Editorial: High School Diploma Must Mean Something

It is unsettling, and discouraging, that around 10,000 New Mexico high school seniors — 43 percent — will have to re-take the state Standards-Based Assessment exam or meet another reasonable requirement to receive their high school diplomas.

But it would be unconscionable for New Mexico to continue to graduate students who can’t perform at an 11th-grade level, hand them a fancy piece of paper and call it good.

From 1986 to 2010, 11th-graders in the Land of Enchantment took the High School Competency Exam, which measured eighth-grade skills, to graduate. That constituted false advertising to community colleges, universities, employers and especially the students themselves that they were ready for the next step in life. So as difficult as this do-over lesson is, it is important to both personal and economic development that a diploma from a New Mexico high school actually means the recipient demonstrated the core competency required of a high school graduate.

Under the new state requirements:

If a student receives a diploma, it means he/she not only passed all the necessary classes but also passed a rigorous exit exam or had sufficient scores on the ACT, PSAT or SAT exams or tests given in core classes.

If a student receives a certificate of completion, it means he/she passed all the necessary classes but did not pass the exit exam on two tries and also failed to qualify under the alternate demonstration of competency criteria.

The design wisely accommodates students who don’t test well, gives them a second bite at the apple as seniors, as well as credit for the work they have completed.

But that’s not enough for Albuquerque Public Schools Board member David Peercy. After taking an SBA practice test available on the APS website, the scientist questions whether the test measures what students really need to know.

OK. But he should note the SBA test New Mexico students take was designed by New Mexico teachers. If he feels the test should be revised, as a board member of the state’s largest school district he is certainly in a position to work through channels.

And if he feels there should be another track for students who are not college bound, he is in a policy-making position to set that up, at least for APS.

In the meantime, APS is distributing scores to students and families, and the 2,100 APS seniors who did not pass the test as juniors will get after-school help on test-taking techniques and the standards that will be measured for the re-takes in October.

While it is troubling that just under half of the state’s seniors don’t appear to be academically ready to leave high school, it is essential the state’s public school reform measures continue so a diploma from a New Mexico high school means something to students and employers alike.

This editorial first appeared in the Albuquerque Journal. It was written by members of the editorial board and is unsigned as it represents the opinion of the newspaper rather than the writers.