Federal Programs

The Department of Federal/State/Local Programs oversees the implementation of the new Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) which was signed into law December 10, 2015 and replacing No Child Left Behind and the waiver system.

 

ESSA is the national education law that reinforces the longstanding commitment to ensuring equal opportunity for all students.  The ESSA provides New Mexico with a long-term stability that holds states, local school systems and schools accountable for results while encouraging them to be innovative in their work.  This department assists the district and other eligible entities to:

 

Ms. Florence Acque, Director of Federal Programs

 

Ms. Acque has 41 years of experience in the field of education.  Her career began as an educational assistant for the fourth grade at Dowa Yalanne Elementary School in 1979.  This experience brought out an interest for her to become a teacher.  She became certified as a K-8 teacher in 1989 and taught second grade for two years.  In 1991, she taught third grade Zuni immersion for two years under the 90/10 model.  Teaching Zuni became the focus of her years as a teacher and she used it in the instruction of core subjects areas for 27 years.

 

After this, she moved on to the title of Bilingual Program Cultural Specialist for three years in the Zuni Public School District.  During this time, she was hired by the New Mexico Public Education Department in a dual capacity as an Educational Administrator and the State Title III Coordinator in the Bilingual Multicultural Education Bureau.  She was responsible for Technical Assistance Monitoring for several district across New Mexico that had Bilingual and Title III programs.  After three years with NMPED, Ms. Acque returned to Zuni to oversee the Graduate New Mexico Program while working on her administrative degree.

 

In 2014, Ms. Acque was hired as the principal of Twin Buttes High School where she recruited pervious students who had dropped out and gave them opportunities to earn a diploma.  To encourage these students and motivate them, she opened up the school on weekends and monitored the students who came in to work online.  To address concerns of bullying between students, Ms. Acque implemented mediation sessions with the assistance of the School Resource Officer who facilitated sessions with both students and parents which was successful.  Additional support for families were held in the evenings to assist parents in ways that they could help their children at home.

 

Her passion for education is driven by the belief that all students can learn both their native language as well as English in order in to have a successful life and career.  She is the product of the Zuni Public School District and has taught Zuni Immersion in the elementary schools where her students scored just as well or higher than those in the regular education classes.  This is meaningful in that our language is the bridge to academic success.  Full-on oral instruction with the use of actual culturally relevant materials, Total Physical Response (TPR), along with song and dance are best practice that work and are the closest match to the traditional ways that we learned our language and culture.