The focus of this letter is to discuss our concerns about the letter grading system for schools with students who do not fit into any of the areas evaluated by the recently released Public Education Department’s letter grade for schools.
The New Mexico Public Education Department School Grading Report for 2010-2011 gives Gordon Bernell Charter School, an Albuquerque Charter School, an F grade. As a result, this report card labels Gordon Bernell Charter School as a failing school, which could not be further from the truth!
Gordon Bernell Charter School’s population is as follows:
♦ The average length our students have been away from a public school is 14 years.
♦ The average age of our students is 33 years.
♦ Our student population includes inmates at the Metropolitan Detention Center.
♦ Our student population includes offenders in the Community Custody Program.
♦ Our student population includes any adult who understands that in order to have a successful life, education is a key component. Our school is open to any person of any age who wishes to get his or her life back on track.
Gordon Bernell Charter School operates two high school campuses: one within the secure perimeter of the Bernalillo County Metropolitan Detention Center, known as the MDC Campus, and the other campus in Downtown Albuquerque at the Bernalillo County Public Safety Center.
At the Metropolitan Detention Center, there are classrooms in both the men’s and women’s areas of the jail that offer all core content area courses (math, English, science, social studies), and courses required for graduation in New Mexico such as physical education, health and New Mexico history. All of our teachers are fully licensed by the New Mexico Public Education Department.
The Gordon Bernell Charter School is one of only two schools in the nation which offers this opportunity to incarcerated adults. Why is this important?
According to national statistics during 2010:
♦ 708,677 offenders will be released back to their community. Nineteen percent of adult prisoners are completely illiterate, and 40 percent are functionally illiterate. Two in five prison and jail inmates lack a high school diploma or its equivalent.
♦ According to the Department of Justice, three out of five released ex-offenders will be re-incarcerated. The cost of incarceration for the New Mexico Corrections Department is approximately $30,000 per year.
The members of the Gordon Bernell Charter School Governance Council believe that New Mexico needs to develop an alternative accountability system to measure charter schools and alternative schools that specifically target high-risk populations by a different set of indicators than those used for a traditional high school population.
The reality is that Gordon Bernell has documented outstanding academic growth that was never reviewed because the assessment tool used by the New Mexico Public Education Department does not capture this information. California, Arizona, Colorado and Florida all have alternative systems in place for schools who work with a population that does not fit the traditional school system.
In our short time in operation, we have graduated over 100 students. Our reading growth is so impressive that our staff have been asked to present our results at the national CEA-Corrections Education Association Conference.
We are so successful and committed to this work that the MDC Jail Administration has made available additional classrooms in every housing unit for our school to occupy.
Gordon Bernell truly transforms lives, yet unfortunately the New Mexico Public Education Department has no mechanism for measuring the amazing work we do. It is sadly ironic that we have gained more national recognition than we have from our own state Education Department.
Also signed by governance board members Jerry Otero, Ann Lynn Hall, Susannah Burke and Jerry Ortiz y Pino.
