A False Sense of Accomplishment

Over the last few years, funding for education has increased exponentially. More than once I've complained that despite this significant investment, we've yet to see any positive results. Now, it seems that the picture is actually even bleaker than we've been led to believe (subscription):

Since the No Child Left Behind Act came along in 2001, New Mexico has been sending the federal government graduation rates based on the percent of seniors who earn a diploma by the end of the year.

By ignoring the thousands of students who drop out between grades nine and 11, the state has managed to post respectable graduation rates— a percentage in the mid-80s.

New Mexico had the U.S. Education Department's full consent, but the federal government was keeping its own books, based on the number of freshmen who graduate in four years. Those calculations were coming up with graduation rates for the state in the mid-60s.

New Mexico was doing nothing unusual but, according to a March 20 article in The New York Times, it has had one of the widest gaps between state and federal figures. Only Mississippi's was wider.

Garcia expects that to change. Starting this summer, the state will start reporting graduation rates based on entering freshmen.

By using seniors, Garcia said, the state was giving itself "a false sense of accomplishment."

My guess is that the state has known all along just what it's level of accomplishment has been. It's the taxpayers they have been trying to dupe.

Education Failures Continue to Increase

It's that time year again. The time when the No Child Left Behind Adequate Yearly Progress Reports comes out. Again, our schools are failing to deliver on improvement promises made by everyone from Governor Bill Richardson on down.

Two years ago, I went on a rant about the lack of a sense of urgency on the part of our education administrators and Governor appointees regarding the lack of progress. Then last year, I pointed out that the news had gone from bad to worse with more than 54% of schools failing to make Adequate Yearly Progress.

And guess what, this year we've fallen even further with more than 58% of the schools failing to achieve Adequate Yearly Progress. How much worse, can this get before we decide continuing along the same path year after year is just not working?

The spin coming from Governor Richardson's appointee (subscription) is nothing less than nauseating:

Statewide, more than 58 percent of New Mexico's schools didn't make adequate yearly progress. That figure is up slightly from 54.1 percent last year.

But state Education Secretary Veronica Garcia pointed out Friday that some schools found themselves on the failing list even though they met or exceeded proficiency standards in reading and math. Garcia pointed out 13 schools labeled as failing, even though they met proficiency targets for all students. Among those schools were Montessori of the Rio Grande and Twenty-First Century, both of Albuquerque.

"To label a school as failing— not making AYP for missing, for example, participation rate in one subgroup— and labeling the whole school as failing is very misleading to everyone," Garcia said. She said while the spirit behind the law is admirable, its implementation can be unfair.

Political Spin 101 is to reframe the issue to shift focus from your failures. If you reclassify those 13 schools the Education Secretary is referencing does that paint a prettier picture? I don't think so. I'm pretty sure it would still mean that more than 50% of our schools are failing to meet Adequate Yearly Progress. No matter how you slice it or dice it, this is unacceptable.

And, what does APS have to say about their continued failure:

APS spokeswoman Monica Armenta said the district will scrutinize the designations carefully to ensure their accuracy.

"We are going to go page by page, school by school, category by category," Armenta said.

Oh yeah, that's the problem. The reports aren't accurate. Glad to see you've got your focus in the right place. Speaking of having things in the right place. Don't you think it is odd that APS has a news section on their front page, but fails to provide notification the latest Adequate Yearly Progress Reports have been released.

Maybe it has something to do with the fact that APS, as a district, is failing for at least the second year in a row. Now, I'm not a big fan of breaking up the district because research doesn't demonstrate that will change much of anything. However, the time has come to revisit school choice options. Our government is failing, and it is time to give the responsibility of educating our children back to parents.

Life Lesson Only Temporarily Avoided

When County Commissioner Teresa Cordova stepped in and pushed to change her son's failing grade (subscription) to a passing a grade, she made a decision that I'm willing to bet is going to come back and bite her, not as a politician, but as a mother:

"There were some other kids that didn't graduate," Anita Forte said. "I didn't fail them; they failed themselves."

Ms. Forte, the Rio Grande High School teacher in question, is dead on with this comment. And, at some some point, Commissioner Cordova's son is going to have to learn that lesson. Chances are the next time he fails his mother won't be able to save him from his bad decisions, and next time, it is quite possible that the stakes will be much larger then gaining the opportunity to celebrate an undeserved graduation.

Graduating Failures

So, I'm reading this article about New Mexico's graduation rates (subscription) and I come across the following section:

Frustrated by the varying ways states calculated their graduation and dropout rates, the National Governors Association challenged governors to agree to a set standard.

Gov. Bill Richardson and other governors signed a compact with the association in 2005, agreeing to calculate graduation rates in a uniform manner. By 2012, all states are expected to report their rates.

Meanwhile, a national report issued this week by Education Week put New Mexico's graduation rate for the 2003-2004 school year at 60.1 percent. But for that same year, the state of New Mexico— which used a different formula— reported a graduation rate of 89 percent to the federal government.

"The first step is getting the more accurate count," Curran said. "You can't adequately deal with the problem until you know the scope of it."

The rest of the article points out that only an estimated 58% of the class of 2008, because of the number of high school students that are behind in their credits, will actually graduate. No matter how you look at it, that means that New Mexico is losing ground in providing its students with a high school diploma.

Which kind of leaves you wondering how Governor Bill Richardson decided to address this continued failure on the education front while hitting the campaign trail. Well, as luck would have it. I have the answer. First, according to Dan Brown of the Huffington Post, Richardson tried to avoid dealing with the education failures:

Bill Richardson, Governor of New Mexico, former Congressman and U.S. Secretary of Energy, does not list education among the seven issues on his presidential committee website . Richardson has made strides for education as Governor of New Mexico, so the omission is baffling.

Actually Mr. Brown, the strides haven't been all that great, so the omission is anything but baffling. However, as much as the Governor would like to, you can't ignore education issue, so Richardson did ultimately have to put up an education platform. Hmm, he forgot to mention that he would avoid repeating all of the mistakes he has made in New Mexico.

Failure, Failure, Everywhere

Governor Richardson has enjoyed a healthy budget surplus, year in and year out. So, you would think that government agencies would be performing better than ever. Well, nothing could be further from the truth. First, we had snowfall that shut down the state and crippled our highways - in some counties for a second time in just two years.

Now the Journal publishes this (subscription):

The state's Web site for filing new unemployment insurance claims doesn't work, and the only phone number for registering is inundated.

Applying in person? Well, no. There's no way to do that with the New Mexico Department of Labor.

How tough has it been to try to file by phone or computer?

After receiving a letter from a frustrated Sandia Park resident, the Journal did some spot checks.

A reporter's efforts to call up the unemployment claim link on the Labor Department Web site consistently failed during a 10-day period.

A new message appeared on the site last week stating, "Currently the file claim option is not available on-line. At this time please call 841-4000 to file a claim."

By that time, the Journal had already phoned the number dozens of times.

Last Thursday, a Journal reporter finally got more than just a busy signal.

The computer operator answered: There were 106 other calls ahead, with an estimated wait time of 92 minutes. On Friday, 70 callers were on hold, with a wait time of 23 minutes.

But hey, at least we got a train to nowhere and a spaceport.