State, BIA sign pact
Entitities agree to employ same education standards in all schools

By Bill Donovan
Staff writer

GALLUP — It was a historic first and it occurred in Gallup on Monday night.

High-ranking officials for the state of New Mexico Public Education Department and the Bureau of Indian Affairs signed a memo of understanding that provides, for the first time, that the BIA and the state would use the same educational standards.

Ed Parisienne, head of education for the entire BIA, was there for the signing as well as the state's top education official, Veronica C. Garcia. To cap it off, New Mexico Lt. Gov. Diane Denish also was present.

Parisienne, who oversees 184 schools in 23 states, said this marks the first time that students attending BIA schools will be expected to meet the same yearly progress standards that students in the state schools have to meet.

One-third of the BIA's schools are on the Navajo Reservation and it's important, he said, that the state and the BIA have the same standards because of the fact that many of the Navajo students who attend public school in the county transfer in and out of BIA schools during the year.

There are even a number of cases annually where a Navajo student may start the school year in a BIA school, transfer to one of the public schools in the winter and then finish out the year in a BIA school.

Officials of the Gallup-McKinley County School District have been saying that differing standards is one of the reason that some schools in the county failed to meet their Annual Yearly Progress goals.

Now in its third year, AYP is part of the No Child Left Behind Program established by President George W. Bush. The program's goals are to get every student in the country to meet federal standards by 2014.

This past year, none of the schools in the Gallup-McKinley County School District made their goals, although the district is now appealing the case of several schools to Garcia.

School officials are hoping that Garcia's visit to several schools in this district on Monday and Tuesday will enable her to understand better some of the unique problems facing the schools in this district.

Garcia was here to have a "community conversation," which is a talk with local students, parents, teachers and administrative staff about some of the problems affecting the local schools. She is planning to hold another one of these tonight at Crownpoint High School.

The event Monday night at Gallup High School took place after a very short school board meeting.

About 75 persons showed up but almost all of them were teachers and staff for the district. Only one student showed up but he left before the main discussions began. There were about five or six parents.

Those who did attend were put in groups of anywhere from two to eight and were assigned the task of talking about various topics dealing with why schools in this district were not meeting standards and what the state could effectively do to address the achievement gap.

It was a little like preaching to the choir since most of the groups came up with the same answers, ranging from problems with attendance to the need to address the unique cultural aspects of teaching in this district.

Denish had spent most of the day in the Grants area, touring the state's prison for women in that area as well as some of the area's pre-school programs.

While at the prison, she met with nine of the inmates who were part of a re-integration program recently started by the state to help prisoners with less than two years to serve get prepared to go back into society.

"We think this program is a good way to prevent recidivism," Denish said.

Talking about the AYP, she said she agrees with officials of this and other districts about some of the problems many bilingual students have in taking tests in English.

One of the big problems that a number of teachers have brought up in recent months is that the district is spending way too much time teaching to these tests rather than allowing teachers to address interests of the students.

Denish said that this and other objections to the program have created a situation where she and other state officials, not only in New Mexico but in other states as well, are urging federal officials to change the No Child Left Behind Program.

"We are trying to get some more flexibility in carrying out the program," she said.