SFPS gets a better report card
State grade for Santa Fe Public Schools rises from D to C; superintendent says district ‘building momentum’
The Public Education Department upped Santa Fe Public Schools’ district grade from a D to a C this year, but Superintendent Veronica García is focused on the “I” — improvement — in the change.
García said Monday said the new grade “is a testament to the hard work of our students,
teachers, staff, families, community and board of education.
“I am proud of our school district and community,” she said. “We are building momentum and I believe that we will see continuous improvement. We will continue our efforts to strive for excellence.”
Just as the education department assigns grades to individual schools within the state, it also uses an A-F system to rate each of the state’s 89 school districts based on an array of criteria.
Those report cards — which the education department posted online earlier this month — use summaries of school grades, graduation rates, parental surveys, teacher credentials and
student proficiency rates, among other measures, to determine a final grade.
The district also received a C in 2012, 2014 and 2015. The Public Education Department’s website does not include a grade rating for 2013.
The district grade comes as García and the school board are updating the district’s five-year strategic plan with the goal of creating and approving a new one early in 2018. That plan focuses on five broad goals, including recruiting top talent at all levels of staffing, offering state-of-the-art technology for students and teachers and promoting “high academic performance” among students.
The district recently held three community meetings to solicit input on that plan. The board plans to hold a special public study session to discuss that input before the end of the calendar year.
During the most recent strategic-plan meeting, García said that while the district is making progress on many of its goals — including improving its graduation rate — she acknowledged the district still struggles to make “substantial gains in student achievement scores.”
That problem is spotlighted in the district’s proficiency rates in the report card.
While reading and writing scores improved a bit, from 25 percent last year to 28.3 percent this year, the district’s math proficiency rates remained the same as last year — stagnating at 16.5 percent.
But in other areas, the district did improve, according to the report card. It experienced slight increases in both the district’s school grades — which remain a contentious issue for many educators in the state, who feel they do not paint an accurate picture of how well a school is doing — and its graduation rate.
For example, in Santa Fe, 11 schools improved their grades from the previous year, 10 earned the same grade and nine saw a drop.
The district’s graduation rate increased from 66.8 percent last year to 71 percent this year, mirroring the state’s average.
And based on 2015 data, the district’s report card shows that roughly half of all of the district’s 668 graduates that year enrolled in colleges both in and out of the state.
The district did very well on the report card when it came to parental surveys about the quality of education at their kids’ schools, with 93 percent of parents saying they feel their child is safe in his or her school, 91 percent saying their child’s school sets high expectations for academic achievement and 93 percent saying their child’s teacher does a good job providing information regarding the student’s academic progress.
Board President Lorraine Price did not return a call seeking comment.
The Los Alamos school district earned an A, while Española, Pecos and Pojoaque school districts all earned D’s.
The Albuquerque district netted a C.