Logan school board reviews student data

More than half of Logan’s middle-school students were considered low-growth academically in assessment tests during a period from December 2019 to December 2020, illustrating the challenges of remote-learning environments during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Superintendent Dennis Roch during his academic update presented the Measures of Academic Progress, or MAP, data to Logan Municipal Schools board members during their virtual regular meeting Dec. 14.

Roch showed student data divided into four quadrants — high achievement and high growth, low achievement and high growth; high achievement and low growth; and low achievement and low growth. Students were assessed for math, language arts and science.

He said the best-case scenario was high growth for all students, because even academically struggling students could make up lost ground.

Sixth-graders typically have a difficult time transitioning from fifth grade to a middle-school environment, and the pandemic made it tougher, Roch said. But data for seventh and eighth-grade students also showed a majority still in low-growth academic performance in all areas.

Roch said he would show the data to middle-school teachers so they could make changes to their teaching methods.

Roch said the district has used MAP tests only in the last two years and didn’t have much data to compare. He said the district used a different assessment test during the previous administration of Gov. Susana Martinez.

Board President Scott Osborn observed all school districts are down academically during the pandemic-affected school year. Area superintendents reported earlier this fall that some districts are reporting 70% of their students were failing at least one class amid remote-learning environments.

Roch said remote learning “is not ideal,” and experts have estimated a learning loss of six to nine months in such environments.

Board member Kyle Perez said state officials are too rosy in their assessments of online learning.

“This is not a good deal, the situation they’ve put these schools and kids in,” he said.

He noted the New Mexico Public Education Department is requesting more funding for accelerated instruction in the next fiscal year.

“They know there’s a problem” with remote learning, Roch said.

Roch reported some success in bringing Logan students “back into the fold” who had been disengaged during remote learning this school year. He said he saw signs of student improvement because of more live videoconferencing and more teacher-led instruction.

In other business:

• The board approved a state-mandated alternate demonstration of competency for graduating seniors. For 2021 graduates, the state would allow demonstrations of competency that include portfolios, project-based learning, capstones, oral presentation or a college-admission letter. Roch said many Logan seniors have met competency, and others lack only one or two credits. He said the district also has existing competency policies that meet the state’s new standards.

• The board postponed indefinitely an item to consider all-virtual instruction after Christmas break. The agenda item was rendered moot by the PED’s order Friday that all public schools could not resume in-person teaching until Jan. 18. Logan’s meeting agenda was set before the PED’s order.

• Roch talked about upcoming COVID-19 surveillance testing of 10% of all district staff. Testing previously involved 5% of staff. Roch said the new test is a saliva test, which is less invasive and uncomfortable than the nasal swab and probably would prompt more employees to voluntarily participate.

• Roch said the elementary school teachers next month would see their computers updated from PCs to laptops. He said the conversion is particularly important during remote learning. He said teachers also would receive new docking stations so they could connect the laptops to the district’s network and printers.

• During the temporary conversion to all-remote learning until mid-January, Roch said he is keeping bus drivers and food service staff on the payroll by having breakfasts and lunches for students prepared to-go, then bus drivers delivering those meals to outlying areas, including Nara Visa. He said office staff also would be on rotational schedules.

• Roch said he asked the PED whether COVID-19 vaccines would be mandated for educators and, if so, what the consequences would be if they were refused. He said the agency did not have an answer at that time. Roch also noted educators are not deemed as essential workers in the state, which might affect how soon they could get a vaccine.

• Roch said asbestos abatement was finished in a middle-school room damaged by a water leak earlier this year, and repairs would begin. He said insurance would cover that work.

• Principal Crystal Burns said the FFA junior high team finished in the top 10 of the regional creed contest, with seventh-grader Braeden Lightfoot finishing in the top five and advancing to the state tournament.

• Burns announced the winners of a recent spelling bee at the school, held with social distancing and streamed on the internet. Emery Baggett won the first-grade title, with Kanyon Cox as runner-up. Kipton Griffiths won the second-grade crown, with Kolton Koile runner-up. In third through fifth grades, Kyle Terry won the title, and fellow fifth-grader Kale Griffiths finished second.

Burns said there would be no district spelling bee because many schools didn’t compete. However, she said there likely would a regional competition in its place.

• Athletic director Billy Burns said if sports are played during the spring semester, they will have condensed schedules with little more than district matchups. Burns said there is a desire to still have state tournaments if sports are played. He said 80% of coaches polled during New Mexico Activities Association meetings said they want to see a slate of state tournament games.

• School board members Laurie Strebeck and Tom Humble briefly commented about a virtual New Mexico School Boards Association Conference they attended. Humble said the virtual format made it more difficult to network with other school board members around the state. He also said it was “alarming” the direction and standards the state was taking education.

“The politics oozed into it, it seemed to be,” he said.