Monterrey Elementary School
Roswell, NM
Portfolio Writing Assessment
Fourth Grade Holistic Sentence Mech. Word Dev.
Formation Usage
1991-92 3.633 2.067 2.122 2.044 1.967
1992-93 2.39 1.96 2.03 2.00 2.11
1993-94 2.30 2.03 2.46 2.02 1.77
1994-95 3.31 2.35 2.55 2.16 2.09
Sixth Grade
1991-92 2.65 2.075 2.363 2.138 1.913
1992-93 3.71 2.46 2.34 2.41 2.46
1993-94 2.88 2.27 2.67 2.29 2.28
1994-95 2.97 2.54 2.54 2.32 2.26
Reading Assessment
First Grade Emergent (no./%) Competent Fluent
1991-92 37 / 52% 23 / 32% 11 / 15%
1992-93 30 / 39% 29 / 38% 17 / 23%
1993-94 32 / 35.5% 42 / 47.5% 16 / 18%
1994-95 26 / 34% 31 / 41% 19 / 25%
Second Grade
1991-92 20 / 22% 46 / 52% 22 / 25%
1992-93 7 / 8% 44 / 54% 30 / 38%
1993-94 12 / 17% 37 / 53% 21 / 30%
1994-95 10 / 14% 31 / 44% 30 / 42%
Retention Report
Number of students recommended for retention each year:
1991-92 - 2 (One was a parent requested retention, with staff not in agreement as the child was in Special Education. Parents have chosen to home school. The other child's parent signed refusing retention, thereby accepting responsibility. This child has been expelled from Middle School twice.)
1992-93 - 0
1993-94 - 0
1994-95 - 2 (one 1st, one Kdg) - plus one 2nd grader whose parents "demanded" that he be retained.
Attendance Statistics
1992-93 - 94.66%
1993-94 - 95.22%
1994-95 - 94.4%
Monterrey Elementary School has a student population of approximately 530 students in grades K-6, with about 50% Hispanic, 46% Anglo, and 4% Negro families, 58.08% of whom were considered low income in our 1993-94 count. We have a staff of 24 regular classroom teachers, 4 Resource teachers, 1 gifted education teacher, a P.E. Coach, a Counselor, a Library Associate, a Speech and Language Pathologist plus two days a week service from another, a full time secretary, a half-time secretary, five Chapter 1 Associates, 3 Special Education Associates, and associates for three sessions of Kindergarten. Our school nurse spends one day a week with us, and we are fortunate in having a nurse's aide another day each week. An orchestra teacher works with interested fifth and sixth graders during two weekly sessions, and a band teacher comes daily to work with sixth grade band students for 30 minutes. One custodian and one Principal round out our excellent staff.
Monterrey was named a recipient of the Inviting School Award in 1991-92 by the Alliance for Invitational Education. We received support from our Superintendent and Board of Education in becoming a "Reading and Respect Focus School" in the spring of 1993, which we will continue as our focus. We are a SIMSE Cycle II school, and have been awarded a Primary Language Arts Technology grant for the 1994-95 school year. A strand of our classes will participate in an Arts Initiative Grant this year, providing experiences in discipline-based art. Monterrey is one of three elementary schools in our district serving as a "pilot" for Eastern New Mexico University's Student Teaching program, and have added an on-site Methods Course component this year. In this regard, we work closely with professors and students at the university to improve the teacher education program, helping provide authentic field experiences for them.
Monterrey staff and students were "pioneers" in the Conflict Mediation program in Roswell, now beginning our fifth year of training students to resolve conflicts peacefully. In teaching our students mediation skills, our office referrals for the last six years have decreased from a high of 359 in 1988-89 to a low of 158 in 1992-93, with 1993-94 seeing 209 referrals. The true victory in this program is the reduction in the number of students seen for fighting from a high of 112 in 88-89 to 26 in 93-94. We are teaching "Second Step" curriculum, using Thomas Lickona's Educating for Character as our staff "manual", and actively teaching respect, responsibility, empathy, and courage as important attributes for our lives.
Our staff has chosen to work toward thematically integrated curriculum, inclusive of technology, with reading as the vehicle for all learning. Our staff development plans for the year are focusing on this concept, with portfolio and performance assessment necessary components of our goal. We have several multiage groupings, including two first-second grade classes, a third-fourth class, a five-six group, and a four-five-six family with two teachers teaming in their classroom. Four of these groupings have "carry-over" students from the previous year making up at least half the class, and we have a fifth grade class whose teacher moved with them from fourth to fifth grade this year.
Students in our school are involved in whole class instruction, small group work, cooperative learning strategies, paired activities, cross-grade groupings we call "study-buddies", and independent work. Our special education students are working in both an inclusive as well as some pull-out settings, depending on the needs of the individuals. Chapter 1 services occur in a pull-out program for the most part, and our associates are using a literature-based approach with their students in reading.
We have three active Partners in Education from our business community. The Roswell Museum and Art Center is teaming with our art grant strand to provide studio experiences with artists, some materials, and will host an art show of student work in December. The Golden Corral Restaurant invites thirty students from a specified grade level to tour their facility, eat their good food, and tour businesses in their area each month. Students selected to go are those who exhibit the traits of respect and responsibility. The manager also invites a sixth grader to "shadow" him for a full day once each month to become familiar with the responsibilities of food service management. Armstrong Energy is a small oil company in Roswell which works with our fifth grade classes, acquainting them with the oil industry and other Roswell industries. They provide field trips, guest speakers, authentic application of education experiences one Friday each month.
Our Parent Teacher Organization is very supportive of our school with a strong core group of active parents. They assist in fund raising activities, help in classrooms, and support their children academically. Five parents participated in the Reading and Respect training for two weeks during the summer of 1993, and continue to be active in helping us refine our focus. Our School Improvement Team includes four parents, four students, and four staff members.
As part of our commitment to bettering the educational opportunities for our students, we requested and received permission to extend four school days in order to earn an hour each Tuesday for staff development. One Tuesday each month, we hold a general staff meeting during this time to discuss common concerns, study a designated chapter in Thomas Lickona's Educating for Character , and generally plan for our focus. A second Tuesday is designated for staff development in areas indicating a need by our group, such as Technet use, calculators in the classroom, writing process, etc. The other two Tuesdays each month are reserved from grade level planning, individual or cross-grade curriculum development, or thematic unit planning. Our "early Tuesdays" are a valuable part of our striving for excellence in education.
When we worked on Benchmarking activities in May 1994 as part of our SIMSE participation, using the "Shades of Change" document copyrighted by Re:Learning New Mexico, we identified our Communication systems as being in the areas of Exploring New Systems and Emerging New System. Each staff member sends weekly or biweekly newsletters to parents; we have a Monterrey Monthly school-wide newspaper including a calendar of activities; staff receive a biweekly "Monday Letter" from the Principal listing scheduled meetings, updates on District and school activities; staff participate in peer observations; we have weekly "early Tuesday" gatherings for planning, staff development, and business.
In the area of Leadership, we agree that we are Bridging Between Systems to Predominance of New System with collaborative decision-making long in place, and staff involvement in all aspects of school business. We have developed a "staff council" as a result of our benchmarking to further enhance this area.
In the areas of Teaching and Learning, we saw ourselves in different lights, all the way from Maintaining Status Quo to Predominance of New System. We have many outstanding teachers who run active classrooms involving students in hands-on, minds-on learning, valuing all types of intelligences, and using authentic assessment to measure success. We agree that we need to work toward teaching thematically, incorporating more technology in an integrated curriculum approach. Our staff development needs to be planned in a meaningful, effective, sustained program,
In the areas of Math and Science, we see ourselves as Exploring and Piloting in each of the areas including Classroom Techniques, Curricula, Technology and Communication, Partnering and Community, and Equity and Multiculturalism. Our curriculum needs to be in line with the NCTM standards for optimum learning to occur. We will work toward this end.
As you will see from the attached assessment measures, we are a strong school, committed to student success. We believe that children need to be taught at their individual level of development while progressing chronologically with their peers. High expectations are a must for all students.
With our socioeconomic level changing from 32.03% of students qualifying as low income in 1987-88 to 58.08% in 1993-94, we have seen a definite change in the needs of our students, their language development, and the readiness skills and background experiences they bring with them when they enter school. Our challenge is to provide the experiences they need to bring them up to a high level of success. Our intent is to do just that!
Monterrey Elementary School
A Reading and Respect Focus School
910 West Gayle
Roswell, New Mexico 88201
505-625-8207
A Self - Study
Submitted in partial completion of
New Mexico State Department of Education
Accreditation Visit
1994-95
Contact Mrs. Dianne Doan, Principal
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