N.M. schools get first A-F report cards

RIO RANCHO, N.M. (KRQE) - Letter grades have been handed out by the state Public Education Department to every New Mexico school.

It's a new system that the state education secretary wants to move to instead of the nationally mandated Annual Yearly Progress.

The grades released Tuesday aren't great, but they are better than AYP.

Maggie Córdova Elementary School was the only Rio Rancho school to get an A, but overall the district doesn't have any Fs and only one D.

The state's new grading system handed out more Cs than any other grade and was implemented last year by the state PED.

The goal is measure how schools and students are improving and help them progress faster, according to the department.

The grades are based on standardized test scores compared to the current national No Child Left Behind System that uses AYP scores to rank schools.

Some of the best grades in the state come from the northeast part of the state including Des Moines schools in Union County, the Los Alamos district, Fort Sumner, Melrose and Texico.

Some of the worst grades came out of the southeast part with Jal and Eunice only getting Ds and Fs.

Ruidoso, Dexter and Hobbs also scored lows.

Out of 831 state schools, 73 of them got As, and 297 got Ds or Fs.

Albuquerque Public Schools Superintendent Winston Brooks said overall he thinks this is a much better rating system.

But he says reaction from teachers and principals has been mixed.

"I've talked to teachers who are in tears; I've talked to teachers who are doing summersaults, so it's kind of all over the board," Brooks said. "But I think again we have to take these scores as a baseline, and the target is to move forward and improve."

Within APS 11 percent of the schools got As, and 16 percent got Fs.

The grade reports for all public schools by district are available on the PED website .