Education
NM to adopt first-in-nation Navajo-language school textbook
New Mexico's Public Education Department announced today that the state will become the first in the nation to adopt a Navajo language textbook on Monday at the Instructional Materials Bureau Advisory Council meeting in Santa Fe.
A press release from the education department says:
The textbook is Dine Bizaad Binahoo’aah (Rediscovering the Navajo Language), written by Dr. Evangeline Parsons Yazzie (Navajo), Professor of Navajo at Northern Arizona University, and Dr. Margaret Speas, Professor of Linguistics at University of Massachusetts.
The textbook will be used in ten school districts that provide Navajo language instruction and by Bureau of Indian Education schools. In 2006-07 seven Native American languages were taught in New Mexico public schools throughout the state. Navajo language classes served the highest number of Native language learners totaling 5,024 students in 2006-07.
Wind-energy classes offered at Mesalands Community College
By Joel Gay 07/21/2008
Tucumcari may be where Al Gore and T. Boone Pickens find common ground — in the wind.
The former vice president last week called for a 10-year, man-on-the-moon commitment to wind and other forms of alternative energy, while the former Texas oilman has been promoting a similar message as he invests billions in the largest wind-energy project on Earth.
And Tucumcari? The little town on the eastern New Mexico plains is emerging as one of the few locations in the United States where someone can learn to master the giant turbines that have captured the minds of many, including Gore and Pickens. The first classes at the North American Wind Research and Training Center (NAWRTC) begin Aug. 25.
Dodd to honor Domenici in Las Cruces
By Heath Haussamen 07/21/2008
Chris Dodd, a former presidential candidate, will join a prominent and bipartisan group of politicians who will travel to Las Cruces in August to speak at a New Mexico State University conference honoring retiring Sen. Pete Domenici.
Dodd will join former Secretary of State James Baker, U.S. Sen. Jeff Bingaman, Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman, former U.S. Rep. Manuel Lujan Jr. and Gov. Bill Richardson at the inaugural Domenici Public Policy Conference to be held Aug. 20-22 at NMSU, according to a Friday news release from the university. The other speakers had been previously announced.
Dodd, a Democrat from Connecticut, and Domenici, a Republican, have worked together on mental health issues in the Senate.
Albuquerque high schools go from big to small, reflecting a trend
By Barbara Armijo 07/17/2008With its 90,000-plus student enrollment, Albuquerque Public Schools is anything but small. It's one of the largest in the nation, in fact. But starting this year $9.1 million in federal dollars will help make the district a little more intimate. The money will go toward nestling Small Learning Communities -- an educational model that has been slow to arrive in New Mexico -- within seven APS high schools, officials said.
TODAY'S TOP STORIES: Bandits target immigrants in home invasions
By Barbara Armijo 07/17/2008
There's growing concern about a gang of bandits who are invading Albuquerque homes and may be targeting Mexican immigrants too afraid to go to the police, according to KRQE-TV, Channel 13.
In Las Cruces, a group that monitors the academic performance of student athletes has suggested shortening the college basketball season. At its June 17 meeting, the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics called on the NCAA to shorten the season in an effort to lessen the strain on players who miss classes while on the road, according to the Las Cruces Sun-News.
The Santa Fe Reporter this week continues its coverage of Public Regulation Commission candidate Jerome Block Jr. and how he is running his campaign. The story details Block's father's ties to Mescalero Apache Telecom, Inc., a PRC-regulated corporation. It poses the question of whether the ties have created a conflict for the younger Block.
Governor: Special session will go beyond health care, pocketbook issues
By Trip Jennings 07/16/2008
Gov. Bill Richardson said in a news release today that he plans to announce ideas tomorrow for putting money into New Mexicans' pockets during these tough economic times. These ideas and health care reform will dominate the upcoming legislative special session that is proposed for September, his office said Wednesday.
"Health care will be the top priority," spokesman Gilbert Gallegos said. The governor's office even has an acronym for these ideas -- CARE, which stands for Cash Assistance Relief Effort. The package "will focus on expanding health care coverage and boosting family budgets by putting money in people’s pockets," the release from the governor's office said.
Gallegos then went on to say the special session agenda will "go beyond those two things" -- health care reform and putting money back into people's pockets.
Gallegos declined to say what these other proposals would be.
Mexico notebook: Obama on bilingualism
By Denise Tessier 07/15/2008"Instead of worrying about whether immigrants can learn English -- they'll learn English -- you need to make sure your child can speak Spanish. You should be thinking about how can your child become bilingual."
After reading Barack Obama's above response to a discussion about "English-only" legislation, my traveling companion said his view of the presidential candidate "just went up."
I'm guessing impressions of Obama went up for people all over the world.
What Obama said merely points out the obvious in the eyes of many outside of the United States. He said: "We should have every child speaking more than one language."
How is New Mexico's `Educonomy?'
By Barbara Armijo 07/14/2008
Lt. Gov. Diane Denish sees New Mexico's future depends on its "educonomy." That's where education meets economic development, and it's where the state has often fallen short of expectations, she said during a recent meeting with business and community leaders, educators and many youth from around the state.
"I'm tired of hearing that our best and brightest students had to leave the state to get the kinds of jobs they want," she said. "I'm tired of hearing from business leaders who say they can't bring their type of industry to our state because there are not enough college graduates or trained workers to hire. We have to do something so that we are ready for the future."
McDonough won't take reins at NMSU
By Heath Haussamen 07/08/2008
James McDonough won’t be New Mexico State University’s interim president after all, the university announced today in a news release.
McDonough’s withdrawal is due to a health concern he wasn’t aware of when he accepted the job last month, according to the Albuquerque Journal, which was quoting from the news release. No other details were released.
Charting a new way
By Barbara Armijo 07/08/2008
What started in 1988 as an idea outlined on a napkin at an educational conference in Minnesota has grown into a full-fledged educational revolution touching thousands of students, parents, and teachers across America.
Cradles of hope, with love to Africa
By Denise Tessier 06/24/2008 | 2 Comments
Home Hiving
By Denise Tessier 06/23/2008Backyard beekeeping makes sense in light of widespread reports of "mysterious" bee colony collapse. It makes just as much sense as it does to grow one's own vegetables and fruits. And because pollinators of all types are threatened by pesticides, genetically modified crops and other industrial farming methods, "we as members of the community need to pick up the slack," says one local expert.
Obama's first TV ad touts love of country and targets red states
By Steve Perry 06/20/2008
Here's the gist of Barack Obama's first general election ad, a minute-long encomium to humble roots and land-of-opportunity patriotism that's set to run in 18 states: "I was raised by a single mom and my grandparents. We didn’t have much money, but they taught me values straight from the Kansas heartland where they grew up. Accountability and self-reliance. Love of country. Working hard without making excuses. Treating your neighbor as you’d like to be treated. It’s what guided me as I worked my way up — taking jobs and loans to make it through college."
Those 18 states: Alaska, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Indiana, Michigan, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Virginia.
As Joe Sudbay writes at Americablog, all but four of those states (New Hampshire, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin) went for Bush in 2004.
Barack Obama: "Country I Love" (1:00)
The standardized test box
By Barbara Armijo 06/17/2008
Albuquerque Public School board member Robert Lucero took a lot of heat in Tuesday's Albuquerque Journal Letters to the Editor section over comments he made on KOAT-TV, Channel 7, regarding an Amy Biehl Charter School 's artwork.
He said in a TV interview that the $80,000 appropriated by the state to have a bronze statue of the Tara Jo McDonough's artwork done was "a monument to stupidity." He says that state money could be used in better ways.
It's easy to be green
By Barbara Armijo 06/17/2008
The Albuquerque Public Schools district is finding it easier to be green these days. It broke ground Monday on a school that will be a LEED Silver project under the U.S. Green Building Council's rating system. All that means is that the new Family School is being built using tough new energy efficiency standards. LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design. The school will serve students in kindergarten through 8th grade who work together in mixed grade classrooms for a half day. Their parents home school their children for the other half of the day.
The school's permanent campus will be adjacent to McKinley Middle School on Comanche Northeast. The new building will replace the current Family School, which is in portables adjacent to Bel-Air Elementary in the Northeast Heights.
King to sign shield law letter
By Denise Tessier 06/16/2008
State Attorney General Gary King will be signing a letter of support for a federal shield law for journalists this week.
If 36 state attorneys general sign on, the National Association of Attorneys General has said it will officially support the legislation at the national level, and possibly break a logjam in the U.S. Senate on S. 2035, the Free Flow of Information Act.
The importance of being Dad
By Denise Tessier 06/13/2008
In the week running up to Father's Day, the Navajo Nation Program for Self Reliance [NNPSR] has launched its first media campaign to promote and encourage responsible fatherhood, according to an article in The Gallup Independent.
Of the more than 3,000 households served by the program, nearly 90 percent are headed by single mothers, the newspaper's Diné Bureau reports.
McCain and No Child Left Behind
By Matthew Delong 06/13/2008The Trail reports that Sen. John McCain is interested in reforming President George W. Bush's signature domestic achievement, the No Child Left Behind Act, according to an adviser. The 2002 legislation sought to improve poorly performing public school systems in many states by mandating national performance standards.
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) hasn't said much about how to fix America's schools. But an adviser yesterday said the presumptive Republican presidential nominee supports using federal dollars for teacher merit pay and wants to change the No Child Left Behind law championed by President Bush.
No surprise: NM kids fare poorly
By Matthew Reichbach 06/12/2008 | 1 CommentNew Mexico is once again near the bottom of the Annie E. Casey Foundation's rankings designed "to track the status of children in the United States."
New Mexico ranks 48th overall out of 50 states in the group's annual Kids Count report. Last year, New Mexico ranked 47th.
"It's always disappointing to see New Mexico so close to the bottom," said Lisa Adams-Shafer, Kids Count program manager for New Mexico Voices for Children, which co-releases the annual report. "But, as always, there are some bright spots. We continue to do very well in terms of infant mortality rates, and we continue to outpace the national average in improvement in high school dropout rates," she added. "Sadly, our child death rates have continued to worsen."
Major shakeup at NMSU over porn
By Trip Jennings 06/12/2008
Three high-ranking administrators at New Mexico State University have been caught up in a fallout over pornographic e-mails and allegations of sexual harassment and retaliation, the Albuquerque Journal is reporting.
As reporter Martin Salazar, who has followed the story from the start, tells readers:One college dean at New Mexico State University has resigned; a second administrator is stepping aside; and a third may be looking for work amid a controversy involving pornographic e-mails and allegations of sexual harassment and retaliation. The high-level shuffle at the embattled College of Health and Social Services was announced Wednesday.
