At Archuleta, Power-Ups Lead to Super Mario-like Growth

VIDEO DESCRIPTION:

Play, download and edit the video At Archuleta, Power-Ups Lead to Super Mario-like Growth.

NARRATOR
School…

Yolanda Ortega / Principal
I love metaphors

NARRATOR
Can feel a lot like a video game.

(Mario music)

ORTEGA
Kids in playing any video game don’t want to stay on the same level for very long. They want to get to the end. They want to save Princess Peach.

NARRATOR
And just like those really hard levels…

ORTEGA
And some levels you have to do over and over again

NARRATOR
School, can get tough, too.

ORTEGA
Sometimes you need someone to show you how to get through that level.

TEACHER
"Okay we're going to talk a little bit about it..."

NARRATOR
Someone, to help you keep pushing through.

ORTEGA
I think it’s permission first not to be perfect.

NARRATOR
Yolanda Ortega has been the principal of Lena Archuleta Elementary for five years.
She and the educators in this building *know* these kids – what they’re capable of, and what they need.

ORTEGA
And when you think about the far-northeast, that frequently our percentages don’t reflect our community’s true abilities and gifts.

TEACHER
"What's missing?"
STUDENTS
"H-O-W."

NARRATOR
At Archuleta, *Every* first and second grade kid reading below grade level gets these “power-ups” … or intervention … beginning the second week of school. That's guided reading plus with their teacher, and a reading interventionist.
And students who aren’t quite there in the middle grades also see an interventionist.

ORTEGA
The kids do get their power-up, and are frequently regularly exceeding adequate growth and catching up, if not exceeding.

INTERVENTIONIST
"Saaaaid..."

NARRATOR
In fact, they are the highest performing kids in all of DPS for early literacy growth on the School Performance Framework. These power-ups are working, and the school is expanding into math...

TEACHER
"Plus 200..."
STUDENT
"9!"
TEACHER
"...equals 9."

NARRATOR
and soon, science.

ORTEGA
"I feel like we just hit the top of the roller coaster. The best part is still to come."

NARRATOR
Archuleta is also the only school that both exceeds expectations in two or more areas of early literacy growth… while also exceeding expectations in literacy, math and science, compared to similar schools on the CMAS.

Karen Matson / assistant principal
We have very high expectations for kids in this building.

NARRATOR
Assistant Principal Karen Matson says, it’s about a culture of “heart and brain.”

MATSON
A culture that we've built where the kids know that the adults around them believe in them.

NARRATOR
Leading kids, to believe in themselves.

ORTEGA
Every single one of our kids get to beat several levels. And really, they are their own princess peach.

NARRATOR
Every level has new challenges.
But no matter how tough it gets…

ORTEGA
They see it now. They know what they’re worth.

NARRATOR
This school will be there for kids with that next power-up.
One for their heart, and one for their brain.

ORTEGA
And so we’re just here to continue to love 'em really hard and push 'em really hard.

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