High School Graduation Network Monday

 High School Graduation Network
Monday, October 6, 2014, 10:00 am – 12:00 pm
United Way of Central New Mexico
MEETING MINUTES
In Attendance: Amy Tapia, Analee Maestas, Ane Ramos, Angelo Gonzales, Barbara Kastner,
Christin Johnson, Deborah Good, Eva L. Vigil, Franklin Schargel, Ian Esquibel, Jodi Burshia,
Katarina Sandoval, Kay Provolt, Laurel Wyckoff, Marjori Krebs, Nicole Byrd, Renata Witte,
Ronda Cole, Ruth Juarez, Teri Wimborne, Todd Resch, Vernon Butler
Notes: Deborah Good, Mission: Graduate
ACTION ITEMS:
• Mission: Graduate will arrange a meeting with new project co-chairs, Ane Romero and
Ian Esquibel (perhaps include an APS leader as well)
Meeting Objective: Set short-term goal and develop action steps for Middle School Initiative
Welcome and Introductions – Laurel Wyckoff
• We put a hold on the Middle School Initiative planning for several months. Today is a
continuation of the planning we started several months ago now with APS at the table.
• All present introduced themselves.
• Today’s objective is to start the goal-setting process by identifying possible performance
indicators, and also do some action-planning.
Mission: Graduate Update
• Adult Education – Teri Wimborne
o This is a project of the Mission: Graduate College Completion Network focused
on supporting GED graduates in transitioning to and completing college. Current
data shows few GED completers go on to college and even fewer graduate with a
degree.
o The first step is to do some research: conducting a survey and focus groups with
GED completers.
o If any Mission: Graduate partners can assist in the survey and focus group effort,
please let Teri Wimborne know at teri@missiongraduatenm.org.
• Career Exploration – Angelo Gonzales
o This is a project of the Mission: Graduate Employment Network focused on
providing career exploration experiences to students.
o Goal is to work on developing a better system for connecting students to
employers for these experiences, including internships.
1 o Employers are very interested in middle school – starting with career exploration
at a young age—so there is potential for connection to this Middle School
Initiative.
Update on Garfield and Hayes Middle Schools – Katarina Sandoval
• Context:
o Kata started in January with the Office of Innovation, a new office, which was the
result of a sustainability study showing declining enrollment in APS and that
many families/students were exiting APS at middle school. Kata has since
become the associate superintendent for middle schools.
o APS has multiple schools of choice and STEM-focused schools at the high school
level, but similar middle schools do not exist. We identified a need for developing
clearer STEM pathways of choice from K through 12. Goal was to find ways to
engage middle school students and families in a new way, without an increase in
financial resources.
• Garfield, Hayes, and Polk Middle Schools were identified as under-enrolled – school
buildings could hold far more students than they currently serve (e.g. Garfield has 350
students but could hold 700 students). Garfield and Hayes were selected as pilot schools
because their location was more conducive to taking on students commuting from
elsewhere in the city.
• Both Garfield and Hayes will be STEM-focused schoolwide. Project Lead the Way will
be our curriculum, which outlines design- and robotics-focused project based learning.
We will also weave in the district’s current curriculum – Discovery, which is technology
based. Teachers are doing professional development this year on project-based learning.
• Hayes will also be school-wide dual language.
• We are drawing on best practices learned from charter schools. For example, the schools
will use an inclusion model for special education students.
• The schools will also use an advisory system for engaging with students and their
families. This is an evidence-based practice found to be effective in high-poverty schools.
• Hayes will be a community school with ABC Community Schools, with a full-time
coordinator. There is interest in making Garfield into a community school as well.
• The magnet concept: We are committed to serving the families in the community. The
schools will be “peer” magnets. Neighborhood students will probably have to apply but
will be automatically admitted, unless they choose one of two other options (not
specified). Transportation will be provided for neighborhood.
• Where are the gaps? Where could Mission: Graduate support the middle schools?
o We have hosted two community dialogues. The trend in what families are saying:
what is hooking students into school is not math, science, and language arts, but
electives (band, chess, foods).
o For students whose school schedule does not accommodate electives, it would be
great to have those things offered as extra-curriculars or afterschool programs.
• Anything being done to collaborate with mental and behavioral health services? Answer:
It does exist in certain schools; community schools are probably the best example. But
the challenge is how to provide those services at a larger scale.
• Generally, teachers are responding to the coming changes with excitement.
2 Middle School Initiative Planning – Teri Wimborne & Angelo Gonzales
• Review action plan (10:35-10:40)
o High School Graduation Network is focused on two areas, which have developed
into two projects:
1. Attendance/Truancy
2. Middle School
o The High School Graduation Network’s long-term goal: Increase the HS
graduation rate for APS by two percentage points per year.
o Action plan for the Middle School project (developed several months ago; needs
further development) includes:
1. Conduct research on best practices in middle school and the transition to
high school
2. Support the new RFK Middle School
3. Participate in planning process for new APS magnet schools – provide
design input and support for the two magnet middle school on culturally
proficient practices and parent engagement.
o Other project considerations:
• Family engagement
• Cultural proficiency
• Student engagement
• Career exploration
• Math proficiency
• Seamless transition to high school
• Review data (10:40-10:50)
o Garfield and Hayes SBA scores show lower proficiency in 8th grade Reading and
Math than the District as a whole.
o Hayes tested particularly low in 8th grade Math proficiency – the lowest of all
APS-managed schools.
• Set short-term goal (10:50-11:30)
o Performance measures answer three key questions:
1. How much did we do? (quantity of effort) – ex: # of clients; # of
partnerships
2. How well did we do it? (quality of effort) – ex: client-staff ratio, % of
clients completing activity
3. Did we make a difference? (quantity and quality of impact) – changes in
attitudes, knowledge, behavior, circumstance
o A performance measure APS is focused on is enrollment—would like to increase
enrollment to 600 at each school. It would be possible to break that down further
and set goals related to % special education students, % neighborhood students.
o Because of the large number of 8th and 9th graders involved in the juvenile justice
system, other performance measures to think about:
1. Booking and arrest rates
2. Re-integration rates when returning from juvenile justice center
o Small groups brainstorm a list of possible performance measures that we could
then use to set a short-term goal.
3 •
o Large group discussion of possible performance measures:
• Increasing student enrollment (supporting APS in achieving their goal of
600 students at each school)
• Increasing community partnerships (including STEM-related after-school
opportunities onsite at the schools)
• Increasing professional development opportunities for teachers, including
outside APS (developing a resource list)
• Increasing trust among teachers (between new and returning, special
education and regular education teachers)
• After-school programs
• Possible longer-term goals:
o Student academic outcomes (math and reading proficiency)
o 9th grade enrollment
o 10th grade enrollment
• Health and wellness (including mental/behavioral health): referrals to health
and wellness team, accessibility and utilization of heath resources
o Related: Attendance (sick days)
• Career exploration: numbers of experiences (e.g. job shadowing); awareness
of career option and their own interests
Develop initial action steps and assign tasks (11:30-11:55)
o Need to identify what APS is responsible for; how can our efforts support their
work and not compete with it?
o Potential areas of focus:
1. After school / OST
2. Career exploration
3. Health and wellness
4. Teacher professional development and trust/cohesion
Next Steps – Teri and Angelo
• Project co-chairs: Ane Romero and Ian Esquibel (perhaps include an APS leader as well)
• Next meeting: Monday, October 20, 2014, 10:00-12:00, United Way of Central New
Mexico – Will split into two project groups – Attendance and Middle School
Meeting Evaluation
• Positives:
o It was helpful having folks from APS here involved in the conversation (Kata,
Todd, Ron, Eva, and Christin)
o It helped to remind us about the difference between long- and short-term goals
o Small group discussions were helpful – consensus between the two was about
after-school
• What could be changed?
o Hold small groups further apart in the room
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