and has been so since he came on board. Superintendent Brooks' leadership team is an amazing group of talented professionals who are passionate about student achievement. The Board of Education members share that passion -- to a fault. APS teachers, on the whole, are amazing and doing the best they can with limited funding and resources.
I would hope and invite state lawmakers to come with me on my rounds to our schools and learn where the true need for reforms are really felt. Here are just two ideas that are nowhere to be found in the reform agenda: Fully funded mandatory preschool programs for our children from socioeconomically deprived families and reading and math interventionists for kindergarten through second-graders so we don't have to consider holding them back in 3rd grade! We have at APS some of these preschool programs in select schools like Helen Cordero on the West Side. But we don't have the funding to do what we would like to do with them: expand and fill this dire need.
As a mother of four APS students in grades 2 through 9, I would encourage lawmakers to really consider that A to F may just do the opposite of what it's intended -- erode even more the public confidence in our schools. When my non-Title I schools in my district earn a D or an F, you better believe the parents are going to be outraged!
Thank you for being a reform-minded lawmaker who, like me, appears to see that there are some problems with the draft as written that MUST be worked out. I asked, on behalf of the Board and the district, whether Secretary Skandera would consider using APS as a pilot in the A to F model for the next school year. That would give the PED the opportunity to see how it works with the largest district that serves 1/3 of the state's students. Plus, it would offer the opportunity to tweak, refine and reform the reform! That idea was shot down.
I implore you and Senator Rue to pass my letter around to lawmakers of all political stripes. Reform of our education system is not about the Democrat or the Republican way of doing business. It's about doing right by our children, and frankly, that means taking sure-footed baby steps toward long-term reform!
Respectfully,
Kathy Korte
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