Journal North:  Home | Sports | Opinion | Obits | Entertainment

          Front Page  north

Saturday, March 3, 2007

Nationwide Study Gives New Mexico Schools F's for Effectiveness

By Amy Miller
Copyright © 2007 Albuquerque Journal; Journal Staff Writer
    New Mexico's K-12 education system received four F's in a report released this week by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
    Several states ranked near the bottom along with New Mexico in the chamber's "Leaders and Laggards: A State-by-State Report Card on Educational Effectiveness," including Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi.
    States such as Massachusetts, Florida and Washington ranked at the top, with several A's.
    No state got straight A's. That's because every state needs to improve its K-12 schools, which operate like "an obsolete 1930s manufacturing plant," the report said.
    "If companies were run like many education systems, they wouldn't last a week," said Tom Donohue, chamber president and CEO.
    The 50 states and Washington, D.C., were graded on nine criteria that included academic achievement, postsecondary and work force readiness, teacher quality and return on investment.
    New Mexico took a beating for low academic achievement, particularly among poor and minority students.
    Narrowing the achievement gap between white and minority students should be the top priority of state educators and politicians, said Greater Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce President Terri Cole.
    But that's not the case, she said.
    "It's not yet a statewide movement," she said. "Until that happens, we will only pick at the edges of this growing problem."
    The state doesn't get a good return on its investment, either, according to the U.S. chamber report. Too many New Mexico students aren't prepared for college or a job after they graduate, the report said.
    Almost half of all New Mexico high school graduates took a remedial course after they entered a state college or university, according to a recent state study.
    The news wasn't all bad. New Mexico earned B's for being honest about student achievement and for its teacher quality, data quality and flexibility in management and policies, such as its charter school law.
    The report should be a wake-up call for businesses, as well as educators, said Arthur Rothkopf, senior vice president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
    "We want the business community to be at the table," he said. "It's the business community that's the ultimate consumer of what goes on in K-12."
    New Mexico's business community has been actively involved in education reforms that eventually will help New Mexico rank higher on these types of assessments, state education secretary Veronica Garcia said.
    "Unfortunately, we're an instant-gratification society, and this kind of substantive, systemic reform doesn't happen overnight," Garcia said. "But we've put the infrastructure in place."
    Garcia pointed to initiatives such as increased funding for teachers' professional development, a new statewide math and science bureau, increased access to technology and a high school redesign plan being considered by state lawmakers that would increase graduation requirements.
    Garcia said New Mexico has made gains in job growth and economic development in recent years, which will improve educational attainment.
    "They go hand in hand," she said.
    The Center for American Progress, a think tank, and the American Enterprise Institute, a nonpartisan nonprofit group, helped prepare the chamber's report.
    The report is based on standardized test scores, studies and other factors.