Letter Grades For New Mexico Public Schools

A straight “A” or a failing “F” may not only appear on student report cards much longer. The letters may also be used to grade public schools in New Mexico.

Currently, public schools are graded as either pass or fail, under the federal No Child Left Behind Act. But the Senate Education Committee’s endorsed bill would assign a letter grade of A through F, based on student achievement.

“It’s basically a feel-good kind of bill,” Patrick Sanchez, an 8th grade history teacher at Lynn Middle School in Las Cruces, said.

Students and teachers alike want their school to provide the highest quality of education. But a bill based solely on a letter grading system gives the appearance of a quick fix to the much deeper problem – education reform, Sanchez said.

“It’s going to reward schools that maintain an A for two years; if you score an F there’s no money to help the schools out,” Sanchez said.

The proposed measure would financially reward high-performing schools, and help the state identify those falling behind.

“We need to be transparent to the public about how we’re doing, and I think we’ve been doing a good job of that,” Superintendent Stan Rounds, of the Las Cruces Public School District, said. “I support it…but the trick is in the detail, in what grading method they’re going to use.”

It is too early to know how student achievement will be measured under the bill. After being endorsed Wednesday in a 7-1 vote, it was sent to another committee for consideration.

In the past 21 years Sanchez has taught at Lynn Middle, he said, in his opinion the true elements of measuring a school’s success have not changed – and will not be improved by this bill.

“It kinda skirts the issue of stuff we know that works – which is, smaller class sizes, more prep time for teachers, and a longer school year,” Sanchez said.