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Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP)
Balanced calendar: refers to a school on a year-round schedule. Students at the two LCPS schools on balanced calendar (Booker T. Washington and MacArthur elementaries) go to school the same number of days as students at traditional-calendar schools. However, they go all year, without the long summer break. Also, they have more, shorter breaks than students at traditional-calendar schools, and they also have intercessions, which are additional instructional days for students who need extra help.
Benchmarks: A statement of what all students should know and be able to do in a content area (a particular subject) by the end of designated grades or levels. The grade groupings used for this purpose are kindergarten-grade 4; grade 5-grade 8; and grade 9-12 checkpoints for evaluating progress toward achieving content standards.
Best Practices: Refers to generally agreed upon, most effective methods of instruction in general and/or with regard to specific grade levels or subjects to enhance student achievement.
CER: Competent English Readers and CEW: Competent English Writers.
Cohort Graduation and Dropout Rates
Content Standards: A broad description of the knowledge and skills students should acquire – what they should know and be able to do -- in a particular subject area. Standards determine educational priorities for educators and students.
Criterion-Referenced Tests (CRTs): These tests, mandated by the New Mexico Public Education Department, are used to determine whether each student has achieved specific skills or concepts and to find out how much students know before instruction begins and after it has finished.
In education, CRTs usually are used to determine whether a student has learned the material taught in a specific grade or course. An algebra CRT would include questions based on what was supposed to be taught in algebra classes. It would not include geometry questions or more advanced algebra than was in the curriculum.
By contrast, norm-referenced tests rank each student with respect to the achievement of others in broad areas of knowledge and are used to differentiate between high and low achievers.
CST: Child Study Team (SAT)
Curriculum Alignment Matrix: A guideline or model, often in the form of a graph, used by educational professionals to determine what should be taught and when it should be taught. The matrix is a research base for all curriculum alignment activities, and is designed to ensure that what each student is learning is what is being tested.
Curriculum Mapping
DIBELS: Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills – the assessment used to evaluate students’ reading performance
Educational Plan for Student Success (EPSS)
ELL: English Language Learner
ESL: English as a Second Language
FEP: Fluent English Proficient status, which means students are fluent English speakers (FES).
Framework for Improving Teaching and Learning
High School Rigor
House Bill 212: Public School Reform
IEP (Individual Educational Plan): For any child with a disability, an IEP team develops an IEP that is a "living document" and puts it into effect before providing special education and related services to a student.
LAT: Language Appraisal Team
MAP: Measures of Academic Progress
Needs Assessments: The process of examining thoroughly the strengths and weaknesses of a particular school or educational system to improve student achievement.
NMHSCE: “New Mexico High School Competency Examination” data are
included with regard to student performance with both scaled
scores and percents passing for the last five years.
NMSBA: “New Mexico Standards-Based Assessments” were first
administered in 2002-2003, with school designations beginning
with the administration of the 2003-2004 assessment. Data are
included in multiple forms with regard to grade, group, student
performance, and feeder pattern results.
No Child Left Behind
OHI: Other Health Impaired
OT: Occupational Therapist
PED: New Mexico Public Education Department
PT: Physical Therapist
PDP: Professional Development Plan
Professional Learning Communities: A term that came into popular usage in the late 1980s, professional learning communities refer to teams of teachers, principals, students and parents working together within individual schools to learn from each other, to experiment and to continuously improve student learning and share responsibility for school success.
The term means teachers are treated as professionals; the focus is on what students are learning, not just what they are being taught; and success is based on the involvement of a community – teachers, administrators, students, parents and other stakeholders.
A professional learning community is an infrastructure, a way or working together for school improvement. It can be seen as an alternative to the more traditional workshop approach to professional learning and development.
RtI - Response to Intervention
Rubric: A guide or model, rules or instructions – often in table form – that govern how a particular subject area should be taught.
Shared Accountability High School Rigor Model
SLP: Speech Language Pathologist
Special Education Glossary
3-Tiered Licensure System
Title I: Title I, Part A of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 provides local educational agencies (LCPS, for example) with extra resources to help improve instruction in high-poverty schools and ensure that poor and minority children have the same opportunity as other children to meet state academic standards. See the Title I page.
Title IV: Refers to state formula grants and national discretionary activities for drug and violence prevention in public schools. See the Title IV page.
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