APS board accepts math progress report as administration highlights coaching and targeted tutoring

APS board accepts math progress report as administration highlights coaching and targeted tutoring On Wednesday, July 16, 2025, the Albuquerque Public Schools Board of Education voted to accept the district’s progress monitoring reports for interim goals 2.1 and 2.2, which measure middle‑grade math proficiency. The motion to accept the reports was made by Board Member Courtney Jackson and seconded by Board Member Crystal Tapia Romero; the roll call showed all voting members present voted to accept the reports. The monitoring documents measure progress on math proficiency for targeted cohorts, and the administration told the board the district is focusing on coaching, site‑level instructional systems and expanding high‑dosage tutoring to accelerate learning where students are behind. The work, presenters said, ties directly to the board’s strategic goals and the district’s equity‑focused targets under the Martinez Yazzie framework. Administrators framed the report as a systems effort involving school‑level coaches and district supports. “We have a year’s worth of data now to look at, and we have a year’s worth of stories behind that data,” Superintendent Gabriela Duran Blakey said, explaining the district is identifying the specific teaching practices that produced gains and investing in those. The district introduced Chris Sanchez as the lead assistant superintendent for middle schools; Sanchez and other leaders described coaching visits, principal support and monthly coaching cycles at priority schools. Board members pressed the administration on several technical and equity questions during the monitoring conversation. Board Member Josefina Dominguez asked whether changes in enrollment between the beginning and end of the year affected interpretation of test results for sixth‑ and seventh‑grade subgroups. Dr. West, an assessment staff member, said the district aims for 95 percent participation in interim assessments and tracks attempts to test every student during the testing windows so the results reflect the full student population rather than a sample. “We treat assessment very seriously in this district…we go for that 95% as our baseline,” Dr. West said. Members also asked about supports for English learners and students with disabilities. Board Member Heather Benavides asked what professional development and long‑term strategies are in place for teachers working with those students. Antonio Gonzalez, deputy superintendent for leadership and learning, emphasized scheduling adults’ time to allow collaboration and professional learning and said the district is aiming to target resources where they produce the highest return on learning. “One thing we have to be fundamental about is being very intentional with time — adult time, teacher time — and being creative with the way we schedule students,” Gonzalez said. High‑dosage tutoring was repeatedly raised as the intervention most likely to produce rapid gains. Blakey and other officials described high‑dosage tutoring as promising but resource‑intensive and logistically difficult to scale during the school day. “If you want to move faster, high‑dosage tutoring is…speedy,” Blakey said, adding the district is trying to identify ways to expand that support equitably so students without family resources can access it. The board asked for more disaggregated explanations of what worked at the schools that made gains. Several administrators said the schools that improved used regular collaborative teacher time to analyze data by student group and design tailored interventions, and that the district will surface those school‑level stories so other sites can replicate them. The board accepted the monitoring report after the Q&A. The vote to accept the reports served as the board’s formal acknowledgement that it had a satisfactory monitoring conversation with the superintendent about the math goals. The administration said it will continue monthly monitoring, increase school‑level coaching in priority schools and plan further reports tying strategies to outcomes.