New APS superintendent announced changing goals

At her first official meeting in her new role, Albuquerque Public Schools Superintendent Gabriella Durán Blakey announced adjustments to the district’s interim goals, which are designed to ensure the district is on track in four areas.

Blakey’s changes are mostly in the post-secondary readiness category. It no longer identifies a specific goal for the dropout rate. 

The dropout rate for the first semester of the 2023-2024 school year rose compared to the previous year. District officials expected the full-year rate to be 5.2%, versus 4.2% in the previous year.

Officials added a goal of getting more students on career pathways or in advanced classes.

The district’s Emerging Stronger strategic plan adopted in 2022 seeks to improve early literacy, math proficiency, post-secondary readiness and skills, habits and mindsets for life success.

The objectives in those areas: 

• Post-secondary readiness: High school graduates who earn credit in two or more advanced placement, International Baccalaureate, or dual credit courses or earn industry certifications or bilingual seals will increase from 39.6% in September 2023 to 49.6% in September 2028. The interim goals in this category include increasing the number of freshman who are bilingual, sophomores who are enrolled in career-connected learning courses and juniors who are taking advanced placement courses.

• Early literacy: Third graders who demonstrate grade-level proficiency or above on state English language arts tests will increase from 27.3% in May 2023 to 37.3% in May 2028. That group consists of students identified in the Yazzie-Martinez decision — a group that includes impoverished children, Indigenous students, those learning English and children with disabilities and Black students.  Blakey said the interim goals will track their  progress in first and second grades.

• Math proficiency: Eighth-grade Yazzie-Martinez students will increase grade level proficiency from 11.1% in May 2023 to 21.1% in May 2028. Blakey said the interim goals seek targeted gains for sixth and seventh-graders by May 2026.

• Skills, habits and mindsets: There will be a 10-point increase in the percentage of students who demonstrate four traits (perseverance, self-regulation, self-efficacy and social awareness) by 2028. The interim goal is five-point increases by 2027 for elementary, middle and high school students.

Board members critique themselves

In a presentation on how the board spends its time, APS Board Vice President Ronalda Tome-Warito reported that members spent more than 600 minutes in meetings over a period of the three months ending June 30. Less than 40% of that time (264 minutes), she said, was focused on improving student outcomes. 

The strategic plan instructs  the board to “not spend less than 50% of public meeting time monitoring student outcomes.”

Board President Danielle Gonzales acknowledged the shortfall, but said the panel is improving in that respect.

“We’re making progress,” she said. 

Gonzales said, however, that the board hasn’t fulfilled its commitment to evaluate its performance in maintaining a student-outcomes focused governance model. She said just two of seven board members returned a completed form on time.

“We as a board committed (ourselves) to self evaluation in policy,” Gonzales said. “We as a board did not act with integrity when we did not follow through on our commitment. We violated our own policies when we did not follow through. So this is not about finger-pointing or blame … but it is an opportunity for us to recommit ourselves to what we said we’re going to do — focus our time on student outcomes and measure how well we are doing by completing our self-evaluation.”

During the meeting’s public forum, several speakers said they were concerned about new federal rules that extend Title IX protections to transgender athletes and their implications for girls’ sports. 

Later in the meeting, Gonzales said board members will be receiving policy guidance on the matter.