Jal Junior High Top Five in State in Reading

By John Earp

On Wednesday, Jal Junior High School was recognized by the New Mexico Public Education Department NMPED for being in the top five middle schools in the State of New Mexico for improvement in Reading Scores. There are 265 middle schools in the State of New Mexico. Jal Junior High School is a New Mexico Model School for Reading Improvement.

Key Jal Junior High reading teachers who were present for the award reception Wednesday in Albuquerque were Mrs. Savoie, Ms. Muniz, Mr. Ron Verschueren, along with Principal Buddy Little and Superintendent Brian Snider.

Mr. Snider says that the staff has made a concerted effort over the past several years to bring students’ reading scores up, and have been quite successful in doing so. He said, “They encourage a lot of vocabulary. So vocabulary, it’s introduced in each subject, and that’s what the junior high is doing well, is they’re using it across subjects. Meaning 10 to 15 words a week per subject. Not 10 to 15 words just for spelling. You’ve got 6 or 7 subjects with 10 or 15 words at each one. All the junior high teachers are very good about that.”

Snider says that the district has for several years been testing the students for reading every year in order to see what needs improvement, even though the state public education department doesn’t require yearly testing. He said, “They don’t require. We do what they require on our own so we can figure out how they’re doing in the grade levels that the New Mexico Public Education Department is not looking at. Just because they’re not looking at it, doesn’t mean we don’t need to know.”