NACSA | For Members | Member Spotlight
New Mexico Public Education Department – Charter Schools Division
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Dr. Don Duran and
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September, 2009
Interview by Erica E. Jones
Location: New Mexico
Type of Authorizer: State Education Agency
Website: http://www.ped.state.nm.us/Charter/index.html
Number of Charter Schools Currently Authorized: 14
Number of Charter School Campuses: 14
Contact:
Dr. Don Duran
Assistant Secretary of Education,
Charter Schools Division
505.222.4765
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Sam Obenshain
Program Manager
505.795.2374
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Authorizer Profile: Effective July 1, 2007, New Mexico’s charter school law was expanded to allow the authorization of charter schools by the state’s Public Education Commission (PEC). This legislation also authorized the creation of the Charter Schools Division within the New Mexico Public Education Department. Since 2007, the Division has created comprehensive charter application, oversight, and renewal processes.
What is your vision for charter schools?
Don Duran (DD): Our main vision is for charter schools to provide quality school choice options for parents and students, and for teachers and educators to focus on strategies that will produce high-quality schools. However, we in the charter movement need to figure out what the definition of “quality” should be.
Sam Obenshain (SO): Charter schools should provide choice, but also help the entire charter school movement provide innovative practices and ideas to traditional public schools.
How did you get involved in authorizing?
DD: I began work as an authorizer in 2006. I had just left the superintendent role at a New Mexico public school district and had been consulting. Dr. Veronica Garcia, New Mexico Secretary of Education, contacted me and encouraged me to think about the newly created Assistant Secretary position in the Charter Schools Division. I had worked with charter schools as a consultant, and I was also the founder of a charter school, so advocating for school choice options has always been a part of my life. New Mexico is fortunate to have a State Secretary of Education and a Governor who are champions for charter schools and school choice; I would not have considered the position had it not been for their strong leadership. Before our division was established, authorizing was all over the map, so I felt that I could really make a difference.
SO: I joined the charter schools office in 2007. I had been a public school principal for about ten years and was looking to move into a position where I could make a larger impact. I felt that it would be a great opportunity to influence and impact the charter school sector in New Mexico.
DD: When I was a Superintendent, Sam Obenshain was one of the premier principals in my district. He had also been a teacher. As a teacher, he was a real innovator and encouraged others to do the same. He is very strong at developing systems, organizing work, and looking at quality. Consequently, as I was thinking about how we could systematically monitor schools and performance indicators, there was no doubt in my mind that the best person to hire was Sam.
How do you describe a "quality" authorizer?
SO: A quality authorizer is proactive, transparent, and diligent in engaging schools and stakeholders in the charter school process. A quality authorizer also has systems in place that allow it to carry out its duties and ensure that everyone is aware of expectations so that there are no surprises. If an authorizer does these things well, it will be successful. The number of schools that our office has been able to authorize in our short existence is a testament to what schools are looking for in a quality authorizer.
DD: A quality authorizer has good tools in place for application and oversight. One of the first things that Sam and the team developed was the application process protocol. They wanted the process to be transparent, so we published information on the application process, the rubric, and other key elements. We also provided workshops for applicants. We want to be a model for other authorizers and share best practices with others. The Albuquerque Public School District has adopted many of our authorizer tools.
What are the major challenges your office faces annually; how do you address them?
DD: As Assistant Secretary, my biggest challenge is working with a ten-member (elected) authorizing board and trying to help them better understand their role as the authorizing board. The Members are charged with making charter school decisions, so we don’t get much quality time with them outside of the board meetings. This is a challenge because many of them are not familiar with all of the ins and outs of authorizing.
SO: Getting school district authorizers in New Mexico to understand the charter school law, their role, and how to implement best practices, is a challenge for us. Until now, there had not been much competition between and among authorizers because schools could only be authorized by their district. Now that the Public Education Commission can authorize and schools have a choice for their authorizer, schools are making more informed choices about which authorizer they want to authorize their school. Thus, our challenge is to get the word out to authorizers about best practices so that they can better understand their role.
Our office has ten staff members, including two administrative assistants. However, our division is not just in charge of charter schools – we are also in charge of non-public, alternative education, and home schools. I am the main charter school specialist in the office.
What challenges have you faced as an authorizer as a result of serving such a large percentage of English language learners?
DD &SO: We are unique in that we do not go out into the community to “pitch” or promote charter schools because the Governor and State Superintendent of Education are champions. We do not go out and recruit because the word is already out. We focus on providing technical assistance and information to groups interested in starting charter schools, and have worked closely with several Native American communities seeking to open charter schools.
Last year, we authorized New America Charter School, which plans to work primarily with English language learners. We are really excited about the school because it is going to be located in a Hispanic area of our community and will focus on English language learners. Another charter school, Tierra Adentro, will focus on Hispanic cultural traditions and integrating Hispanic arts. We have also seen a number of charter schools serving large numbers of Hispanic youth. The Governor is calling for a Hispanic summit in December where over 1,000 stakeholders will convene; this will be a great opportunity to learn more about how we can support the needs of the Hispanic community. Our Secretary of Education and Governor are Latino, which helps.
How do you determine if your authorizing office is successful?
DD & SO: We are successful if we are obtaining data that help us move students and charter schools to the next level. We have a great staff that goes above and beyond to collect the data that we need. We also feel that we are successful if we learn from the data we collect. Sam expects us to always check our data against our practice; I don’t think school systems do that. We were not afraid to look at the data. We also survey our applicants each year and evaluate the feedback they share with us.
What is the most pressing issue that authorizers must tackle in the next 5 years if we are to grow a high-quality charter sector?
DD: New Mexico currently has 80 charter schools, so our challenge is encouraging authorizers to systematically collect data about how their schools are performing. Another challenge is to help schools find and secure facilities. Finally, authorizers must clearly define how to arrive at renewal decisions by collecting evidence throughout the charter school term – without micromanaging – that will accurately inform renewal decisions.
SO: We need to expand our definition of what it means to be a “good” or “quality” school. Unfortunately, while NCLB has done a great job of focusing us on data, we get narrow-sighted in that we sometimes make major decisions based on a small amount of data and don’t look at a holistic picture of what it means to be a quality charter school. We need to close failing schools, but expand our definition and come to an agreement on what a “quality” charter school looks like.
