Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Managing editor
The New Mexico Public Education Department released letter grades for The Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) Wednesday afternoon, reflecting that local schools are a mixed bag of improvements and declines.
“It looks like to me, if you’re at the top, you have a long ways to fall and if you’re at the bottom, you can get up off the floor,” Clovis schools Superintendent Jody Balch said, adding that 11 out of 14 of Clovis schools with top grades went down while six out of seven with bottom scores went up.
“I don’t know how it can make any sense when an A school goes to a D, and you only have two years of data,” he said.
Six schools in the Clovis district were given D grades this year with Sandia Elementary plummeting from an A and Yucca Middle School and Highland and La Casita Elementary schools falling from a B grade.
Balch said the letter grade for New Mexico schools is based on three years worth of testing, and in the 2013-14 school year, the Standards Based Assessment was still being given, while in 2014-15, two SBAs and one PARCC were given and in 2015-16, two PARCCs and one SBA were given.
“I think you need to compare all the apples in the one basket rather than looking at a mixed bag,” Balch said. “Our goal is for kids to get better every year and as long as we see that, we’ll take the grades with that. If our kids will continue to grow, the school grades will take care of themselves.”
Balch said looking at the percentages of growth released last week, there were 97 groups of math tests given last year, and overall, the district saw 70 percent growth in math and 50 percent in reading.
“We grew in 58 of those 97 opportunities,” he said. “I’m proud of that, and our teachers should be proud of that,” Balch said.
Portales schools Superintendent Johnnie Cain agreed that what matters most is seeing the improvement, however small.
All of Portales’ elementary schools received A and B grades while the high school received a C — an improvement over last year’s D — and the junior high received a D grade for the third year in a row.
Cain said over the course of time, it is going to be perfectly normal to see schools fluctuate back and forth with grades, because different groups of children come through each year who learn differently, and Portales schools was doing well with SBA testing, then the way the state tested “shifted”, leaving schools the challenge of “knowing what’s going to be important in PARCC” — things they may not have tested in previously.
“I don’t think going down a few points is something you can be upset about,” Cain said. “You review it and see if there is something you did different or something you can do better, and you move forward. We know we have work to do. We’re not nearly where we want to be.”
Cain said in one of the district’s math classes, they improved from 7 percent to 11 percent proficiency.
“That’s not high enough, but that’s a pretty good growth for one year in learning this,” he said. “We’re still happy, because we still think we’re moving forward.”
The Texico school district came out shining with this year’s PARCC scores with mostly A grades for their schools and only one C grade.
“I think all of the school grades, whether they’re an A, B, C or D, they’re a reflection for the most part of instruction,” said Texico Superintendent Robert Brown. “We look at math in the middle school, we’ve got to do a better job. Maybe even before-or-after-school programs, Saturday programs. We are a four-day workweek, and we may have to create some Friday morning opportunities for students whose scores aren’t where they need to be.”
Secretary of Education Hanna Skandera held a press conference Wednesday in which she stated that New Mexico schools as a whole improved with PARCC scores this year.
We have more A and B schools than D and F,” Skandera said during the telephone conference. “We are definitely seeing our schools and our teachers rise to the challenge of higher standards — making progress absolutely.”
She added that the amount of New Mexico schools who dropped in grade level went from 44 percent last year to 31 percent this year and 33 percent of schools went up in letter grade compared to 29 percent last year.
Robert McEntyre, communications director for the PED, said the school grades are based on the following factors:
• Elementary: School growth, percentage of proficient students, growth of the top 75 percent, growth of the top 25 percent and opportunities to learn (afterschool programs, etc.)
• High School: All of the elementary categories, plus graduation rates and college/career readiness.
Skandera also said Wednesday that the state breaks down the PARCC information into subjects and the five levels of meeting standards, so school districts understand how they did in each subject, but the letter grade is “how each individual school does, regardless ... (the letter grade is) based on growth and improvement because as we see growth and improvement, we see more success.”
CNJ Managing Editor Kevin Wilson contributed to this report.
Clovis Municipal Schools:
Arts Academy at Bella Vista:
• 2013-14: D
• 2014-15: C
• 2015-16: B
Barry Elementary:
• 2013-14: B
• 2014-15: A
• 2015-16: C
Cameo Elementary:
• 2013-14: D
• 2014-15: F
• 2015-16: D
Highland Elementary:
• 2013-14: D
• 2014-15: B
• 2015-16: D
James Bickley Elementary:
• 2013-14: D
• 2014-15: C
• 2015-16: B
La Casita Elementary:
• 2013-14: D
• 2014-15: B
• 2015-16: D
Lockwood Elementary:
• 2013-14: F
• 2014-15: C
• 2015-16: C
Mesa Elementary:
• 2013-14: B
• 2014-15: A
• 2015-16: A
Parkview Elementary:
• 2013-14: C
• 2014-15: F
• 2015-16: D
Ranchvale Elementary:
• 2013-14: B
• 2014-15: A
• 2015-16: A
Sandia Elementary:
• 2013-14: B
• 2014-15: A
• 2015-16: D
Zia Elementary:
• 2013-14: B
• 2014-15: A
• 2015-16: B
Marshall Middle School:
• 2013-14: B
• 2014-15: C
• 2015-16: B
Yucca Middle School:
• 2013-14: D
• 2014-15: B
• 2015-16: D
Gattis Middle School:
• 2013-14: B
• 2014-15: A
• 2015-16: B
Clovis High School Freshman Academy:
• 2013-14: C
• 2014-15: B
• 2015-16: C
Clovis High School:
• 2013-14: B
• 2014-15: D
• 2015-16: C
Grady Municipal Schools:
Elementary school
• 2013-14: A
• 2014-15: A
• 2015-16: A
Middle school
• 2013-14: B
• 2014-15: B
• 2015-16: B
High school
• 2013-14: A
• 2014-15: A
• 2015-16: A
Melrose Municipal Schools:
Elementary school
• 2013-14: A
• 2014-15: D
• 2015-16: C
Middle school
• 2013-14: B
• 2014-15: D
• 2015-16: A
High school
• 2013-14: A
• 2014-15: B
• 2015-16: A
Fort Sumner Municipal Schools:
Elementary school
• 2013-14: B
• 2014-15: B
• 2015-16: C
Middle school
• 2013-14: B
• 2014-15: B
• 2015-16: B
High school
• 2013-14: A
• 2014-15: A
• 2015-16: A
Texico Municipal Schools:
Elementary school
• 2013-14: C
• 2014-15: A
• 2015-16: A
Middle school
• 2013-14: B
• 2014-15: A
• 2015-16: B
High school
• 2013-14: A
• 2014-15: A
• 2015-16: A
