PED News:

• • • • • Almost four dozen New Mexico high schools are poised to do innovative things

The New Mexico Public Education Department (PED) has identified 47 schools that will serve as “Innovation Zones”, transforming the traditional high school education model while improving the experience and academic outcomes for local communities.

Click here for a list of the 2023-2024 awardees who collectively will receive $11.4 million.

“Our goal is to identify best practices that can spread across the state over time to improve graduation rates by making high school more relevant and exciting to students on the cusp of adulthood,” Education Secretary Arsenio Romero said. “It is exciting that the zones expand educational pathways to college and career.”

The research-supported project capitalizes on innovations already in place in many New Mexico districts and charter and tribal schools that focus on workplace learning, career and technical education and a range of support services.

Innovation Zone schools will receive intensive professional development, guidance and technical assistance, along with awards to implement a re-imagined school experience that includes leadership teams and work-based and experiential learning. The funding – most schools will receive $200,000 – was included in the 2023 legislative General Appropriations Bill to support Career and Technical Education initiatives. 

Jenelle Cummins, Director of Career and Technical Education and Community Relations for Aztec Municipal Schools, said the district was able to create positions to support college and career readiness, work-based learning and help manage grant funding with its Innovation Zone funding last school year. In addition, the district was able to update its welding shop to industry standard.

In the 2023-2024 school year, Aztec will continue paid internships, professional learning and its partnership with its Native American dorm, Kinteel, to recruit students to enroll in Aztec schools, grades 8-12. Kinteel students will have access to Aztec CTE pathways, mentorship programs, college and career readiness resources, and paid internships.

“Aztec Schools focuses on being different by design for the students’ best interest,” Cummins said. “We purchased two brand-new vehicles with Innovation Zone funding and will be providing transportation to students who need it for their internships, in order to make it an equitable opportunity. Access to quality internships should not be limited by economic status or access to transportation, so we are helping bridge that gap.”

The Alamogordo Public School district also is continuing in Innovation Zone Year 2.

“It allows us to build on our long-term goals of innovating our career and technical education programs to provide students with better opportunities, growth and a more hands-on experience,” said Anna Alday, the district’s Career and Technical Education Coordinator.

The Innovation Zone pilot project fulfills a recommendation made in February 2022 in a report by PED and Los Alamos National Laboratory Foundation. It applauded disparate efforts across New Mexico to improve the high school experience and provide better college and career preparation, but it called for a comprehensive approach that can be scaled up to reach a critical mass of high schools across the state.

Schools awarded the Innovation Zone designation will work closely with their communities to determine how the local public education system should serve that community. Each Innovation Zone will create or refine a local Profile of a Graduate – a document that spells out the community’s expectations for those earning high school diplomas.

Applications were evaluated based on ability to perform the transformation work and the number of students served, with regional and cultural diversity as a priority. Click here for the core elements of successful applications.