{"id":614332,"date":"2018-08-16T00:01:45","date_gmt":"2018-08-16T06:01:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=614332"},"modified":"2018-08-16T16:22:10","modified_gmt":"2018-08-16T22:22:10","slug":"charter-schools-target-new-mexicos-at-risk-students","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2018\/08\/charter-schools-target-new-mexicos-at-risk-students\/","title":{"rendered":"Charter schools target New Mexico&#8217;s at-risk students"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_614343\"  class=\"wp-caption module image alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 771px;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-614343\" src=\"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/dju_20180810_Sara_Tafoya_079-771x558.jpg\" alt=\"Sara Tafoya\" width=\"771\" height=\"558\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/dju_20180810_Sara_Tafoya_079-771x558.jpg 771w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/dju_20180810_Sara_Tafoya_079-336x243.jpg 336w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/dju_20180810_Sara_Tafoya_079-768x556.jpg 768w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/dju_20180810_Sara_Tafoya_079-1170x847.jpg 1170w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/dju_20180810_Sara_Tafoya_079.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 771px) 100vw, 771px\" \/><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Don Usner \/ Searchlight New Mexico<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sara Tafoya, a graduate of ACE Leadership High School, works at Explora in Albuquerque.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Sara Tafoya never pictured herself as one of New Mexico\u2019s at-risk students. She came from a supportive, college-educated family in Albuquerque, had once earned good grades, and entertained dreams of going to college and becoming a physical therapist.<\/p>\n<p>But in her sophomore year, Tafoya \u201cattracted bad situations,\u201d skipping classes \u2013 sometimes for weeks at a time. By the time she found out she was pregnant at age 15, she faced a hurdle that typically derails a girl\u2019s education. Pregnancy is the leading cause for dropping out of school among adolescent girls in New Mexico; that, along with widespread poverty and childhood trauma, helps explain the state\u2019s sky-high dropout rate of 29 percent.<\/p>\n<p>Tafoya might have become part of that statistic as well if not for ACE Leadership High School Academy. The Albuquerque charter school bills itself as a \u201cre-engagement school,\u201d part of a national trend committed to addressing the problems of unemployment and low education achievement among at-risk students.<\/p>\n<p>ACE is part of the Leadership Schools Network, a group of charter schools that caters to students who have dropped out \u2013 or, like Tafoya are at risk of dropping out &#8212; of traditional public schools. All four Leadership schools (ACE, Siembra, Technology, and Health) offer career-specific curricula in partnership with local employers.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"module align-left half type-aside\">\n<h3>About this article<\/h3>\n<p>This article comes from\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/searchlightnm.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Searchlight New Mexico<\/a>, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization dedicated to investigative journalism. Read its Raising New Mexico series\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/series\/raising-new-mexico\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">by clicking here<\/a>. Support its work\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.newsmatch.org\/organizations\/searchlight-new-mexico\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">by clicking here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/aside>\n<p>Academics in the traditional sense take low priority, and standardized testing is deliberately de-emphasized.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhy would we bring kids who have been failing at taking tests for 11 years or who are behind in credits or dropped out &#8212; and bring them back to a test factory?\u201d demands Tony Monfiletto, the education advocate who in 2013 founded the controversial program. \u201cThat makes no sense. That doesn\u2019t make the city any better off, it doesn\u2019t make the community any better off.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Before turning his hand to the Leadership Schools Network, Monfiletto cofounded and directed Amy Biehl High School, a respected high-performance college prep charter in downtown Albuquerque. But within a few years of his tenure, he concluded a strong focus on academic achievement and college readiness did not match the reality of many of its students.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA lot of the students just weren\u2019t able to do what we were asking of them, even with all the support we were giving them,\u201d he says. \u201cMany of [them] have super complicated lives. They work late at night, they often live on their own or with absent parents, they don\u2019t have structures in their lives that allow them to be able to get through school.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Monfiletto saw a connection between the state\u2019s low graduation rate and its high unemployment among young people. That connection was confirmed by a 2016 Brookings Institution analysis: The unemployment rate for 20- to 24-year-olds in New Mexico who didn\u2019t complete high school is nearly 50 percent. That same analysis placed Albuquerque among the 10 cities with the lowest employment rates nationally among residents aged 25-54.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat\u2019s just a real tragedy for the community,\u201d Monfiletto says. \u201cAll those kids with nowhere to go and nothing to do.\u201d<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_614345\"  class=\"wp-caption module image alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 771px;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-614345\" src=\"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/dju_20180814_Tony_Monfiletto_005-771x514.jpg\" alt=\"Tony Monfiletto\" width=\"771\" height=\"514\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/dju_20180814_Tony_Monfiletto_005-771x514.jpg 771w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/dju_20180814_Tony_Monfiletto_005-336x224.jpg 336w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/dju_20180814_Tony_Monfiletto_005-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/dju_20180814_Tony_Monfiletto_005-1170x780.jpg 1170w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/dju_20180814_Tony_Monfiletto_005.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 771px) 100vw, 771px\" \/><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Don Usner \/ Searchlight New Mexico<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Tony Monfiletto, executive director of Future Focused Education, at Siembra Leadership School in Albuquerque.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>The Leadership Schools and other re-engagement schools around the nation have brought thousands of young people back into the public school system, furnished them with high school diplomas and, in many cases, placed them on a trajectory towards a career or higher education.<\/p>\n<p>The approach has shown positive results: 97 percent of graduates from ACE and Health Leadership High Schools were employed after graduation or went on to college, according to the program\u2019s data tracking. (Siembra and Technology Leadership Schools haven\u2019t yet graduated their first class.)<\/p>\n<p>Sara Tafoya, now mother to a 2-year-old boy, is one of those graduates. After taking an extra year of classes, she graduated from ACE Leadership High School in May. A talkative and energetic 19-year-old, she works as a visitor educator at Explora, the children\u2019s museum in Albuquerque.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHaving to prove that you know how to work in the real world, getting hands-on training to help you be in the workforce was really encouraging<i>,<\/i>\u201d Tafoya says, adding that the focus on accommodating the needs of students with children, including an option to take classes at night, proved especially attractive for someone in her position.<\/p>\n<p>This year, she starts studying for a degree in physical therapy at Central New Mexico Community College &#8212; the goal she set for herself as a 15-year-old.<\/p>\n<h3>Program criticism<\/h3>\n<p>But the program is not without its critics. Measured by standardized test scores, the Leadership Schools\u2019 performance is abysmal. Only about 5 percent of students test at grade level for reading or math, among the lowest scores in the state.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe re-engagement school model is awesome,\u201d says Amanda Aragon, who worked as director of strategic outreach for the New Mexico Public Education Department before taking the helm of NewMexicoKidsCan, an education advocacy group. \u201cBut they have to be able to read and they have to be able to do math. And we need some evidence that they can struggle through the learning process.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen I see schools with math or reading proficiency of less than 5 percent, I think that\u2019s concerning, and I think employers would find that concerning.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Public Education Department secretary Christopher Ruszkowski has also signaled his disdain. Last year, he called for the closure of three Leadership Schools. The schools narrowly escaped that closure by leaving the state system and re-chartering under Albuquerque Public Schools.<\/p>\n<h3>Another approach<\/h3>\n<p>The Leadership Schools\u2019 approach stands in stark contrast to alternative schools that focus on academic performance and college prep.<\/p>\n<p>Mission Achievement and Success (MAS), a charter in Albuquerque that primarily serves at-risk students, is a prime example. Since its founding in 2012, MAS has focused on closing the academic achievement gap among low-income students, many of whom have become disengaged from the public school system.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen you have a sixth-grader who has experienced failure for seven years, there\u2019s bit of an apathy towards education,\u201d says MAS principal JoAnn Mitchell. \u201cSome of it\u2019s a learned helplessness, a belief that \u2018I can\u2019t do it, I\u2019m not capable of learning those things.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p>MAS has impressed observers with its performance: 100 percent of its high school graduates last year &#8212; half of whom were the first in their families to earn a diploma &#8212; went either on either to college or the military.<\/p>\n<p>School officials say those rates are the product of a hard focus on the value of higher education in the classroom. University banners and logos adorn the hallways. Pennants of faculty members\u2019 alma maters hang above office doors. Every year, students go on all-expenses-paid field trips to universities across New Mexico.<\/p>\n<p>Discipline is drilled into students throughout their tenure at MAS. Students walk in silent single-file lines between classes and elementary students sit with their hands folded on their desks &#8212; a \u201cwarm strict,\u201d as Mitchell describes it.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_614344\"  class=\"wp-caption module image alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 771px;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-614344\" src=\"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/dju_20180814_JoAnn_Mitchell_036-771x514.jpg\" alt=\"JoAnn Mitchell\" width=\"771\" height=\"514\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/dju_20180814_JoAnn_Mitchell_036-771x514.jpg 771w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/dju_20180814_JoAnn_Mitchell_036-336x224.jpg 336w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/dju_20180814_JoAnn_Mitchell_036-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/dju_20180814_JoAnn_Mitchell_036-1170x780.jpg 1170w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/dju_20180814_JoAnn_Mitchell_036.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 771px) 100vw, 771px\" \/><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Don Usner \/ Searchlight New Mexico<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">JoAnn Mitchell is principal of Mission Achievement and Success (MAS) charter school.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Mitchell, who grew up in poverty in upstate New York, hones a \u201claser-like focus on academic achievement,\u201d with teachers closely monitoring students to Common Core State Standards.<\/p>\n<p>The resulting scores have earned the school steady A\u2019s in district report cards. MAS now has a waiting list of about 700 students and is expanding to a second campus in Albuquerque.<\/p>\n<h3>The charter debate<\/h3>\n<p>The idea of relying on charter schools to make education work for at-risk students is, in itself, controversial. Their proliferation has long drawn the ire of teachers\u2019 unions and supporters of traditional public schools.<\/p>\n<p>Because New Mexico\u2019s school funding formula is based on a per-student calculation, each student who transfers to a charter means a financial loss to the district school they left behind. It\u2019s an especially pronounced problem in rural districts, where loss of funding can lead to the closure of advanced classes, arts programs and extracurricular activities.<\/p>\n<p>And charter schools can be unstable. In the past five years, 14 charters have closed across New Mexico, their licenses often revoked due to poor performance. Three have closed so far in 2018 alone.<\/p>\n<p>Advocates point to these closures as a sign of increased accountability. Underperforming public schools can\u2019t be as easily shut down due to bad academic performance, they say.<\/p>\n<p>Critics argue the closure of a school has been shown to have continuing, negative impacts on students, often including decreased academic performance and emotional stress.<\/p>\n<p>Further chaffing critics is the fact that charter schools, which operate without school boards or other structural constraints shared by traditional public schools, can restructure their finances to pay teachers more, often luring talent &#8212; along with more engaged students and parents &#8212; away from neighborhood public schools.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt has been a bit of a brain drain,\u201d says Santa Fe Public Schools Superintendent Veronica Garcia, adding that the students and parents who leave are often the ones struggling district schools need most. Of course, that problem is less pronounced in charters such as MAS that cater to at-risk students.<\/p>\n<p>Despite her qualms, Garcia is examining ways to adopt some of the Leadership Schools\u2019 strategies for serving at-risk students.<\/p>\n<p>And despite the criticism, the growth of charters in New Mexico is a trend that\u2019s likely to continue. The Public Education Department is set to expand the presence of charter schools &#8212; which currently account for slightly over 10 percent of public schools in the state &#8212; with help from a $22.5 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education. This year, PED began offering its own grants to help charters replicate.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCharters have their place,\u201d Garcia says. \u201cThey meet a need, and I do think they spur competition. But I don\u2019t think the intent [in creating a charter system] was to decimate the traditional schools.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>And while many see some success, they&#8217;re not without controversy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":614343,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[234,125],"class_list":["post-614332","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-children","tag-education","series-raising-new-mexico"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/614332","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=614332"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/614332\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/614343"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=614332"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=614332"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=614332"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}