Public Education Department

New Mexico

Public Education Department

300 Don Gaspar

Santa Fe, New Mexico 87501-2786

Hanna Skandera www.ped.state.nm.us

Secretary

Larry Behrens

Public Information Officer

505-476-0393

NEWS RELEASE

State Announces Latest Round of New Mexico School Grades

Growth among low-performing students key to increase in the ranks of “A” and “B” schools, particularly at the elementary school level

SANTA FE – Today, Governor Susana Martinez announced the 2014 grades for New Mexico’s public schools. 88 schools (10.4%) received an “A” grade, the most since the grading system launched in 2012, 244 schools (28.9%) received a “B” grade, 188 schools (22.3%) received a “C” grade, 230 schools (27.3%) received a “D” grade, and 93 schools (11.0%) received an “F” grade.

School grade report cards for each school in New Mexico are available online, on the Public Education Department website. The school grades website just recently surpassed 1 million visits since it was launched in 2012.

For the second year in a row, the number of “A” and “B” schools (332) exceeded the number of “D” and “F” schools (323), and once again, no New Mexico high school received an “F” grade, following record gains in reading last year and recent growth in graduation rates throughout the state. Nearly 3 out of 4 schools (71%) in New Mexico either maintained or improved their school grade between 2013 and 2014.

The greatest level of progress was seen in elementary and middle schools, which collectively saw a 55% increase in the number of “A” and “B” schools, including an additional 22 “A” schools (up from 8 to 30) and an additional 53 “B” schools (up from 129 to 182).

Districts showing noteworthy growth or achievement include:

·  Gadsden Independent School District – 15 schools earned the grade of “A” or “B,” an increase of six schools over 2013.

·  Artesia Public School District – 1 school earned the grade of “A” and 7 schools earned the grade of “B”, up from no “A” schools and only 3 “B” schools in 2013.

·  Hobbs Municipal Schools – 11 schools earned the grade of “B,” an increase of eight schools over 2013, when nearly all schools earned a “C” or “D.”

Since school grades were first calculated in 2012, there have been95 schools that improved more than two letter grades,and 120 schoolshave been graded an “A” or “B” in 2012, 2013, and 2014. Lists of those schools can be found here.

“School grades are an important tool that education leaders, community leaders, and parents can use to identify where students are struggling and intervene in a targeted way to help them,” said Governor Susana Martinez. “Last year, we saw record increases and growth at the high school level – spurred by improvement in reading and graduation rates, and this year, I’m encouraged to see elementary schools showing progress, based largely on growth among our struggling students.”

A key component of a school’s grade is the amount of growth students experience in reading and math, with the improvement of low-performing students being given triple weight in comparison to their peers. In other words, rather than simply focusing on whether a student is above or below the specific cutoff line that represents when students are on grade level in either reading or math, school grades are designed to incorporate the progress of ALL students – particularly those who start well below the proficiency cutoff line.

The most recent results of the Standards Based Assessment (SBA) exams in math and reading closely align with the results in school grading over the past several years. For example, as the distribution of school grades has gradually shifted upward, this year’s SBA results (in conjunction with those of previous years) show that students, on average, are making an additional 3 months’ worth of progress in reading and math during the nine-month school year. High school students, in particular, over the past few years have averaged an additional 7 months’ worth of progress in reading during the school year.

Several of the state’s lowest-performing schools (where students are furthest away from the proficiency cutoff line) have been taking part in an intensive school turnaround program – one of the key education reforms adopted in the last few years. In these struggling schools, between last year and this year, there was a net gain of 11.8 percent in the number of students who moved up at least one proficiency level in reading, and a net gain of 8.6 percent in the number of students who moved up at least one proficiency level in math. This represents over ten times and seven times more progress, respectively, in these struggling schools, when compared to all other schools.

Looking at those districts that are now in their second year of the Reads to Lead program (they were part of the pilot program two years ago), which provides reading coaches and additional training to support teachers, there was a net gain of 4.2 percent in the number of students who moved up at least one proficiency level in reading, exceeding the statewide figures.

“Intervening to help struggling students clearly pays off,” said PED Secretary Hanna Skandera. “For these students, achieving more than a year’s worth of growth in a year’s worth of time is how they move closer to grade-level and keep from falling further behind. This growth is encouraging – it’s necessary, in fact – but we have a long way to go and so much more work to be done.”

Overall, across all grades, the 2014 SBA results indicated a slight decline in the number of students rated proficient or better by 1.2 percentage points in math and 1.6 percentage points in reading – largely due to a virtually across-the-board drop in scores among the 25% of students who participated in a pilot program that allowed them to take the SBA exam on a computer for the first time. Average reading proficiency scores across all grades of just those taking the traditional paper exams were flat, and up in math by 0.7 percentage points.

Schools that volunteered to participate in the computer-based pilot received additional credit, based in part upon the portion of their student body who took the exam on a computer. Teachers whose classes participated in the pilot will not be negatively impacted on their evaluations for next year.

Proficiency scores are higher in nearly every grade and both subjects since 2011. Information on SBA results from this year, and from previous years, can be found online here. This year’s 2014 SBA exam is the last time it will be administered to students; next year, the state will be transitioning to a new exam that is more interactive, computer-based, and fully aligned with common rigorous standards that will be used in states throughout the country.

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New Mexico Public Education Department