Four of 13 Classrooms With the Most Single-Year Growth on the New Mexico Standards Based Assessment Are Taught by Teach For America Corps Members
For Immediate Release
Contact: Rebecca Neale | Teach For America
202.906.9207 | rebecca.neale@teachforamerica.org
SANTA FE, N.M., March 11, 2011—Teach For America and the New Mexico Public Education Department today announced that four of the 13 middle- and high-school classrooms achieving the most single-year growth on the state assessment for their respective grades and subjects were led by Teach For America corps members. The results, based on student performance on the New Mexico Standards Based Assessment, were announced during a recognition ceremony at the New Mexico State Legislature. Secretary of Education Hanna Skandera and acting Math and Science Bureau Chief Claudia Ahlstrom hosted the event, with attendees including Teach For America-New Mexico Executive Director Landon Mascareñaz.
“We know from the remarkable results of Teach For America corps members, and great teachers across New Mexico, that all students can succeed,” Skandera said. “I am inspired by the extraordinary leadership of these teachers, who are putting students in some of our state’s most challenged schools on a path to achieve their full potential in the classroom and in life.”
The Teach For America corps members whose students achieved the highest growth during the 2009-10 school year are Navajo Middle School eighth-grade teachers J.T. Erbaugh (31-point growth in science), Kyle Guillet (39-point growth in math), and Gwyndolyn Raisner (46-point growth in reading), and Tse’Yi’Gai High School 11th-grade math instructor Amanda Markey (who led students from 0 percent to 41 percent proficiency).
All four corps members teach at rural schools serving students from low-income backgrounds in the Gallup-McKinley County School. In addition to these top-performing teachers, eight GMCS classrooms led by Teach For America corps members scored among the top 20 in the state for their respective grades and subjects.
“The State of New Mexico investment in Teach For America has produced outstanding results for students,” said Rep. Ray Begaye. “I am especially proud of their deep and powerful charge in New Mexico by seeing these dramatic gains in test-score outcomes in rural and frontier Indian reservation communities. This is an inspiration for us all on the success that is possible for all of our students.”
Teach For America recruits, trains, and supports top recent college graduates and professionals who commit to teach for two years in urban and rural communities across 39 regions. The organization began placing corps members in New Mexico in 2001 and increased the number of corps members by 20 percent this school year. Today, 125 corps members are reaching nearly 7,500 students in the northwestern corner of the state, including the city of Gallup, the Navajo Nation, Laguna Pueblo, and Zuni Pueblo.
Teach For America-New Mexico, which is funded in part through the state’s Indian Education Act, was the first of four Teach For America regions to place corps members in communities serving American Indian students. Last year Teach For America corps members reached nearly 15 percent of the state’s Native population, and the Public Education Department announced that Native students made the most substantial growth of any subgroup on the state test. The news coincided with the launch of Teach For America’s Native Achievement Initiative, which aims to quadruple the number of Native students served by Teach For America corps members by 2015 and expand the number of corps members from Native backgrounds. From 2009 to 2010, Teach For America nearly doubled the percentage of corps members from Native American and Native Hawaiian backgrounds.
“We are excited by the exceptional outcomes of our corps members on behalf of students growing up in the rural northwest communities of our state,” Teach For America’s Mascareñaz said. Teach For America in New Mexico is working to ensure that every child receives a transformational education while continuously improving, so we can grow our impact and replicate the success we know is possible for all students.”
About Teach For America
Teach For America is the national corps of outstanding recent college graduates who commit to teach for two years in urban and rural public schools and become lifelong leaders in expanding educational opportunity. Today, more than 8,200 corps members are teaching in 39 regions across the country while 20,000 Teach For America alumni continue working from inside and outside the field of education for the fundamental changes necessary to ensure educational excellence and equity. For more information, visit www.teachforamerica.org.
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