Disneyland Bound
Zuni AYP winners going to iconic California fun spot

Dinanda Loconsello teaches her fifth grade classe at Dowa Yalanne Elementary school in Zuni, NM. A group of fifth grade students are being rewarded a trip to Disney Land because of their performance in the third grade and passing the annual yearly progress tests. [Photo by Daniel Zollinger/Independent]

By Karen Francis
Staff writer

ZUNI — A dozen high-achieving fifth-graders from Dowa Yalanne Elementary School will be using their spring break next week to visit Disneyland courtesy of the Jordan Fundamentals Grant Program.

The school was informed of a grant for $2,500 for the school’s “Rewarding Excellence” program in September and the core group of high-achieving students has been planning for the trip since then.

The students helped the school to achieve the state standard of adequate yearly progress for three consecutive years and are hoping to make this the fourth year.

Hope Becker, one of the fifth-grade pupils making the trip, said, “So far we’ve been keeping our grades up so we finally get to go to Disneyland.”

Becker said that the students planned the trip themselves. “We talked about how many days we were going to spend, how we were going to get there, what hotel we would stay at. We looked at things that wouldn’t cost that much,” she said.

Becker is most looking forward to going to the chocolate store.

“I love chocolate,” she said.

This will be the first trip to Disneyland for fifth-grader Claire Homer.

“Everything that we’re going to do is my first experience and I hope I have fun,” she said. Not only will this be her first trip to Disneyland, but it will also be her first train ride since the children will take Amtrak from Gallup to California.

While helping to plan the trip, Homer said that students learned about watching their spending habits.

Going on the trip with the 12 pupils are teachers Keri Boyd and Zowie Banteah, who were chosen by the children themselves because, as Homer said, “We just wanted to spend some time with the best teachers we had before we go to another school.”

Homer and her peers are role models for the other pupils, said Keri Boyd, who taught them when they were in third grade. When asked about her favorite subject, Homer said, “All subjects are interesting and I want to learn as much as I can before I go to sixth grade.”

She added, “I like coming to school to learn and meet new friends. If one of us is having a hard time, we help each other.”

Homer said she is studying as hard as she can for testing.
Boyd said about the core group of high achievers, “All of them are very good students. They always try their best.”
School counselor Steve Peretti applied for the grant with the foundation three years ago when the school first met AYP. The program didn’t receive funding that year but, Peretti was persistent. After the school made AYP for a third year, the foundation provided the funds to reward the students.

“Our school has met adequate yearly progress for three consecutive years. We identified a core of students who were extremely high achievers,” Peretti said, explaining why he applied for the grant. “They set the standards for the rest of the classrooms. The rest see it as how they are to perform academically.”

The elementary school serves 305 children in kindergarten through fifth grade. The school makes the testing period a big event, with an opening day where parents are invited to come in and eat breakfast with their children.

Principal Caroline Ukestine attributes much of the school’s success to parental involvement.

“We’ve always credited our parents,” she said.

Peretti agreed saying, “They are well-aware of what AYP is. They call and want to know where their child stands.”
The school also follows The Baldridge Principle to teach students, where teachers know the state standards and align curriculum so that their students are taught what they need to know to pass standards testing.

“It’s always been parental involvement, teacher expectations and high achieving students,” Ukestine said about the school’s success.

What could also play a factor is that most of the teachers are Native American, which is important for a school where the student population consists entirely of Native Americans. Even the principal started out as a teacher’s assistant before working her way up to her current position, which she has held for four years.

The Zuni language and culture are also incorporated in various aspects of the school. Ukestine noted that research shows that pupils who are bilingual often do better on achievement testing.

“They learn it in English and they learn it in Zuni,” she said. She added that for the past two years, the school has received bilingual award.

“As a fluent speaker myself, I grew up with both languages. There’s research done that says it helps to have both languages and I’m a firm believer in that,” Ukestine said.