Sacred Children, Sacred Work: How UNM's COEHS Is Responding to the Yazzie-Martinez Decision

The video, Sacred Children, Sacred Work: How UNM's COEHS Is Responding to the Yazzie-Martinez Decision, highlights initiatives in the COEHS that address the Yazzie/Martinez v. State of New Mexico consolidated lawsuit, which mandates educational equity in New Mexico. 

Faculty members are transforming teacher preparation to meet the needs of low-income students, Native American students, English language learners, and students with disabilities. 

Programs focus on early childhood education, Indigenous language revitalization, culturally relevant pedagogy, and inclusive practices. Initiatives like Teaching for Equity, bilingual math instruction, and social-emotional learning aim to improve student outcomes. 

COEHS collaborates with community and state partners to ensure responsive, anti-racist, and inclusive education, particularly for marginalized groups, to create long-lasting change in New Mexico's education system.

Here is a detailed guide to the video: 

Introduction

Rebecca Sánchez and Mia Sosa-Provencio (Teacher Education, Educational Leadership, and Policy)

00:00 - 2:38

Young Children and Early Childhood Education

Chelsea Morris (Individual, Family and Community Education)

2:39 -- 5:39

• The court’s decision in favor of the plaintiffs in Yazzie/Martinez affirmed the state’s constitutional obligation to all children—including New Mexico’s youngest children. 
• Family and Child Studies (FCS) is leading the transformation of early childhood teacher preparation in responsive and equitable ways, including the use of social and emotional learning in early childhood special education through a federally funded grant for teachers from rural and tribal areas.
• FCS at UNM is one of the first two programs in the state to pilot Teaching for Equity in partnership with UNM Taos and Embracing Equity, which is centered on cultivating anti-racist and anti-biased practices.
• The next three to five years will include collaborative efforts on the compensation system for early childhood providers to create comprehensive mental health supports and increase access to community services.

More Equitable Outcomes for Students at Risk, Including Those with Disabilities

Sunaina Shenoy (Special Education)

5:40 - 9:28

• Dr. Shenoy and her research team have implemented Multi-Layered System Of Supports (MLSS) models in reading, math, and behavior in rural schools and schools that serve linguistically and culturally diverse students to support more equitable outcomes for students at risk, including those with disabilities.
• This system supports better outcomes in behavior, reading, and math through positive behavior supports and social-emotional learning. 
• They have seen “immense growth” in student outcomes, teacher knowledge, and efficacy
• Dr. Shenoy believes it’s our responsibility to uphold a higher standard of education for all students, especially those from linguistically and culturally diverse backgrounds who are overrepresented in special education classrooms—to lift literacy and graduation rates in our state and to ensure more equitable outcomes.

Indigenous Languages Preservation in Schools

Christine Sims (Language, Literacy, and Sociocultural Studies; Director of the American Indiana Language Policy Research and Teacher Training Center)

9:29 - 12:41

• The Yazzie-Martinez ruling is critical for NM’s Indigenous language communities because these languages are only found in this state for the most part and young children’s time in school represents a critical window for learning their Indigenous language. 
• The American Indian Language Policy Research and Teacher Training Center directly addresses the lack of Native bilingual teachers with an alternative certificate with which they can teach language and culture in NM public schools.
• The AILPRTTC provides technical assistance to Native language programs, tribes in planning language initiatives, and with fluent speakers in these communities to prepare them to teach language. 
• The AILPRTTC is the only institution in the state that provides direct service and outreach of this kind to tribes. 

Native American Teacher Preparation

Glenabah Martinez (Language, Literacy, and Sociocultural Studies; Director of Institute for American Indian Education)

12:42 - 15:44

• Teacher preparation needs to change based on knowledge/familiarity of the populations the College and the State are preparing to teach—especially around student learning outcomes that address: 1) cultural relevancy; 2) sustaining cultural relevancy; 3) culturally relevant curriculum; 4) culturally relevant assessment; 5) culturally relevant methodologies specific to working with mixed populations (particularly the Indigenous population of New Mexico)
• COEHS’s Institute for American Indian Education has worked on Yazzie-Martinez issues in education before the 2018 ruling. 
• The Native American Teacher Preparation Program supports Native students financially and enhances these students’ experiences and learning with monthly Saturday sessions with Indigenous research and scholars who share resources on curriculum development. They also receive mentorship and professional development to learn Indigenous epistemologies. 

Native American Educational Leadership

Shawn Secatero ( Teacher Education, Educational Leadership, and Policy)

15:45 - 18:54

• School leaders can address Yazzie/Martinez -identified needs by embracing local teachers and cultivating ‘grow your own’ hiring and education. This is emphasized by the Promoting our Leadership, Learning and Empowering our Nations (POLLEN) program, which encourages Indigenous-based leadership. 
• Educational Leadership preparation should change by infusing Indigenous-based knowledge throughout curriculum and coursework. 
• The POLLEN program has graduated 60 school principals in 6 cohorts. 
• The Native American Leadership in Education (NALE) program infuses Native research methodology and data sovereignty in their activities and education for Native schools.

Diné Language Teaching and Preservation

Vincent Werito (Language, Literacy, and Sociocultural Studies)

18:55 - 22:01

• Native languages are important to overall educational experiences of Indigenous youth: it keeps them rooted to community and families and fosters a positive cultural identity and well-being.
• When schools or communities don’t support Native language access, it harms the academic achievement of Native students. These opportunities need to be created and sustained, as well as valued and funded.
• Dr. Werito works with the Diné Language Institute to address the concerns around language shift and loss and to better prepare Diné language teachers.
• A significant focus has been on Indigenous language immersion methodologies with the goal of creating new speakers of their language rather than a focus on content standards.
• Control of these programs should be in the hands of local communities and those communities’ experts. 

Culturally Responsive and Adaptive Physical Education  

Victoria Shiver (Health, Exercise, and Sports Sciences)

22:02 - 25:30

• The Physical Education Teacher Education (PETE) program has centered the Yazzie/Martinez case as a touchstone in their curriculum and pedagogical practices in teacher education—focusing on body and mind to educate children to be healthy for a lifetime.
• PETE has integrated culturally relevant pedagogy into each course offered to teacher candidates from the beginning of their education through field experiences.
• PETE centers on restorative justice practices like being proactive and building relationships.
• PETE students shadow adaptive educators to learn adaptive sports, a required part of the PETE curriculum to make physical activity inclusive for all children. 

Bilingual Mathematics Instruction

Carlos LópezLeiva (Language, Literacy, and Sociocultural Studies)

25:31 - 28:42

• Dr. LópezLeiva’s work focuses on bilingual math instruction. Best practices for teaching math to English language learners include using challenging math problems or concepts—not avoiding them because of the students’ linguistic differences. With appropriate support, these students succeed in mathematics and simultaneously enhance their mastery of both English and math.
• Advancing Out of School Learning in Mathematics and Engineering (AOLME) is based on collaboration among bilingual educators, computer programmers, and mathematics educators using cohorts, student facilitators, and UNM faculty. 
• In this model, language was a process of socializing as well as creating meaning: participants gained understanding of events, knowledge, emotions, status, and relationships among people.
• Bilingual instruction supports making math more relational so students can engage with it “fully with their hearts, their bodies, their mind, and make meaning of it”—using language throughout the whole process, based on meaning and making meaning.

COEHS' focus on Yazzie-Martinez-centered outcomes

Kristopher M. Goodrich (Dean of the College of Education and Human Sciences)

28:43 - 30:07

• The COEHS is squarely focused on Yazzie-Martinez decision and implications for PK12 classrooms. 
• The COEHS believes this decision impacts all New Mexicans and has a comprehensive and shared focus with partners like school districts and state departments and agencies. 
• The College’s focus on multiliteracy across all programs and tracks distinguishes it among other Colleges of Education—not just in bilingualism—and allows the COEHS to support the state in meeting the Yazzie-Martinez mandate.
• COEHS faculty are uniquely equipped to tackle complex challenges like these and to prepare future educators to educate New Mexico’s diverse population of children and families.

Video Summary & Resources

Rebecca Sanchez and Mia Sosa-Provencio (Teacher Education, Educational Leadership, and Policy)

30:08 - 30:44