Albuquerque Journal
Editorial
July 29, 2014
http://www.abqjournal.com/436925

There are several take-aways from the latest round of the New Mexico Public Education Department’s school grading. One is that more schools earned A’s and B’s. Another is that more schools earned D’s and F’s.

But the most important is that more students are improving more. Instead of shooting for a No Child Left Behind level of proficient that’s unattainable to students who are grade levels behind, New Mexico’s A-F system triple-weights credit for getting the most academically challenged students closer to where they should be.

And get them there many New Mexico teachers did.

Education chief Hanna Skandera explains “we’re seeing more learning in the same amount of time and that’s significant.” And not just with the bottom 25 percent of students, but across the board. Instead of providing just the expected nine months of learning in a school year, some teachers and schools are cramming in an extra month, an extra three months, an extra seven months – as shown by student growth on standardized tests.

New Mexico’s proficiency rates are still troubling: Just 40 percent of students can do math at grade level and just 49 percent can read at grade level. Those rates took a small dip from last year in great part because some schools voluntarily had students take their standardized tests on computers and, as with any new system, glitches happened. Next year promises even more challenges as the state transitions from Standards-Based Assessment to Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers, an assessment lined up with the more rigorous Common Core curriculum.

It’s been said you can’t fix what you don’t know. The A-F system provides specifics on which student populations are improving and which need more focused help. It gives teachers, principals and administrators information they need to replicate what’s worked and/or adjust what hasn’t.

And clearly many are using it. This third round of A-F school grades shows more New Mexico schools are rated A and B, that the majority of schools are B, that three out of four schools maintained or improved their 2013 grade, that districts like Artesia and Gallup greatly increased their number of A and B schools, that many elementary and middle schools in Albuquerque Public Schools mirrored those across the state and maintained or improved their grades, and that targeted academic intervention in struggling schools translated into higher proficiency levels.

Should New Mexico students perform better on standardized tests? Absolutely. Can they? Ditto. Especially with a system in place that not only recognizes, but also promotes it.