Gradation rates have collapsed in APS, dropping nearly 6.2% according to the Journal, 6.2%, link. They arrived at that number according to the following calculation; 73.3% 2013 - 67.1% 2014 = 6.2%.
A truer representation of the collapse is gained by dividing the decline by 73.3;
73.3% 2013 - 67.1% 2014) = 6.2% / 73.3 = .085 or 8.5%.
The results were made available one week too late to be part of the political discourse in the school board election.
The collapse points to the unreliability of "graduation rates" as a measure of public school success link.
Tuesday, February 10, 2015
APS graduation rates collapse
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Graduation rates at APS reflect the smoke and mirrors public relations scam being perpetuated by the power in the towers. The most recent numbers should not come as a surprise to anyone watching the union and anti-test brigade wring their hands about the danger of these pernicious performance measurements. The numbers tell the story that they would prefer continue to remain hidden. Their dirty little secret for the historically under performing schools has finally been revealed. For four years NMPED gave schools waivers for juniors taking their SBA exams. Basically a student could fail and still receive a high school diploma which artificially boosted school graduation rates.
The data for this last class reflects that waivers were not allowed nor granted reflecting a truer picture of graduation. The other factor is that during Esquivel/Brooks regime, they and their gang knew that illegally relocating and segregating academically challenged groups of student populations to already challenged schools would skew the graduation rates of those schools "no one really cares about" and inflate the numbers for schools where people might be upset if graduation numbers lagged. Brooks moved most special ed (primarily behaviorally disturbed students) to Rio Grande and Highland houses all autistic students. Albuquerque High School has always been Balkanized school within a school with an advanced curriculum program being offered to the children of professors and the politically connected; and a mediocre bilingual program being pawned off on the "have nots." Atrisco Heritage and West Mesa were turned into "community schools" meaning all resources were focused on misguided poverty pimp health and social programs that mean well but offer little academic rigor and therefore, miss the mark to educate students. For those beating the drum for equity for minority students they would be well advised that reasonable testing measurements and metrics are important indicators for the quality or lack of quality of the educational opportunity being offered at their child's school. An informed parent is an empowered parent and it is incumbent on the student and parent to seek out, supplement and obtain the desired educational outcome that best suits their needs. Self serving leadership, Bogus listening tours and meaningless community forums and feel good public relation campaigns cannot hide the stench of a bloated bureaucracy feeding on the trough of educational dollars that are not focused on educating the 89,000 students whom the district claims to serve. For all APS students your first mandatory Latin lesson; look up the term caveat emptor.
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