Riley Alderton, the new principal at Needham Elementary School, practically has education written into his DNA. The Durango native is a third-generation educator.

Alderton says he’s always wanted to be in the education sector, and the thought of doing something different has never crossed his mind.

"I was born here, grew up in Durango. So I’ve seen this district from the inside out,” Alderton said.

Alderton graduated from Durango High School where he also served as a student teacher. He taught in Aztec for two years, saying he had to do that starting out because Durango School District 9-R attracts such good teachers, competition for those positions is stiff.

"I was fortunate to be hired at Riverview and I loved working there,” Alderton said. "Six years spent there and then (I) was brought on here as assistant principal and have loved working at Needham. It’s a great community school right in the heart of the neighborhood, which that’s a little different because some of our schools are really rural and some of them are in town.”

Alderton said he spots many local families walking or biking every day, and he loves seeing so many familiar faces.

"I’m just grateful to be a part of this community,” Alderton said.

Alderton said one of his and the district’s main goals this year is to get students back on track after a year of interruptions imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Alderton brings leadership skills and data analysis experience to Needham Elementary. He also wants to further a culture of adult learning, which he said already exists among staff at the elementary school. Alderton said he wants to advance a culture of growth for both students and staff, for example, in the realm of CORE literacy.

Leadership and staff at Needham Elementary have recognized the deep impact on students wrought by COVID-19 with school closures, distanced learning and fewer opportunities for in-person socialization. Although Alderton feels that the elementary school staff worked hard to ensure students were receiving the best delivery of instruction that they could during the last school year, he is evaluating the data collected over that period to determine what the school needs to do to accelerate student learning back to where it needs to be, he said.

"I also recognize that there’s some very specific sub groups in our school and in our district that have been missed or are more adversely impacted by things like what we’ve been going through,” Alderton said.

"So we’re engaging in some specific development of our staff in order to engage language learners, students from diverse, ethnic, multicultural backgrounds.”

Instructional leadership at Needham Elementary are referencing a text called “Culturally Responsive Teaching in the Brain” to understand brain research and equity in their focus on quality teaching that reaches across the whole Needham student body. Leadership is also using a district-wide digital tool called iReady to track data metrics from a top level, district wide, all the way down to a micro level within specific classrooms and individual students.

"We can get a data view for the whole district: School, grade level, class and then student,” Alderton said.

Alderton is meeting with staff in teams as well as one-on-one to set student achievement goals as well as goals for professional growth for staff members. He said iReady data is the basis for determining student achievement growth goals, such as early learning literacy growth in kindergarten through third grade.

The minimum growth standard for students at their grade level proficiency is at least one year’s growth in order to keep their early student careers on track. A standard of what Alderton called “stretch growth” is being applied to students who are not achieving at their current grade level, and the focus there is to provide them with a growth goal that will help them eventually achieve grade level proficiency.

Instructional leadership examines data metrics at the beginning, middle and end of each year, in addition to data being continually tracked within the classroom.

Alderton recalled an article he recently read that discussed the concept of remediation versus acceleration. He described remediation as the idea of healing something that is broken and said that acceleration is a more positive idea that means you are ready to go forward at an even faster pace. The latter is the approach Alderton is taking to helping students recover from the challenges of the pandemic.

"My perspective is we know that kids may have some learning loss or some gaps or whatever people want to call it, but my goal is to frame that for them in terms of ‘We’re here and we’re looking to accelerate that forward as fast as we can,’” Alderton said.

As for the challenges that could still appear because of COVID-19, Alderton said he feels Durango 9-R has been pragmatic about its approach to health protocols and safety precautions.

"My mantra with the staff and with families is I will do everything I can to control the things that I have control of,“ Alderton said.

While a small fraction of students enjoyed online learning, Alderton said, about 98% of the student body preferred in-person learning.

"I’m really excited to have this role and I’m pretty humbled,” Alderton said. "When you know yourself and you know who’s come before, you are always striving to make that legacy positive and continue the good work that other people have done, that you’re really just the inheritor of.”

Alderton said having grown up in Durango, it has made him highly invested in the community as a whole. He described himself as grateful to be a part of a school that’s been doing good work, and he is excited to be part of a unified whole under the learning vision provided by Superintendent Karen Cheser.

"I want to always set the example for when we are talking about refining our practice and growing our practice,” Alderton said.

cburney@durangoherald.com