New approach needed for schools
Next education secretary should inspire students, teachers
Vince Lombardi, the legendary coach of the Green Bay Packers, is often quoted for saying “Winning isn’t everything, it’s the only thing.” This has been used as motivation in all forms of contests to gain an edge on competitors. Most people do not realize what Lombardi actually meant. It was not about winning at all costs — ignoring the human spirit or looking at the scoreboard as the ultimate measure of success. Late in life, Lombardi said the about his quote: “I wished I’d never said the thing ... I meant the effort. I meant having a goal. I sure didn’t mean for people to crush human values and morality.”
In the world of corporate-driven education “reform,” whose goal is profit, the human aspect of learning and leading has become equal to “winning” at a standardized test. This is the “reform” we see in New Mexico. But the most effective strategies for educating children are collaboration, planning, communication, kindness and compassion.
As Gov. Susana Martinez considers a permanent secretary of education, she ought to focus on an individual who can inspire students and staff. Someone who can develop parental engagement and improve performance; transform our culture of education, and bring love. Yes, love, because love is what will allow this individual to recognize that humans thrive when systems of support exist in balance.
The support system must address the mental, physical, spiritual, cultural and social needs of our teachers and students. It needs a holistic approach to learning and excellence. To ignore the total needs of our educational community is like treating cancer with a Band-Aid. Our state can no longer afford an out-of-touch, one-size-fits-all approach to education leadership. We must treat people like people, not as data inputs. Only then will we start winning in education.
New Mexico ranks 50th in student achievement. The policies of the last seven years were wrong, and a new direction is needed.
(Education) Secretary Hanna Skandera and Gov. Martinez continually pushed unproven datadriven policies. There was too much relentless testing with standardized exams. Behind those approaches stood powerful corporations that stood to profit from millions of taxpayers’ dollars.
Skandera blamed teachers. But New Mexico has deep poverty that is spread across almost every community in our state. The connection between low student achievement and poverty has been known since the 1960s. Yet she and the governor acted as if it did not exist.
The next secretary should reject the punitive approach to children who are not reading at grade level, and the public shaming of schools that fall short. Yes, we all need accountability in life. But educating the next generation of New Mexicans is not a race in which each teacher is in competition with every other teacher. That approach is driving teachers out of the profession, and contributing to the shortage of educators. Successful education should be about collaboration and cooperation.
The next secretary of education should be free of conflicts of interest, such as sitting on the boards of for-profit corporations doing business in New Mexico, as Skandera did. It calls into question the motives behind policies being advocated.
We hope the next secretary will embrace real change, the kind that delivers improvement: three years of high-quality preschool for all kids beginning at the age of 2½; cutting class sizes in half for all children in elementary school; rich curriculum that fires the imagination of students and their teachers; and offering teachers excellent support and development instead of threats and disrespect. Those are the policies that would get immediate and lasting results for students in a relatively poor state like ours.
A real love and appreciation for children doing their best to learn; that is what is needed. If New Mexico’s future public education executive possesses that, he can do all the photo ops with kids he wants, and I will be perfectly fine with it.