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Wednesday, November 7, 2007

Chamber Wants Say in APS Chief

By Zsombor Peter
Journal Staff Writer
    Three weeks after Albuquerque Public Schools cut off public comment on its search for a new superintendent, the Greater Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce wants a say as well.
    Chamber President Terri Cole said she mailed a letter to board members Friday, urging them to focus efforts on closing the achievement gap between the most- and least-advantaged students, ensure that students read at grade level before entering fourth grade and see that every student graduates.
    To get there, the chamber suggests looking for a superintendent with a track record of turning troubled districts around, a willingness to be held accountable and an interest in working with colleges and universities "to create a seamless system of education for pre-K through 20."
    "When APS focuses on these specific goals and their implementation," the letter reads, "they will succeed in insuring that each and every child does graduate fully prepared for the future."
    The district, Cole said Tuesday, has been taking a one-size-fits-all approach.
    "We've created an environment where we want every child to go to a four-year collegiate program," she said.
    Cole said there's a stigma attached to students who don't. But recognizing that all don't want the same future "allows students to choose a nondegree track if they wish and have that be an honorable decision."
    Cole laid the blame most heavily on a state funding formula that shortchanges vocational programs. By teaming up, she said, the city's secondary and post-secondary institutions might have a better chance of changing that.
    The chamber believes that might cut down on APS' high dropout rates.
    Just over half of the district's 2001 ninth-graders graduated from APS schools in four years. That's a little ahead of most of the country's 50 largest districts, but well below the 70 percent graduation rate nationally, according to a study that Education Week magazine released in June.
    Cole also encouraged the board to cast a national net in its superintendent search.
    She said the chamber was trying to set up meetings with each board member to press its recommendations further.
    But the deadline for comments on what qualities to seek in a superintendent was Oct. 13.
    Board president Paula Maes said, "their input is not going to be part of what we look for." Instead, the chamber comments could be used in subsequent phases of the search, including vetting individual applicants, Maes said.