Saturday, August 2, 2008

Bosque Farms, Family School Katherine Gallegos, Valencia, Peralta make grade in LL

Kenn Rodriguez News-Bulletin Staff Writer; krodriguez@news-bulletin.com

Los Lunas For a second year in a row, five of 15 schools in the Los Lunas Schools reached Adequate Yearly Progress according to the New Mexico Public Education Department.

Bosque Farms Elementary, Katherine Gallegos Elementary, Peralta Elementary and Valencia Elementary School all attained AYP, as did Los Lunas Family School, while Tomé Elementary and Ann Parish Elementary just missed making AYP - Tomé by a single student, according to district superintendent Walt Gibson.

"We've had the reports for two weeks," he said. "(District Director of Research, Data and Assessment) Patricio Rojas does a great job. Once we sent his office the files, we did our own work and worked while were away in Virginia and shared them with the with board last week while were at the retreat.

"When you look at it and take in every cell, we have in all the schools, you see we have far more gains than losses," said Gibson. "Our next task is to try and figure out where go next."

Valencia High School, the district's 16th school, was not included in this year's AYP report because NM-PED changed its high school testing grade to the 11th grade, which Valencia High did not have last year. VHS will have its first class of 11th graders this school year.

Gibson said he was happy with the progress schools were making and said that he felt three or four schools were within range of making AYP in future years.

"Los Lunas Elementary was very close and made a lot of improvement," he said. "Tomé was one student away from making AYP, so I think we're getting there."

Gibson said Los Lunas Middle School made the most improvement during the year, increasing its numbers in math and reading of more than 10 percent in most cases.

"Los Lunas Middle School didn't make AYO because of the special education cell. But when you look closer, gains were made in every category, some in the double-digit gains. They went from 56 percent to 68 in reading, 20 percent to 32 percent in math. That's a 12 point gain there, which is very good in a year's time."

Los Lunas Middle School was not the only school hurt by its lack of success with special education students, Gibson said. None of the district's 15 schools that were tested passed in that category, called "Students with Disabilities" in the reports.

"The big issue we continue to see is that we have a lot of work in special ed," Gibson said. "It is what it is, but we're committed to figuring how to crack the special ed nut because the data is discouraging to us."

Gibson said the lack of progress at Los Lunas High is also discouraging, but said he was optimistic that the high school reform package that has been put in place at LLHS will start paying dividends next year.

"Los Lunas High School is discouraging, and there's a lot of work to be done to get the kids there up to standard," he said. "Now that we're testing kids in their junior year, it's really a college-ready test. But the message is clear - we don't have enough kids college-ready."

"We've really done a lot of work on high school reform," he said. "Next year's 11th graders are a group that's had the advantages of support with the double periods for math and literacy. I don't want to discount this year, but we're expecting a bump next year with the high school reform."

Gibson said the district would focus on making sure that there is increased achievement from special education students.

"We spent last year getting the training in place," he said. "Now we need results."

A few adjustments were made by the State Public Education Department this year that allow a little more flexibility, but Gibson said the district isn't likely to appeal the AYP numbers on schools close to meeting the grade, like Ann Parish (APE) and Tomé.

"APE and Tomé don't fall into any sort of category because they made AYP last year," he said. "I've talked to both principals, and they have plans already in place on how to get schools back on track.

"There's nothing there that would've made any difference to us in terms of categorization or making and not making AYP," he said. "LLE and Tomé are two schools that possibly have grounds for appeal, but I don't want to be optimistic and say an appeal will even be made until we've had more time to analyze the data."

One thing Gibson said he highlighted to the board when presenting them with the AYP results was how high some schools have managed to climb.

Bosque Farms Elementary, for instance, hit 70 percent proficiency in reading for the first time this year as did, as did Katherine Gallegos Elementary. The AYP goal for elementary schools is 59 percent.

Both schools also topped 55 percent - BFES at 57.4 percent and KGE at 55.2 percent.

Gibson also said gains were made at Manzano Vista Middle School, where he said 12 of the 14 cells in the school made gains.

"We couldn't be more pleased at gains at the middle schools," he said. "With the gains in the double digits at Los Lunas Middle School, you can't ask for more.

He also said Daniel Fernandez Intermediate is making gains as well.

"Generally speaking, we have some very positive results for us even though don't we don't have more schools making AYP," Gibson said. "Overall we're trending upward. We didn't trend up fast enough or significantly to catch up make significant gains in more schools, but we have a bunch of schools close to making AYP.

"If we have four or five schools make another three to four points, we'll be in shouting distance and the goals for the upcoming year go back to the four to six point range," he said. "So I think it's doable.

"I'm optimistic that we're heading in the right direction," Gibson said.

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