Educator and Hollister resident Noemi Garcia Reyes discusses her
success at El Portal
Noemi Garcia Reyes is no stranger to the issues of the students
she mentors at El Portal Leadership Academy, a charter high school
in Gilroy. The high school principal grew up on the east side of
Salinas, the daughter of Mexican immigrants.
”
My parents worked full time, but they very much supported my
studies,
”
she said.
”
But we didn’t always have the economic means to afford
everything.
”
Reyes graduated from Alisal High School in Salinas and went on
to the University of California, Santa Barbara, as the first person
in her family to go to college. She majored in Latin American
studies. After graduating, she taught at San Benito High School and
Academia Calmecac, another charter school founded in San Jose by
the Mexican American Community Services Agency. She went back to
school to get her doctorate from Stanford. Reyes received a Ford
Foundation scholarship while she studied history of testing.
She became the principal of El Portal in November 2001. She
lives in Hollister with her husband, Adolfo Reyes, who is the
principal at Academia Calmecac. The two, who have no children of
their own yet, center their lives on educating their students.
”
Education is a part of our conversation and our lives 24 hours a
day,
”
Reyes said.
Reyes recently answered questions for the Sunday Pinnacle on API
scores, bilingual education and her goals for the charter
school.
Educator and Hollister resident Noemi Garcia Reyes discusses her success at El Portal
Noemi Garcia Reyes is no stranger to the issues of the students she mentors at El Portal Leadership Academy, a charter high school in Gilroy. The high school principal grew up on the east side of Salinas, the daughter of Mexican immigrants.
“My parents worked full time, but they very much supported my studies,” she said. “But we didn’t always have the economic means to afford everything.”
Reyes graduated from Alisal High School in Salinas and went on to the University of California, Santa Barbara, as the first person in her family to go to college. She majored in Latin American studies. After graduating, she taught at San Benito High School and Academia Calmecac, another charter school founded in San Jose by the Mexican American Community Services Agency. She went back to school to get her doctorate from Stanford. Reyes received a Ford Foundation scholarship while she studied history of testing.
She became the principal of El Portal in November 2001. She lives in Hollister with her husband, Adolfo Reyes, who is the principal at Academia Calmecac. The two, who have no children of their own yet, center their lives on educating their students.
“Education is a part of our conversation and our lives 24 hours a day,” Reyes said.
Reyes recently answered questions for the Sunday Pinnacle on API scores, bilingual education and her goals for the charter school.
Q: MACSA El Portal Leadership Academy graduated its first class of seniors in June. How many of those students went on to college or trade schools and how are the numbers different from traditional high schools?
A: We are extremely proud to report that November 2005 data shows 31 of our graduates, or 58 percent, are currently attending a four-year university or community college, including Santa Clara University, San Jose State University, Bethany College, National Hispanic University or Gavilan Community College. This is remarkable since most high-school graduates, especially Latino high-school graduates, are not even given the opportunity to complete the A through G courses required to qualify for entrance into a UC or CSU.
Q: Different students learn best in many different ways and in different environments. What types of students do best at a school such as El Portal?
A: Students who end up succeeding at EPLA include students who thrive within a smaller personalized learning environment; are the first in their family to attend college upon graduating; have a history of receiving grades below their potential but have the desire to turn it around and take on the challenge of an academic college-prep program; and have family members who are looking for a school that not only welcomes parental input but necessitates it to improve the school’s operation and instructional program.
Q: How important are small class sizes to making El Portal students successful? What is the student-teacher ratio?
A: At El Portal we strive to provide a high quality education by offering a small personalized learning environment that supports meaningful relationships among students and teachers. One of the ways that we have been able to do this is by ensuring that our student-to-teacher ratio is no more than 22-to-one in any class, as well as by ensuring that our teachers have an overall reduced pupil load that is no more than 66 students each day. Study after study shows that … small schools produce higher academic achievement and lower dropout rates … As a charter school, we have the capacity to respond quickly and with flexibility to the needs of students or teachers and to place day-to-day decision-making authority as close as possible to the classroom.
Q: El Portal’s student body is largely Hispanic and many students are from economically disadvantaged families, or are English-language learners. What are some of the challenges faculty and staff meet when working with students and how do they handle them?
A: Rather than challenges, we view working with English-language learners and students from low socioeconomic families as opportunities. Many of our 9th graders enter El Portal with reading and math skills that are far below grade level. Our teachers as a result have the dual task of not only teaching our students Geometry, for instance, but of having to teach some of the basic skills our students should have learned much earlier, such as multiplying fractions. In addition to taking A through G academic course work in English, math, science, social science, and Spanish, our students each take extra academic enhancement courses in literacy and math to help fill in the gaps. We want to continue to work with the students who might have otherwise dropped out or much less even had a fighting chance of going on to college.
Q: The academic performance index for El Portal increased from 496 in 2005, up 24 points from the year before. What methods are staff and faculty using to meet the school’s API target each year?
A: Although we increased 24 points, we recognize that we still have a lot of room for improvement in order to help all of our students to reach proficiency in English and math. We are on the right path though, and will continue to offer an instructional program that research has shown makes a small school successful: a clear and focused mission; personalization; high standards and expectations for all students; adaptive pedagogy; authentic curriculum; effective school leadership; democratic decision making; high levels of collaboration and communication; curriculum, instruction, and assessment aligned with standards; frequent monitoring of learning and teaching; focused professional development; supportive learning environment; and a high level of family and community involvement.
Q: One aspect of the school is the summer bridge program for incoming ninth-grade students. What is the purpose of the mandatory program and how does it affect students long-term over their high school years?
A: We offer a mandatory four-week Summer Bridge program for incoming ninth-graders that focuses on introducing students to the school’s expectations, administering baseline assessments, leadership development, study skills, and building a cohesive student and school culture. Summer Bridge has proven successful in preparing students for the academic rigors and social demands of high school. It allowed our teachers and staff to become more familiar with the students and their respective learning and behavioral styles before actual instruction begins in the fall.
Q: Many teachers are bilingual and bicultural at MACSA. How does the language and culture of teachers affect the students?
A: All of the staff and most of the teachers at El Portal are bilingual. The ability to speak Spanish has proven invaluable in our ability to quickly communicate with our parents about their child’s academic needs …What has also proved invaluable is that the majority of the staff comes from similar cultural and social backgrounds as our students … Having similar backgrounds has allowed us to relate more fully to our students and be sensitive to their specific needs … Being from similar backgrounds has also allowed us to serve as role models to our students and emphasize to them that despite coming from similar low socio-economic families they too can succeed by focusing on their education.
Q: El Portal is in its fifth year as a charter high school. What are some of the goals you have for the school in the next few years?
A: Our first and foremost goal is preparing our students for the academic rigors of college. We are going to place a greater instructional emphasis on writing. Equally important is preparing our students to pass the CAHSEE (the California high-school exit exam) and become proficient in English and math. Since we are such a small school, our next step is to work even closer in our academic enhancement courses with the handful of students who scored far below basic on the CST (standardized testing) and/or who are in serious jeopardy of failing the CAHSEE.
Our long-term goal is to secure a permanent home for our school. One of the major challenges charter schools face is securing the necessary funding to provide adequate facilities. Under Proposition 39, adopted by voters in November 2000, school districts are required to provide charter schools with reasonably equivalent facilities to those provided to students in the area where the charter school students reside. Here at El Portal we are very fortunate to have a good working relationship with (Gilroy Unified School District). They have been incredibly supportive in helping us to navigate through the complex task of developing a facilities plan; assessing our building needs; and pursuing facilities funding. We truly feel that once we secure a permanent school site in the community our school will finally gain the positive exposure it deserves so that more Gilroy students and families can learn about the educational opportunities we have to offer.
