Educating Our Parents: Understanding the Socorro District Curriculum

Common Core provides grade specific standards of learning for Mathematics and English and Language Arts. In English and Language Arts, students learn to read, write, speak and improve their listening ability in order to have the skills they need to succeed in college and their careers. Study includes the development of critical analysis skills and reading for both information and style. Text includes literary source and informational text so that students are prepared for the type of reading material they may encounter on the job or in college.

In Mathematics students concentrate on becoming literate in computational skills such as addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division, algebra, geometry, data analysis, measurement, probability and statistics. The curriculum in mathematics under Common Core is progressive with students building on their core math skills with each class in a cohesive and focused sequence; this is done so that students have the base of knowledge to use logical and abstract reasoning.

Keeping Informed: Recent Socorro Educational News

• Community Cleanup - Students, community members, teachers and administrative staff recently participated in a community cleanup of California Street in Socorro, New Mexico. The participants gave up an entire Saturday to the community endeavor. Those involved in the cleanup were then treated to a cookout with hamburgers and hot dogs at the Socorro High School.
• Regional Science Olympiad - Several middle school aged students from the Cottonwood Valley Charter School which is part of the Socorro Consolidated School District recently participated in a Science Olympiad competition at the regional level in Las Cruces. Participants had advanced to the competition after being winners at a local school science fair.
• Character Counts - Students at the Parkview Elementary School participate in a school wide program of conduct called “Character Counts.” To instill students with an understanding of what constitutes appropriate behavior the elementary school stresses a variety of guiding principles including trustworthiness, fairness, respect for others and themselves, caring, responsibility and citizenship. These principles make up the pillars of the “Characters Counts” program. The school provides a variety of activities to help students understand the importance of these guiding principles.