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Will They Get Left Behind?
THURSDAY, MAY 16, 2002

Lesson Plans is an occasional feature which looks at issues facing Indian students and education.

ACCELERATED READER: Desiree Jojola, a fifth-grade student at Isleta Elementary School, Isleta Pueblo, New Mexico. Photo © NSM.

ISLETA PUEBLO, N.M. -- Yesterday's visit to the Isleta Elementary School here by the Secretary of the Interior was designed to showcase the reading skills of young Indian students. The Secretary also visited classrooms to observe construction needs.

Isleta's main concern is that the school is too close to a railroad track which generates large amounts of noise during classroom time. The school also has 13 portable buildings which have in effect become permanent.

The school's solution is to build a new campus at another site. The tribe wants the Bureau of Indian Affairs to do the job because its own funds are being used to construct a health facility and a recreational center, a kind of project for which government money is not available.

Isleta is not on the BIA's priority repair list, and there are no definite plans to add it anytime soon.

The damaged goods of Isleta Elementary weren't a centerpiece of yesterday's guided tour, however. Instead, the Bush officials watched students in grades 1-3 practice their reading and language skills.

It was a "Leave No Child Behind" photo op which started in the school's library, where students take their Accelerated Reader tests. For those not familiar with the program, here it is in a nutshell: a student reads a book off of an approved list appropriate to his or her grade and skill level and then takes a standardized test.

Students receive a certain number of points depending on their performance. They can then exchange for such prizes as balls, kites and notebooks.

Theoretically, the program provides an incentive for students to read more and actually forces them to think about what they have just read. The tests can serve as a trial run for the kinds of questions students are likely to see on the upcoming standardized tests required by the Bush administration under the reform legislation.

After the library, the tour stepped into a number of classrooms where spelling exercises, phonics exercises, and reading exercises were taking place, each one designed to ensure that a student is able to read fully by third grade.

The Pueblo children appeared to be engaged, as much as any students could be on a May afternoon with only a few weeks of school left. The class sizes were fairly small by national standards with approximately 14 to 15 per room. Multiple computers were noticeably absent from the classrooms.

The key question of the day, of course, was whether Isleta kids will live up to the name of their photo op. The Accelerated Reader program just might ensure the children in this community do. Not only will they be able to read by third grade, but will also want to read.

As the principal from Isleta, Mary Ann Apodaca y Silva, stated: "Bus drivers are telling me that the students are carrying more books home than last year."

Relevant Links:
Accelerated Reader - http://www.renlearn.com/ar/default.htm