• Category 2

    Selected in 2017

  • Grades: k - 8
    School Setting: rural
    Town Population: 5,763
    Student Enrollment: 213
    Student Demographics:

    Black/African American: 2%
    White/Caucasian: 35%
    Hispanic: 59%
    Hawaiian/Pacific Islander: 0%
    Asian: 0%
    Native American: 1%
    Other: 3%

    Teacher/Student Ratio: 1:15
    % Reduced Lunch: 35%
    % ELL Learners: 0%
    Founded: 2000
  • PRINCIPAL:
    Jeremy Jones
  • CONTACT:
    1303 Paseo del Canon E.
    Taos, NM 87571
    575-751-7222 ext. 202
    jjones@taoscharterschool.org
Taos Municipal Charter School
Taos, NM
Lasting change comes from time taken to engage the whole community.
Describe specific programs in place to ensure that families are involved in the success of your school and students.
- Weekly Math PD with a math specialist.
- Extra math support as needed provided by math tutor during the school day.
- Response to Intervention implement consistently as possible, school wide.
- High academic expectations coupled with a small community feel that promotes emotional intelligence in addition to academic work.
- Parent Volunteers.
- Back to school night.
- Literacy Nights for Families.
- Parent newsletters with information about what students are learning in school.


High academic expectations coupled with a small community feel that promotes emotional intelligence in addition to academic work.


High academic expectations coupled with a small community feel that promotes emotional intelligence in addition to academic work.



Describe the most successful activity your school has initiated to strengthen ties to your community.
- Site-based school governance.
- Teachers and Parents participate in school leadership.
- Academic and sporting events.
- Hosting local agencies at our school.
- Hosting local government at our school.
Describe your philosophy of school change or improvement.
- Lasting change comes from time taken to enage the whole community. The process of sharing data and creating a school improvement plan must include teachers, parents, administrators, and students.
- We always strive to do better by studying student achievement data. We look for trends to see if issues are curricular or more connect to a cohort group. We make needed adjustments in a timely manner.
What are your school’s top two goals for the next year?
By the end of the 2017/2018 school year, each of our classes in grade K-8 will increase math proficiency scores by at least 15% on the PARCC test.

By the end of the 2017/2018 school year, each of our classes in grade K-8 will increase math proficiency scores by at least 15% on the PARCC test.
What is the single most important factor in the success of your school that others could replicate?
In order to have robust Response to Intervention process and practice at a school, there must be a high functioning and dedicated staff member who is specifically hired and paid for this purpose. RTI cannot be an extra thing that everyone gets to when they can.
Describe the program or initiative that has had the greatest positive effect on student achievement, including closing achievement or opportunity gaps, if applicable.
- Improved Implementation of the Response to Intervention model.
- Increased parent engagement through math and literacy nights and a part time family resources coordinator to connect parents and students with academic and social support resources.
- "Pathway to Exemplary" provides a way for teachers to document individual efforts in providing professional development to peers.
- We can provide data-driven individualized support because Title I funds are used at the classroom level by providing qualified people to provide direct support to students.
Explain how Title I funds are used to support your improvement efforts.
- We use multiple sources of school data to target Title I funds in a way that will have to most impact for struggling students. Summitive assessments such as the PARCC and Unit exams and Formative assessments such as the NWEA MAP, iStation, and curriculum based assessments are used in the process of deciding where to focus Title I funds. This year, our Title I program is focussing on Math support for struggling students. I past years, we focussed on Reading Support, which saw excellent gains from the effort.
- We can provide data-driven individualized support because Title I funds are used at the classroom level by providing qualified people to provide direct support to students.
Identify the critical professional development activities you use to improve teaching and student learning.
- Weekly professional development focusses on the classroom and the student. It is a back-to-basics approach that highlights what effective teaching and learning looks like and builds on both peer and principal observation and feedback.
- We meet in small groups to discuss data and strategies we ust to make changes. Individual can seek professional development in areas needed. many people attend the annual SW International Dyslexia conference to improve reading and writing instruction. Many people are in the program to earn their National Board Certification. Teachers present to staff in areas of expertise.
Describe how data is used to improve student achievement and inform decision making.
- We drill into data from short cycle and montly assessments to determine where students lack understanding or skill.
- ​Disseminate PARCC data and identify low performing students who don't show sufficient growth. Create different subgroups by correlating factors for those students such as SPED, low income, ethnicity, school history, and 504/Sat's. Share those students with their current teachers and create a form for each of those students. The teachers will then be encouraged to collect other assessment data(MAP, informal and formal in class assessments) and see if the the PARCC data correlates to the assessment data. After the data is collected create a professional development activity where previous teachers share their insights and their interventions for those individuals. Have these forms updated throughout the year as these students continuous improvement plans that follow them throughout their career at TCS so that teachers do not have to start fresh every year.
Describe your school culture and explain changes you’ve taken to improve it.
- High level of teacher autonomy balanced with culture of collaboration and mutual respect
- Culture encourages teachers to tak initiative by minimizing top-down management style
- Communication of rigorous standards for teaching and learning with a culture of mutual accountability.
- Accountability for supportin robust response to intervention plan in each classroom and for each student.
- Favoring critical thinking and vocabulary development in mathematics over rote learning. PD suports this move.
- Use of literacy specialist to provide tier II reading interventions and support quality tier I instruction.
- High academic expectations coupled with a small community feel that promotes emotional intelligence in addtion to academic work.
Stats
  • Category 2

    Selected in 2017

  • Grades: k - 8
    School Setting: rural
    Town Population: 5,763
    Student Enrollment: 213
    Student Demographics:

    Black/African American: 2%
    White/Caucasian: 35%
    Hispanic: 59%
    Hawaiian/Pacific Islander: 0%
    Asian: 0%
    Native American: 1%
    Other: 3%

    Teacher/Student Ratio: 1:15
    % Reduced Lunch: 35%
    % ELL Learners: 0%
    Founded: 2000
  • PRINCIPAL:
    Jeremy Jones
  • CONTACT:
    1303 Paseo del Canon E.
    Taos, NM 87571
    575-751-7222 ext. 202
    jjones@taoscharterschool.org