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Saturday, October 03, 2009

APS High School Grad Rates Jump

By Hailey Heinz
Copyright © 2009 Albuquerque Journal
Journal Staff Writer
          Every traditional high school in Albuquerque saw its official graduation rate jump by at least 10 percentage points Friday as the state Public Education Department released revised statistics.
        Albuquerque Public Schools saw a districtwide gain of 17 percentage points — a significant jump from totals released in August that showed the state's biggest district was graduating less than half its students in four years.
        APS School Board President Martin Esquivel celebrated the new numbers, saying the early data had damaged the district's reputation and the revised data could undo some of that damage.
        "I think it's really going to restore a lot of confidence as we move forward," he said.
        The state also released a revised statewide graduation figure that changed less dramatically, increasing from 54 percent to 60.3 percent. Hispanics, blacks and Native Americans continued to lag behind Anglos in the new figures.
        Other districts with big changes included Farmington and Las Cruces. The initial Farmington rate was 51.5 percent, which was revised to 66.5 percent. In Las Cruces, the number jumped from 43.7 to 54 percent.
        Secretary of Education Veronica Garcia said in a written statement Friday the new rates were calculated after districts submitted 15,834 changes to their graduation data after the reporting deadline — a contention disputed by some districts including APS and Las Cruces that say their information was submitted on time.
        Since word of the new numbers went out to districts late last month, the PED and some of the larger school districts had been sparring over who was to blame for the wide discrepancy.
        Garcia pledged to work toward better early data next year, while still laying the issue largely at the feet of districts in what has been a vocal public dispute between the state and some local schools.
        "This is the first year the state has calculated a cohort graduation rate," Garcia said in the release. "PED has adopted a continuous improvement process, and we are committed to working with the districts to make sure that they understand the importance of meeting required reporting deadlines with the most accurate information to cut down on the number of revisions."
        Under the old numbers, six of Albuquerque's 11 traditional high schools had graduation rates below 50 percent. With the new figures, only Highland High was below the 50 percent mark.
        Statewide, 33 of the 89 school districts saw no change to their number, according to the PED release, and 73 percent saw changes between zero and five percentage points.
        Using the state's new graduation rate for APS, Superintendent Winston Brooks revealed a new target of his own. He said Friday that he wants to see the district's graduation rate reach 76 percent by 2012.
        He said the state's revised rates are "good news," but he cautioned that the district still has work to do.
        "It's clear we have a long way to go," he said. "We're not at the top of the mountain, but we're certainly not in the valley either."
        He said the graduation rate would be about 85 percent if fifth-year seniors were taken into account.
        The revised numbers raised the graduation rate for students from every ethnic group, creating little change in New Mexico's persistent achievement gap. Under the revised numbers, the graduation rate for Anglo students is 71.3 percent, with Asian students even higher at 80.1 percent. Lagging behind are Hispanic, black, and American Indian students, with rates of 56.2, 60.9, and 49.8 percent, respectively.
        The numbers first announced in August showed 64.1 percent of Anglo students graduating, with Hispanic students at 50.2 percent, black students at 52 percent and American Indian students at 45.4 percent. Asians have been consistently on top, with numbers announced in August showing a 67.4 percent graduation rate.
        The dismal graduation rates announced in August were cited as one of the reasons for Gov. Bill Richardon's "Graduate New Mexico" initiatives that call for spending $8.9 million in federal stimulus dollars on more education reforms. In her release Friday, Garcia said those reforms are still necessary.
        "Sixty percent is no cause for celebration," she said. "It would be unconscionable to lose our sense of urgency to address our serious dropout problem."
       

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