Additional Details

District and Community Relations Committee Meeting

AGENDA

Tuesday, July 23, 2013

5:00 PM

DeLayo-Martin Community Room, Alice and Bruce King Educational Complex, 6400 Uptown Blvd.NE

Albuquerque, New Mexico

Minutes of the District and Community Relations Committee Meeting

Board of Education

Albuquerque Public Schools

A District and Community Relations Committee meeting of the Board of Education of Albuquerque Public Schools (APS) was held Tuesday, July 23, 2013, beginning at 5:00 p.m., in the DeLayo Martin Community Room, Alice and Bruce King Educational Complex, 6400 Uptown Blvd. NE.

I.          Call to Order

The meeting was called to order at 5:00 p.m.

1. A. Roll Call

Board members Steven Michael Quezada, Dr. Analee Maestas, and Lorenzo Garcia were present.  Martin Esquivel, Kathy Korte, Dr. Don Duran, and Dr. David Peercy were absent.

1. B. Adoption of the July 23, 2013, District and Community Relations Agenda and the Approval of the June 26, 2013, District and Community Relations Minutes

This item will be postponed until the next meeting as there were not enough board members present to have a quorum.

II.         Public Forum

There were no participants in public forum.

III.        Report from the School Health Advisory Committee (SHAC) on Voting Outcome to the Reproductive Task Force Recommendations

Dr. Kristine Meurer, executive director, Student, Family, and Community Supports Division, shared that a task force was developed by the Health Education Sub-committee of the School Health Advisory Committee (SHAC) to study and make recommendations on the sexuality education portion of health education.

The task force voted in October, 2012, to make the following recommendations:

• The curriculum and materials should be consistent across the district (evidence based, peer reviewed, comprehensive, developmentally appropriate, medically accurate, and include increased opportunities for youth engagement in the areas of health literacy and information, healthy choices, healthy relationships, and risk prevention)
• APS health education teachers need more and better training and support from the district. The task force recommended the adoption of the National Sexuality Education Standards, January 2012, to aid in compliance to the New Mexico Public Education Department (NMPED) Health Education Standards and Benchmarks for Reproductive Health Education and to incorporate input from health education teachers to determine the appropriate department alignment.  APS has partnered with NMPED to hold workshops etc. and looks forward to doing more with them in the future.
• APS needs to improve its communication with parents and guardians so that they can take an active role in their child’s health education, especially their sexuality education.  The task force recommended making materials and vocabulary available on the website and upon request; and to include information about legal confidential services for adolescents and opting-out.

In closing, Dr. Meurer recognized and thanked the members of the task force who were present.

IV.       Dual Language Programs in APS

Nana Almers, instructional manager, ALS, on behalf of Lynne Rosen, director of Language and Cultural Equity, shared that 62 APS schools provide bilingual instruction programs (based on common core state standards):

• Forty three of the 89 elementary schools have bilingual instruction programs:  32 are dual language programs—seven of which are 80/20 models and 25 are 50/50 models; the remaining eleven are maintenance bilingual education.
• Eleven middle schools:  five dual language (50/50); seven maintenance bilingual education
• Eight high schools:  one dual language (50/50); seven maintenance bilingual education)

Dual language programs serve English language learners who speak a common language (Spanish) along with native English speakers; the goals are to:

• Develop high levels of first and second language proficiency, academic development, and cross cultural understanding
• Enable students to experience an environment in which both languages are valued and developed and academic content is learned through two languages.

Types of dual language programs include:

• One-way programs, which use two languages for instruction and typically involve one group of students (native speakers of Spanish or heritage language speakers who are English dominant or proficient, yet share the same heritage language (Spanish), which is used for instruction)
• Two‑way dual language programs which use two languages for instruction and typically involve two groups (native speakers of Spanish and native English speakers).

Non-negotiable components of dual language programs include:

• Use of the language other than English for a minimum of 50 percent to a maximum of 90 percent of instructional time
• Separate space for language of instruction (translation is not an instructional strategy)
• Commitment to develop a K-12 dual language program (students graduating high school with our district bilingual seal)

Characteristics of effective dual language programs are:

• School staff and community hold a shared vision and mission for the school
• Positive school atmosphere with a focus on academic achievement and collaboration
• School staff and community recognize the benefits of bilingualism/biliteracy and cross-cultural understanding
• Use of home language and culture as a instrument for academic success
• On-going high quality professional development and teacher collaboration
• Strong leadership, staff and community support

Long Term Impact of Dual Language Programs:

• Studies consistently show that English Language Learners (ELL) and English speaking students make significant progress in both languages and perform at comparable or superior levels compared to same language comparison peers.  Universities report the dual language students do better.
• Most students believe that learning through two languages helps them learn to think better, makes them smarter, and helps them do better in schools.
• Students feel valued and were glad they participated in dual language programs and would recommend it to other students.

Success of dual language programs depends on the quality of the implementation, staff, and leadership; types of programs are determined by the desires of the community.  Teachers most qualified for dual language programs are those who have an English Language Learner (ELL) endorsement, but are difficult to find.  The district offers tuition reimbursement and other support, but once teachers obtain the endorsement they tend to move up the three-tier system rather than work in an ELL classroom, even though they would receive a stipend.  APS has hired teachers from Mexico and Spain who have worked out well.  There is typically a strand (one class per grade level) of dual language students; some have self-contained maintenance.  To help fill the shortfall of bilingual teachers, APS has begun implementing team teaching.  Board members would like to see this factored into teacher evaluation and school grades.  They also would like to have training for administrators.

Albuquerque High School does the best job of matriculating dual language students from feeder schools.  The district loses dual language students in the middle grades because of the lack of programs in middle schools.  Board members suggest cross-pollinating students to help with this.  Superintendent Brooks shared that the district is working to strengthen and widen the programs, including restructuring Eubank, E.G. Ross, and Hayes Elementary Schools to be dual language schools.  He would like to know where the continuity of programs is broken; specifically, which schools.

V.        Next District and Community Relations Committee Meeting

Chairperson Maestas announced that the next District and Community Relations Committee meeting will be held on Wednesday, August 28, 2013, at 5:00 p.m., at the Alice and Bruce King Educational Complex in the DeLayo-Martin Community Room.

IX.       Adjournment

The meeting was adjourned at 5:27 p.m.