Submitted by Trey Smith, Executive Director of East Mountain High School
When the most recent legislative session adjourned in Santa Fe, those of us in education who were following the action looked around in bewilderment. Sixty days of hearings and hundreds of bills debated and what were we left with? For schools looking for leadership and for families looking for quality improvements, I guess there’s always next year.
Unfortunately for the students of New Mexico, this means yet another year of schools figuring this out for themselves. With a lack of momentum at the state level and now the federal government withdrawing from education all together, never have schools been more isolated. While New Mexico continues to rank dead last in every education ranking year after year, there is no state in more need of a visionary, collaborative approach to educational improvement than ours.
While the overall state of education in our state is concerning, there are some bright spots at a local level. Many schools are bucking the trend and embracing methods to improve academic outcomes. East Mountain, a charter school celebrating its 25th year in existence, is one such school. In 2018, the school was recognized by the U.S. Department of Education with the National Blue Ribbon Award for closing the achievement gap. The performance of the school’s economically disadvantaged students is more than double the local and state averages. Our small, safe environment means that no student slips through the cracks here. When a student joins our community, they receive numerous levels of support and intervention to make sure they are on track to graduate.
Our school also does not shy away from challenges. When we saw a concerning trend in the mathematics proficiency of our students, we made some changes. Our teachers began embracing new methods of math teaching that look very different than what many of us are used to in a math classroom. Our students are collaborating in small groups, communicating their understanding to one another, and building necessary problem-solving skills to truly understand mathematical thinking-not just reworking the same practice problems over and over. This change has resulted in drastic increases in proficiency and has been a game-changer for our students.
There are other schools like ours in New Mexico that are emphasizing innovation and progress. Many of those schools can be located through the Public Education Department’s accountability website: nmvistas.org. The top 25% of schools in the state have been given a “spotlight” designation. Unfortunately, the spotlight is not usually on those high-performing schools. There is no mechanism for rewarding schools that are experiencing high results. In fact, the state funding formula tends to favor schools not achieving those results. This seems par for the course in New Mexico, where success is frequently shunned and innovation is constantly questioned.
East Mountain is an institution looking to change those perceptions in our state. We can demand more from our students, from our teachers, and from our schools. We can demand more from our legislators. We should be trying to raise expectations, not lower them. If we want to raise education outcomes in this state, let’s highlight and scale those schools doing good work. Let’s fund and expand those key practices. Perhaps then New Mexico can start thinking beyond its 50th place ranking.
Trey Smith is a school executive and doctoral candidate in New Mexico. He serves as Executive Director of East Mountain, one of the state’s highest performing schools. He also works to champion meaningful education policy reform.