Grades improve at 13 of Clovis' public schools

Professional educators will forever debate the merits of standardized testing, but Clovis Municipal Schools officials are trumpeting the success those tests have revealed.

Thirteen of Clovis’ 17 public schools last year improved their letter grade for overall performance, as determined by the New Mexico Public Education Department.

Six CMS schools received an A — 35 percent — and four more received a B.

Meanwhile, 40 percent of the state’s 848 public schools received a lower grade in 2014-2015 than they did in 2013-2014, records show. Only 15 percent of the state’s public schools received an A.

Why did Clovis perform so well?

“We think we did a really good job getting ready for PARCC, and not fighting it,” said Superintendent Jody Balch. “We attacked it well. We got a good jump trying to get principals and teachers and students ready.”

PARCC — the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers — was a large component for the overall report card, Balch said.

State officials had warned schools that report card results could be lower than in previous years because the PARCC tests were implemented last school year.

Instead, Clovis students improved test results.

Balch said PARCC measures math and reading skills. And the math component requires strong reading skills as well, he said.

The final report card also measures growth, opportunity and graduation rates, as well as other factors.

“An ‘A’ in our mind means a school is doing a lot of things right,” said Robert McEntyre, a spokesman for the NMPED.

None of Clovis’ schools recorded an A in 2013-2014, but Barry, Mesa, Ranchvale, Sandia and Zia elementary schools, along with Gattis Middle School, all earned the top ranking in 2014-2015.

Not all the news was good in Clovis.

Cameo and Parkview elementary schools scored F, and Clovis High received a D.

Parkview’s score was surprising, Balch said, and the district is appealing for the state to change it.

“It was one point away from earning a B a year ago,” he said. “The discovery testing that we do seemed to correlate with growth, so we’re not sure what happened there. That staff is working awfully hard and they were devastated by that grade.”

Balch said Clovis High had also been showing improved scores, so “we’re doing some checking into what’s causing that.”

Cameo has a new principal this school year, Balch said, and implementing programs from other schools should help its performance.

Balch said Lockwood, James Bickley and La Casita elementary schools all saw strong improvement last year, at least in part because they participated in the Principals Pursuing Excellence program.

PPE involves state education officials bringing in specialists to assess procedures. Balch said he expects Cameo and Parkview to participate in PPE this year.

“We’re always going to be given some kind of state-mandated tests,” Balch said.

“It’s important to establish a baseline and now we’ve done that.

“One thing we all get is ‘I don’t want my kid in your classroom if they don’t grow or don’t progress.’ We’re just trying to get kids to grow; it doesn’t have to be at a sharp angle, just a nice, progressive, slow growth.”