DCE receives recognition for student improvement

BELEN — Power was lost throughout the city of Belen last Tuesday morning, but that didn’t stop the learning at Dennis Chavez Elementary.

“As I was walking campus, checking classrooms, teaching was still happening. No lights, no computers, but they didn’t stop,” said DCE Principal David Marquez.

That dedication to overcoming obstacles and commitment to student progress is what earned DCE recognition by the National ESEA Distinguished Schools Program recently.

Marquez called the award “amazing,” saying as the new principal for the school, he couldn’t take full credit.

“(Former DCE principal) Andrea Montano, full credit goes to her for this team and their work ethic and attitude towards teaching,” said Marquez, who was named DCE principal in June 2025.

The National ESEA (Elementary and Secondary Education Act) Distinguished Schools Program is a project of the National Association of ESEA State Program Administrators (formerly the National Title I Association) that publicly recognizes qualifying federally-funded schools for positive educational advances and the outstanding academic achievement of their students.

Established in 1996, the program showcases hundreds of schools identified by their respective state education agency for their success in one of three categories — Category 1 is schools exhibiting exceptional student performance and academic growth, Category 2 are schools that have closed the achievement gap between student groups, and Category 3 schools which show excellence in serving special populations of students, such as homeless, migrant and English learners.

Dennis Chavez Elementary was recognized in Category 3 for the progress students in special populations have made. Only two schools per state are recognized by the NESEA program. Loving Elementary was the other school in New Mexico named a 2025 National ESEA Distinguished School in Category 1.

ESEA was passed as a part of President Lyndon B. Johnson’s “War on Poverty,” and includes Title I, which was designed to close the skill gap in reading, writing and mathematics between children from low-income households who attend urban or rural school systems and children from the middle-class who attend suburban school systems.

Marquez said Dennis Chavez and Loving elementariness were nominated for the award by the New Mexico Public Education Department based on testing data gathered by the New Mexico Measures of Student Success and Achievement, New Mexico’s statewide assessment for mathematics and English language arts, which is given to students at the end of grades three through eight.

When he was a teacher with Belen Consolidated Schools 15 years ago, Marquez worked under a principal at Belen High School who is now the president of the Belen Board of Education — Jim Danner.

“He was at the forefront of data. That’s when data-driven instruction was starting to happen. We were starting that data project and since then we’ve had people come into the district who are very focused on that,” Marquez said, specifically mentioning BCS Superintendent Lawrence Sanchez and E. Renee Sanchez, the district’s assistant superintendent of academics. “Leadership is very vested in data ... Lawrence is completely data driven. That is really what pushed us in that direction as a district.”

A teacher for 27 years, DCE fifth grade teacher Sandra Goldberg was one of five teachers from the school who made the trip to Denver earlier this month to receive the NESEA award. She said it feels like there’s more of a focus on data because district leaders are “paying attention to all (student) categories.”

Calling the board of education “very progressive,” Marquez said board members look more at student growth than achievement.

“We know achievement wise we still have a lot of work to do, but their belief is if we continue to grow, achievement will come,” the principal said.

Using that data to measure and promote growth comes down to the “human factor of it all,” said Marquez. “These teachers know their students, so they use the data points to help them make decisions about which students need help in which areas.”

One way DCE teachers provide help is through dedicated intervention time every Wednesday morning.

“I’m not saying intervention only happens on Wednesday, but during that time we focus school wide on interventions. Everyone in the school is focused on intervention,” Marquez said.

Goldberg said for her and other teachers the intervention goes hand-in-hand with student accountability.

“When my students are here, they might have something going on at home, but while they’re with me, (school) is the priority and focus,” she said.

During the dedicated intervention time, students are divided into groups according to their proficiency levels, Marquez said. Students who are proficient or above in a particular skill get the opportunity for advanced instruction.

“Students who are nearing proficiency or below proficiency get in small groups, or one-on-one, for help,” he said. “We bring everybody in. Our specialty teachers who exclusively teach PE, art, music, the librarian — everybody takes a group. We try to use as many staff as possible.”

Marquez said they are seeing results in student performance.

“It might not be as dramatic across the state like they want to see, but I think the districts that are really pushing it are doing it, and Belen is one of those districts,” he said.

In his personal opinion, Marquez said the school shutdowns during COVID offered the state an unusual opportunity to “back things up and say, ‘Wait a minute. Now’s our chance to revamp education, restructure it and talk about what we can make better.’ I think everyone was so frightened with COVID and so eager to get back to some sort of normalcy, they accepted the status quo.

“We didn’t.”

While the pandemic and shutdown didn’t lead to system-wide resets, Goldberg said it definitely made her reassess what was important to her as an educator.

“To actually teach and leave the fluff, to teach just the standards,” she said. “If you remember, we did hybrid where the kids were only in person two or three days a week. I had to decide what was important. That clay Christmas tree project was out the window.”

What has changed in the district is hiring the right people to listen and take it in the right direction, she said.

“I give props to Renee. She doesn’t take no for an answer,” Goldberg said. “The focus is on growth and changing our mindset, and that might make you uncomfortable. If you’re uncomfortable, you’re probably doing what you need to do.”

Describing previous experiences as a principal as “Survivor Island,” with everyone fighting for resources, Marquez said DCE is a collaborative effort, something he feels very fortunate to have as an administrator.

“I walked into a situation where these teachers collaborate. They don’t carry their ego around on their shoulders. They all learn from each other,” he said. “They look at the data and they don’t take it personally. They use data to help them make decisions about what they’re doing in the classroom.”

Marquez said the trip to Denver reinvigorated the teachers who were able to attend. The NESEA program covered their travel expenses, as well as the cost of the substitutes needed to cover their classes during the three-day trip.

“Teachers need these experiences to revitalize them,” he said. “They came back so motivated, so excited, wanting to share what they learned with staff members. It’ll benefit our school.”