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Tuesday, June 02, 2009

Garcia: Student Gap 'Unacceptable'

By Martin Salazar
Journal Staff Writer
       New Mexico Education Secretary Veronica Garcia urged education leaders Monday to reach outside their comfort zones and find radical new ways to narrow the achievement gap for English language learners.
    "This is unacceptable," Garcia said after addressing educators attending a two-day summit on the topic. "We have put resources toward it. We have been working on it consistently for five and a half years, and we just make small, little gains. We have to do something more dramatic."
    Participants are being asked to come up with a set of recommendations for the state Public Education Department.
    According to the department, New Mexico has 55,757 English language learners, representing nearly 17 percent of the total student population.
    English language learners lag behind the student population as a whole. The most recent data, from the 2008 New Mexico Standards Based Assessment test, showed that:
    n 35 percent of English language learners tested are proficient or better in reading compared to 53 percent for the total student population.
    n 22 percent of English language learners are proficient or better in math compared to 36 percent for total students.
    n 27 percent of English language learners are proficient in science compared to 43 percent for total students.
    Statistics show both groups generally have posted small gains in all areas since 2005.
    "We're inching along, but we haven't been able to figure out how to hit it out of the ballpark," Garcia told the group of about 175 educators from around the state. "And we're going to have to do something really dramatic, really out-of-the box thinking. It can't just be the continual tweaking."
    The summit is sponsored by the department, the New Mexico Office of Educational Accountability, and the Center for the Education and Study of Diverse Populations at New Mexico Highlands University. It is being held on the University of New Mexico campus.

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