Review of Academic Achievement at San Ildefonso Day School in New Mexico

We performed this inspection of San Ildefonso Day School, a BIE-operated day school for students in kindergarten through grade 6, located in Santa Fe, New Mexico. We evaluated programs that the school had in place to help close the educational achievement gap and increase graduation rates. The No Child Left Behind Act, signed into law in January 2002, requires schools to complete a comprehensive needs assessment. The purpose of the assessment is to provide the schools with a strategy to help them meet the specific needs of their unique student populations. 

 

We found that San Ildefonso did not have a comprehensive needs assessment. As a result, the specific needs of the school’s unique student population may be unknown to school administrators, leaving the school unable to effectively prioritize its resources to ensure its students’ successful educational achievement.

 

In addition, school children may have mastered conversational English but may not be able to express themselves effectively using academic English, the formal written, auditory, and visual language used in learning environments. All states require some type of English language learner (ELL) assessment that ranges from simply asking parents to identify the primary language spoken in the home to a formal test administered to all students. We found that San Ildefonso Day School officials had administered ELL assessments. All students however, were combined into classrooms under three teachers, regardless of their assessment outcomes. As a result, ELL students may not have received the additional support necessary to help them achieve academically. 

 

We provided two recommendations that, if implemented, should improve educational achievement efforts at the San Ildefonso Day School.