The Northern New Mexico Network for Rural Education

The Northern New Mexico Network was formed approximately twenty-eight years ago to provide a collective voice for small, rural school districts of Northern New Mexico. Often, many regional and state policies affecting these districts were made with little or no input from them. Rural isolation and consequent lack of resources made any improvement efforts almost impossible, if attempted individually by each district. Gradually, collective action was recognized as a powerful tool for school improvement, including policy determination at different levels of the educational hierarchy.

 

Prior to 1995, the Network was a loosely knit collaborative of small, rural, and predominantly, minority school districts in North Central/North Eastern New Mexico, organized to address areas of common interest and need. Leadership for the Network came from Superintendents rotating the Chairmanship on a yearly basis, but without a designated staff and with no mechanisms for systematically assessing and addressing member districts' needs.

 

In subsequent years, the Network has become much more focused to create positive learning environments in Northern New Mexico schools. Its accomplishments include:

 

1. Small rural districts were organized into a powerful coalition that deeply understands and speaks for the interests of all children, including rural, poor Hispanic and Native American children.
2. School districts are being assisted to identify promising practices and opportunities for enhancing student achievement, particularly in math, science, and technology.
3. Network district resources are being coordinated and supplemented to provide extensive professional development for teachers, principals, central administrators and school board members.
4. Districts and schools are being prepared to collect and analyze data to inform instructional and management decisions.
5. Technology use for educational purposes is being enhanced to include a satellite-based, video/audio delivery system linking all districts and the integration of internet-based computer-mediated instruction.
6. The Network is now under the direction of a part-time Executive Director and has significantly increased its resource base. This has allowed it to design and use a highly successful professional development model (Leadership Development for School Teams, LDST) to increase student achievement. The model uses school-based leadership teams to form the core of a train-the-trainers model, which, when combined with Network-supported master teachers (Circuit Riders), has proven to be very effective. These Circuit Riders are master teachers, assigned specific schools for mentoring and are charged with the task of assuring that learnings derived from Network-wide professional development are applied locally.

Examples of educational improvement efforts initiated and sustained by the Northern Network include:

 

• The UCAN Rural Systemic Initiative, funded by the National Science Foundation, is focused on reforming math/science education in rural communities. In addition to Network schools, eleven other rural schools in the eastern part of the state are participants. Significant progress has been made during the past five years of operation. The Network is currently being considered for an additional 5 years of funding from the NSF.

• A multi-year collaborative with the Panasonic Foundation has enriched the Network's school reform process significantly. This has been done primarily along the themes of Teaching and Learning, School Governance and Community Engagement, with Accountability as a strand crossing all themes. Access to expertise from across the country has been provided to the Network schools, using Foundation resources. The Foundation has been instrumental in providing a forum by which the Network, the State Department of Education, the Legislative Education Study Committee and other state initiatives have collaborated in moving the Accountability agenda forward.

• The NM State Department of Education relationship with the Network continues to evolve opportunities for mutual benefits.

• As a result of the Northern Network's efforts, technology is much more prevalent in the region as a tool for school reform. The distance education network, established by the Northern Network in collaboration with three area universities, is technically complete and allows compressed video and audio transmissions via satellite. Teachers, students and community members have received additional educational opportunities and the sense of isolation has been lessened. Twenty-four school communities are now linked with three area universities and the outside world.

• A recent partnership with the Los Alamos National Labs Outreach Office has resulted in three Network middle schools forming a Middle School Academy to promote higher student achievement. The project is in its first year of operation and is off to a good start.

• Six Network schools are piloting the use of the Northwest Evaluation Association's Levels Testing to supplement the state-mandated CTB Terra Nova tests. The Network has purchased a consortium license and expects other districts to begin using these tests next year.

• In collaboration with the NM Coalition of School Administrators, the Network continues to lobby for necessary legislative changes.

Membership in the Network is comprised of twenty-five[25] school districts, with a per district student population ranging from a low of 194 students, to a high of 4,854 students. Member schools are: Chama, Cimarron, Clayton, Des Moines, Dulce, Espanola, Grants, Jemez Valley, Las Vegas City, Logan, Los Alamos, Maxwell, Mesa Vista, Mora, Pecos, Questa, Raton, Reserve, Roy, Santa Rosa, Springer, Tucumcari, Vaughn, Wagon Mound, and West Las Vegas.