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Copyright © 2018 Albuquerque Journal

School grades are out, and both A’s and F’s are up statewide since the Public Education Department first rolled out such report cards six years ago.

New Mexico’s 2018 public school grades, officially released Friday, showed that 12.9 percent of schools in the state received an A grade – an increase from 4.8 percent in 2012 but down from 14.5 percent in 2017.

And 14.6 percent of schools in the state received F grades, higher than 2012’s 7.7 percent and lower than last year’s 15.7.

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Schools that received a B this year are up by about two percentage points to 25.9 percent from the previous year. Schools that received C’s and D’s followed with 24.2 percent and 22.4 percent, respectively.

The grades – primarily grounded on student growth in reading and math and measured partly through end of the year exams, including PARCC – are based on 2017-18 school year data. PED has continuously increased the weight academic proficiency has on a school grade each year.

Albuquerque Public Schools saw improvement from last year, with fewer schools receiving F grades and more receiving A’s – both by a few percentage points.

“There is some positive movement,” PED Secretary-designate Christopher Ruszkowski told the Journal.

Still, 48 percent of schools in the state’s largest district received either a D or an F grade, with 23 percent of APS schools receiving failing grades.

In 2012, just 11 percent of APS schools received F’s.

“As a district, we look at many data points to see how a school is doing,” said Richard Bowman, the chief information and strategy officer at Albuquerque schools.

Bowman said the district will do a “deep dive” into schools with poor test scores in an effort to make improvements. He said this year’s results show that some of the district’s schools that were struggling the most made improvements. “When we ring the alarm, the schools move,” he said.

Several Albuquerque schools saw a significant improvement in test scores. Bandelier and Eugene Field elementary schools and Madison Middle School all went from an F to a B.

APS had six schools that were penalized because they failed to meet the required student participation rate for standardized testing – the most a single district had in the state. The grades for those schools consequentially were dropped an entire letter grade.

Ruszkowski said Santa Fe Public Schools is the “most concerning” among the state’s biggest school districts.

In Santa Fe, 56 percent of schools received either a D or F grade, and 14 percent achieved an A.

Santa Fe Superintendent Veronica Garcia said the grades are “confusing” and “unverifiable,” and she questioned why the Public Education Department included information about the district’s poorer grades in a news release.

“We find it disheartening that the Secretary of Education would engage in political warfare and choose to target Santa Fe Public Schools in their school grade press release when the school grades don’t match the student proficiency gains we have experienced,” she said in a prepared statement. “We ask that the Secretary not play politics with our children and teachers.”

She said a close review of statistics shows that school grades are often linked to income levels.

“With that said, we will not use poverty as an excuse; we will work to mitigate impacts of poverty by working with our partners like Communities in Schools and others that provide assistance to our students and families,” Garcia said.

Nine of the state’s 15 largest school districts had more than or the same number of A’s as last year, including Santa Fe. Five of the largest districts had an increase in the number of F’s.

The state credited several districts, including Farmington, Gadsden and Hobbs, for continuing to improve their performance for the last five years. Those three districts have very few failing schools.

“The growth of our kids is something that we’re very proud of,” said Gene Schmidt, the superintendent of Farmington schools, which didn’t have a school that scored a failing mark. “But we recognize there are a lot of kids we still have to reach.”

• Rio Rancho had five percentage points more A’s than last year with 33 percent. And 33 percent of the district’s schools also received B’s, while 22 percent received C’s and 11 percent got D’s.

No Rio Rancho district school has ever received an F.

Rio Rancho officials declined to comment on the scores, but the district posted on its website that two-thirds of its schools received A’s or B’s.

“It is imperative that we continually evaluate ourselves and ensure we are meeting the needs of all students. We appreciate our students’ hard work and the efforts of our administrators, teachers and staff. We are confident our staff’s efforts will prepare students for the next stage in their lives,” the district posted on its website. “Our goal, always, is to graduate students who are responsible citizens ready to succeed as they move on to college, the military, or the workforce.”

• Las Cruces had a three percentage point gain in A’s with 13 percent of schools in the district getting an A. As for B schools, 20 percent achieved that score. And 13 percent got an F.

“Since we don’t fully understand how the state’s Value Added Model plays into the overall calculation of school grades, it’s difficult for schools to predict their grades. As a result, it’s also difficult for schools to know what they need to do in order to improve them,” Greg Ewing, the superintendent of Las Cruces schools, said in a news release. “Because PARCC scores factor so heavily in school letter grades, I continue to question whether school letter grades are a meaningful way to convey the quality of education that I see is taking place in all of our classrooms when I visit them.”

Journal Staff Writer Ryan Boetel contributed to this report.