Dems pushing A-F grading system revamp

SANTA FE (KRQE) - Under a proposal working its way through the state Senate New Mexico's relatively new A-F school grading system would stay in place, but the way the grades are calculated would be drastically altered.

The Public Education Department started issuing the letter grades last year after receiving a No Child Left Behind waiver from the U.S. Department of Education.

The current system used to calculate grades is heavily reliant on standardized testing results. Ninety percent of elementary or middle school scores are calculated through the New Mexico Standard Based Assessment, or SBA.

That number drops to 60 percent for high schools, but graduation rates, career and college readiness and attendance all factor in.

Sen. Howie Morales, D-Silver City, says that doesn't work.

"It's not going through and showing what the schools are actually doing," Morales said. "It's measuring what's happening on the [Standards] Based Assessment."

Morales' bill would dramatically overhaul the A-F system.

Under the proposed change, standardized testing would only make up a third percent of any school's score. For elementary and middle schools, the rest of the score would come from "opportunity to learn" factors. Those include availability of extracurricular activities, attendance, training and experience of teachers.

For high schools, another third of the school's grade would come from those same "opportunity to learn" factors. The final third would come from graduation rates and career and college readiness.

New Mexico Education Secretary-designate Hanna Skandera says the plan would put the state at risk of losing federal funding.

"What's at stake is $120 million in Title I money because we know the changes that have been proposed to date are not changes that would comply with the U.S. Department of Education's waiver," Skandera said.

Morales called Skandera's statement a "scare tactic."

A federal waiver is not a slam dunk.

PED needed to rework the original A-F system in order to get it approved.