N.M. Schools Get a C on Report Card

Thursday, January 10, 2008
By Zsombor Peter
Journal Staff Writer
The C that New Mexico just earned on Education Week's latest national report card— matching the national average— looks simple enough.
But there's more to it. While it confirms the state's poor scores in math and reading, it gives above-average marks for New Mexico's education policies and its ability to prepare high school students for college or the workplace.
Project director Chris Swanson cautioned against reading too much into the results.
"It's a starting point for meaningful conversation, but not the final word," he said during a conference call with reporters.
Released Wednesday, the 2008 Quality Counts report grades each state on how it is doing in six broad educational categories: student success indicators; academic achievement; standards, assessment and accountability policies; student preparedness for high school, college and the workplace; teacher policies; and funding.
Overall, states graded lowest in academic achievement, earning an average D plus. That was the lowest collective grade in all six categories.
"So there's a lot of low performance going on out there," Swanson said.
But even among low performers, New Mexico's historically poor scores in math and reading on the National Assessment of Educational Progress pushed the state nearly to the bottom of the bunch.
It came in 46th among all 50 states and the District of Columbia. New Mexico's eighth-graders ranked dead last in reading.
But it was hardly all doom and gloom for the Land of Enchantment.
The report placed New Mexico two grades above average for policies it has in place to assure a strong standards, assessment and accountability system (16th in the nation) and to define exactly what it means to be ready for high school, college and the workplace (eighth in the nation).
So why the disconnect between state policies and student achievement?
Swanson, speaking in general terms, said it usually takes time for new and improved policies to "bear fruit."
New Mexico Education Secretary Veronica Garcia could not be reached for comment. But in a department-issued news release, she attributed the state's "struggle to score better" to its poverty.
New Mexico ranked dead last for the proportion of its children— 46.7 percent— from families with incomes twice the poverty level or below, one of the report's indicators for student success.
New Mexico ranked 49th in overall indicators for student success, but not without at least one bright spot: It had the highest proportion of eligible children— 85.1 percent— enrolled in kindergarten.
Funding also proved a mixed bag for New Mexico, Swanson said.
The state has long prided itself on having one of the most equitable formulas for funding public schools in the country. A recent study commissioned by a task force headed by Rep. Mimi Stewart, D-Albuquerque, found the same.
Education Week's report card, however, placed a caveat on that claim.
While its report found per-student funding highly equitable, it also found funding equity to be below average among districts.