Local school officials are looking at improving academic and career counseling services for students, in an effort to improve the Española School District’s graduation rate.
Española School Board member Ruben Archuleta, at an April 1 Board meeting, said good counseling services will lead to student success.
“Good counselors are the key,” he said. “We train them better or get better ones. For me, that’s a concern.”
According to numbers released by the state Public Education Department in February, the District’s graduation rate fell from 58.2 percent in 2013, to 55.5 percent last year. This is the fourth-lowest graduation rate for a school district in the state, in 2014.
Board President Pablo Lujan said he sees this low rate as an opportunity for improvement.
“We have a 55 percent graduation rate when the national average is 80 percent,” he said. “We can’t tolerate that. But one thing is, we’re excited we’re in the bottom, because when you’re in the bottom, the only way you can go is to the top.”
Lujan said improving resources for high school students is important because they are “our immediate future.” He asked whether Española Valley High School counselors are required to share information on academic assessment tests, such as pre-SAT and ACT tests, with students.
High school Principal Elizabeth Lucero said counselors do so.
With the impending end of this school year, counselors have been looking at scholarship and college admission testing information, since January, that students might need.
Lucero said counselors are doing sufficient work to help high school students.
“We have a program that allows us to audit the school’s counseling program and counselors do know that,” she said. “That’s a tool that the state Public Education Department has and it’s a very comprehensive plan.”
The high school currently has three counselors to accommodate all high school students. The number is appropriate to the state mandated ratio of one counselor per 500 students, Lucero said.
To accommodate all students efficiently, counselors are required to keep close track of their schedule. Lucero said they usually spend the most time checking up on students individually.
“That means they should have a calendar for the month, for the week, as scheduled, by their office,” she said. “The counselors spend 75 percent of their time for individual counseling statewide. That’s bridging the huge gap.”
But she said at the high school, counselors have been switching to more team-oriented counseling to divert focus from individual students and inform small groups.
She said counselors organize parent conferences whenever there are upcoming academic assessment tests, in an effort to increase parent involvement. They try to schedule conferences based on parents’ availability.
“Counselors open it up to parents to come,” she said. “As counselors, they need to be available for parents’ time.”
At the meeting, Lujan tasked Lucero with formulating a five-year strategic plan to improve student resources, including counseling, to address the low graduation rate.
Board Vice President Lucas Fresquez said the principal should take into consideration the fact that there’s not a lot of parent involvement in the schools.
“When you have a model, you’re supposed to make it as specific to the dynamics of the community,” he said. “We do not have the kind of parent involvement that other school districts have. There’s going to have to be some flexibility on how we can make this a reality.”
According to data published by Las Cumbres Community Services Inc., 60 percent of Rio Arriba County children younger than six years old, are cared for by their grandparents.
Lucero said despite the dynamic nature of educational resources, she plans to address the Board’s concerns as best she can.
“The duties of a counselor have changed,” she said. “Education is an ever-evolving system and things have really changed all the way around. Your concerns are my concerns.”