Belen students will have the right tools for learning

BELEN — As classes get underway for Belen Consolidated Schools students in a couple of weeks, they may notice a change in mindset from the top of the organization all the way down to the bottom.

BCS Superintendent Lawrence Sanchez said the board is making a change to a student outcome form of governance, which will intensify the district’s focus on positive outcomes for every individual student.

“I think anyone who has been at the workshops and listened to the material presented knows it’s not going to be a quick fix. It’s not the silver bullet to everybody’s problems,” Sanchez said. “I think it will help us focus on three key areas — literacy, numeracy and stakeholder satisfaction.”

By focusing on data for student literacy and math proficiency, then drilling down through the district and school site levels, the district can determine how individual students are performing and work to help them set realistic goals for improvement.

“When we start to look at data, we have to look at what those numbers mean, so when I look at your individual student, we know what our goal is for them,” he said.

To help develop this mindset, the district is offering professional learning opportunities to teachers in what is called Universal Design for Learning, a tool that helps “level the playing field,” the superintendent said.

Students will have access to software on their laptops that will let them perform a range of tasks from translating Spanish into English via oral dictation to providing the correct math formula needed to solve a particular problem to text to speech.

“Having a bilingual teacher is the ideal but we aren’t always able to do that. With the math tools, I might know how to do the math but if I don’t remember the formula, I’m in trouble. Are we testing whether students remember the formula or are we testing can they do the math required to make the formula work?” Sanchez said. “It’s not lowering the standard. We’re making it easier for them to participate. Imagine you’re asked to play a game and you have no idea what the rules are. How involved are you going to be? If you don’t know what’s going on, you’ll watch. We need our kids engaged.”

BCS is part of the third cohort with the New Mexico Universal Design for Learning, Sanchez said, and teachers are receiving training before school, beginning with monthly training, either in person or virtually, planned for the entire year.

The use of UDL supports the concept of student “voice and choice,” the superintendent said.

“So many times, we only give students one way to demonstrate what they’ve learned. If you’re not comfortable getting up and speaking in front of the class, while that is a skill that needs to be developed, it shouldn’t hinder what you’re trying to do. Can you demonstrate it another way?” he said.

Acknowledging this is asking a lot of district teachers — developing lesson plans that have “voice and choice” in them — Sanchez said the district is also introducing Magic School AI, which has UDL built in to generate additional components.

“So, as a teacher, I’ve developed my lesson plan. I click my UDL button and it gives me options that I can add,” he said. “This is using AI in a positive way. Yes, we are asking them to do more but we’re also providing a tool that will hopefully make it easier.”

The district is also adding a position that will focus on work-based learning to help students better engage in their learning so they can understand where they want to go in life.

“We want to help students find out where they fit in our world — where they see themselves,” Sanchez said. “We are bringing in this instructor to focus on this area at Belen Middle and Belen High schools. It’s our hope this will help students be intentional in figuring out, where do I see myself?”

Sanchez, along with all the administrators in the district, are trying something different to help with student absenteeism.

“I am asking that at least once a quarter we go out and do home visits with our attendance success coaches for those chronically absent,” he said. “The Los Angeles United School District superintendent does this and he says it’s helping. I’m willing to do whatever it takes to get our kids to go to school.

“The whole goal is to have conversations with families. What are the roadblocks that keep them from coming to school? Maybe we can help remove those roadblocks.”