Schools must be held accountable
Picturesque scenes are occurring in communities all across our great state. Parents are driving up to school for the first time to drop off their kindergarteners. As their children hop out of their cars, eager to learn, you can imagine the mixture of smiles and tears. Parents strive to be strong as they turn away, leaving their baby at school, holding the hand of his or her teacher. But what if the school at which they leave their child was one of the schools failing for the last several years? What if that parent was you? Would you have faith your child would learn all they need to find success in the future? It would be challenging at best to believe your child would receive the education he or she deserves.
This unfortunate image is all too common for parents across New Mexico.
School grades may be a controversial topic across the state, but they are a must. Schools must be held accountable for the education they provide students. With the political climate changing in our state, some would suggest we do away with school grades, but how can we? It can never be acceptable for the children of New Mexico to attend a school with 90 percent of students falling below grade level. The response to struggling students is never to lower the standards, do less or expect little.
As a New Mexico teacher for the last 10 years, I understand the difficulties facing both our profession and our families. I want my school held to a high standard each year. I want to struggle and strive with parents to make it the best it can be. Some years we have the outcome we want, while other years we fall short of our goals. With that in mind, we do not stop the fight to improve our school.
Some people may wonder why we fight so hard, but if you have ever looked into the face of a child and held their future in your hands, then you understand, without a doubt, that we cannot give up. Children matter! Our future as a state and as a country is in the hands of our kids. School grades may seem like a small part of the equation, but they define what we will accept for growth and achievement in our schools and ultimately for our children. Parents cannot possibly know the drive and determination of school staff without a universal tool to measure success. People in our country are evaluated based on how well their organizations succeed. Public education should not be any different. We must set the bar to be better, go further, and push outside the box of expectations for the students in New Mexico.
The students of our state are special, as are our families. No matter the difficulties, we must find a way to rise above and go beyond the norm. School grades help us do just that. They do not put us in a box and say do this or say that. School grades allow us the ability as individual professionals to find the way to successfully serve our student populations. They celebrate our positive growth, parent and student feedback, and students achieving at grade level or above. As a teacher, and as a parent and grandparent of children who have and are attending school in this state, I cannot see how celebrating hard-earned success is a bad thing. School grades drive us toward improvement.
One thing I know after 20 years in education is that no matter how well we are doing, we can all be better tomorrow. There are lessons yet to be learned and battles yet to fight. Every one of these lessons and battles are worth it for the children in our classrooms and in our lives.