6 Gadsden schools exceed academic standards

SAN LUIS, Ariz. - Six schools in the Gadsden Elementary School District are exceeding the state's academic standards, but the district still faces the challenge of bringing two other schools up to standards.

The six schools designated as Performing Plus in the spring of 2009 under AZ Learns, the state's academic measurement exam, were Rio Colorado, Ed Pastor, Desert View, Arizona Desert and Cesar Chavez elementary schools, and Southwest Junior High School.

Gadsden Junior High and San Luis Middle schools were ranked as Underperforming, and District Superintendent Raymond Aguilera said the district's focus in the year ahead will be to bring them up to the Performing grade.

Under AZ Learns, schools are ranked as Excelling, Highly Performing, Performing Plus, Performing, Underperforming and Failing. Schools that continue to fall below the Performing level face the possibility of takeover by the state Department of Education.

San Luis Middle School fell just short of meeting the Performing standard, and Aguilera said he is confident that school will meet that mark in the upcoming year.

Bringing Gadsden Junior High School up to the Performing standard will be a greater challenge, but Aguilera believes that goal is attainable.

"In the middle of the past school year , it was difficult," he said. "There was teacher turnover and the resignation of the principal, Margarito Uranga, who went to New Mexico.

"Now we have a new director, Rafael Sanchez. I can say that we now have the strongest principal that we've had in the last 10 years."

He recalled that Sanchez was key a few years ago in bringing up Arizona Desert, which had fallen below the Performing mark. Now that school is designated as Performing Plus.

Sanchez and two interim counselors will come to Gadsden Junior High under a remedial plan worked out by district and the state.

"I'm confident in the leadership of the principal and the capability of the teachers," Aguilera said. "The main thing is to believe things can be done."

One of the obstacles in meeting standards is that nearly half of the district's enrollment is made up of English Language Learner students, Aguilera said.

The high percentage of ELL student was reflected in Average Yearly Progress, a student performance measure that shows whether schools are meeting the requirements of the federal No Child Left Behind Act. AYP showed that only one school performed well.

"Six schools in the Performing Plus category is something to celebrate, but because we have so many ELL students, we haven't been able to reach AYP standards," Aguilera said. "Only Ed Pastor school did well and succeeded in ranking high in two evaluations.

"Just as one ELL student moves up to the category of English Proficient, another student comes into the district without the knowledge or mastery of English."