City Schools: Memorial MS gets ‘F’ grade
Just in time for students to return to class, Las Vegas-area school districts and the rest of the state received report cards from the New Mexico Public Education Department.
Using the PED’s A-F letter grade system — determined by measuring categories such as graduation rates, attendance and performance on standardized tests like PARCC — Las Vegas City Schools saw a gain at Sierra Vista Elementary, rising from a D to a B, but the middle school fell from a D to an F.
“That one hurts,” Superintendent Kelt Cooper said. “The middle school missed getting at least a D by one point. We’re going to appeal it.”
Elsewhere across the district, Robertson High School remained a C for a second year. Mike Sena Elementary in Sapello and the Early Childhood Center in Las Vegas both earned B’s. And Los Niños Elementary received a D for the second straight year.
“They changed some of the scoring criteria for PARCC scores,” Cooper said. “That’s no excuse. We’re working on rounding out our curriculum, and letting the teachers and administrators learn new techniques. We’ll make sure they have the materials they need in their hands, and hold everybody to a high standard.”
Copper also sees attendance issues as a key reason for the lack of gains. Too often, parents check students out of school early, he said.
“I’m not going to allow it to happen unless they have a legitimate medical reason in writing,” Cooper said.
“Those children need to be in school. What parents need to know is, when they check their kids out early, they are shortchanging their children’s future.”
He wants to increase attendance at Robertson High School as well.
“I’m going to be working hard to convince the board to pass a policy that the campus is absolutely a closed campus,” he said. “We have students that are coming in late. We have students that don’t come back after lunch.”
Cooper also vowed to give teachers the support and materials they need to meet the state’s standards.
“I listen to our teacher union, and they express concerns about being overwhelmed, but they’re troupers. My teachers are troupers,” he said. “I think the gains we made were largely due to teachers’ understanding of the new curriculum and their ability to adapt technology that is associated with it.”
The PED has been issuing these school letter grades for six years now. The system was introduced by Gov. Susana Martinez and then-PED Secretary Hanna Skandera.
Proponents of the scoring say it’s a good way to judge the performance of schools in the communities they serve. Critics say too much emphasis is placed on standardized testing and that the formula for deciding a school’s letter grade is too confusing.
Statewide, schools did not score well. Less than 13 percent of New Mexico schools received an A, while nearly 15 percent received an F. Most schools in Santa Fe received Ds and Fs.
“Clearly there’s a trend,” Cooper said. “We need to meet with our state secretary of education and try to crack that nut and figure out what’s the common denominator statewide.”
