For a sobering, objective look at New Mexico’s real graduation rate and state efforts to mask it, check out the amazing “Diploma’s Count” study for 2010. For example, did you know that APS is one of 25 “dropout epicenters” in the United States?
It is a big district, but not in the top 25 nationally.
A great public service in reporting this information. Thanks so much.
How depressing. Of all the states in the US, only Nevada has a lower graduation rate than lowly NM. And the money we have spent! As pointed out in the book “Education Myths” by Jay Greene, the US has doubled public school spending on an inflation adjusted basis in the last 20 years, and test scores have NOT improved.
If a private high school in Albuquerque had similar graduation rates, it would be laughed out of existence in about 10 minutes. Can anyone doubt that the primary purpose of public school education in NM is NOT to educate our children but to provide employment for teachers and bureaucrats with no accountability? I despair for my city and state.
These problems in education have little to do with politicians or which Governor is in charge. Rather, it’s the whole setup of the school system that has needed changing for some years now. It is a dinosaur, and the system format needs to be changed to match those setups in the country or in other countries which are working. The overall lax immorality in the country in general also affects whether the students even want to learn.
I agree with you 100% here. The issue is systemic and our schools are the very definition of a “socialist” system.