Staff Report
UNM's collaboration with the Albuquerque Public School system to improve the quality of education students receive before entering college is getting some national attention.
Collaboration team members from UNM's College of Education, the College of Arts and Sciences and APS have been invited for membership into the National Network for Educational Renewal, a national group focused on education reform in the country's colleges and universities.
The goal of NNER is to form partnerships to simultaneously improve the quality of education for students and the quality of preparation for educators, according to a University news release.
Local educators from UNM and APS will have a hand in helping to shape national education reform because of their acceptance into NNER.
College of Education Dean Viola Florez said the partnership between UNM and APS is nothing new. She said UNM has worked with not only APS, but with other Middle Rio Grande School districts including Bernalillo and Belen for years.
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"We've done this for quite some time, long before I got here," Florez said in a University news release. "This professional exchange of services has been long and we have good evidence of working together. Now we're going to be part of a national organization and participate in the sharing of that information."
NNER requires that participating collaborations promote educational renewal in their respective organizations to ensure that students have access to quality teachers.
To be accepted into NNER, the application process requires that educational partnerships demonstrate evidence of extensive collaborative work. Partnership members must also engage in extensive professional development to familiarize themselves with the guiding principals called the Agenda for Education in a Democracy.
"New Mexico has been going through a tremendous amount of educational reform efforts," Florez said. "We don't call it reform. We call it renewal. It's not bringing new things in. It's looking at what we've done before and maybe doing it differently."
Florez said she is excited to have the UNM program connected to a national network of other partnerships across the country that are also struggling and trying different kinds of initiatives that help children succeed in school.
Reed Dasenbrock, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, said UNM is strongly committed to educational outreach to enhance student learning in New Mexico.
"Membership in NNER is important because this is a group that is happy to this kind of work across the country," he said. "It is also significant because it recognizes UNM as having a strong collaboration between the schools of Education and Arts and Sciences."
Beth Everitt, superintendent of Albuquerque Public Schools, says she is delighted to continue the relationship with UNM.
"Our partnership over numerous years has produced many successes, including programs for teacher recruitment, retention and professional development," she said in a University news release. "Through the NNER work, we will tackle the tough issues together and improve education in New Mexico."
Everitt said UNM, as well as any institution of higher learning, can benefit from being part of a bigger support system
"The challenges of urban education are too big for one institution to solve," she said.
