PED auditing failing schools

(KRQE) Albuquerque - The Public Education Department is conducting audits of all 64 schools in New Mexico that received a failing grade from the state last year.

The audits include meeting with administrators, teachers, parents and students. It also includes classroom observation and analysis of each school's instructional practices.

Representatives from PED say they will then come up with a plan for improvement. The principals will have time to respond, and then the school must implement the changes within a few weeks.

Parents who took part in some of the audits say they like the effort but are concerned that the improvement plans don't go far enough to improve student learning.

Parent Jay Zook, whose child goes to a school given an "F," says he believes other issues need to be addressed including overcrowding, a lack of school funding and what he calls the overtesting of kids by the state and APS.

"These teachers are teaching for the test," Zook says. "They need to go back to teaching what kids need like when I was in school."

Zook says he also hopes that PED would be more involved in schools throughout the year instead of just visiting once a year.

Because of the high number of "D" schools in the state, PED is allowing district to do the audits on these schools themselves. The reports are then handed in to PED for review.

The audits are expected to be complete by mid October.