Photo by Michael J. GallegosTribune

Tribune

Del Norte High School student Cynthia Rivera, 18, (center) closes out a cash register last week in the school's snack bar where she works with other students. Rivera, a senior, also earns college credit by attending classes at Central New Mexico Community College.

Photo by Michael J. GallegosTribune

Tribune

Cynthia Rivera, 18, heads to a business class at Central New Mexico Community College. Rivera, a senior at Del Norte High School, is earning college credits at CNM while attending Del Norte.

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It's spring break for public school students in Albuquerque, except those who are racking up academic credits at Central New Mexico Community College.

Spring break for Cynthia Rivera, a Del Norte High School senior, means she's in her weekly CNM public speaking class for six hours and in her college-level business and finance classes for another nine hours.

"It kind of sucks, because I like to travel. I'd be going to Mexico to visit family, if I could," said the 18-year-old who has her eye on a career in business and finance.

She says she's sacrificing spring break for her future. "This is my personal push. I like to challenge myself."

By the time she graduates from Del Norte in May, she'll have 28 college credits to take with her to the University of New Mexico.

Not a bad start, says her Del Norte principal, Becky Almeter. "She's a really amazing young lady. She's certainly an example of a student who can handle a heavy load and do very well."

Cynthia Rivera is a student of the future, a trailblazer whom others will follow soon.

The Legislature has imposed new high school requirements, which Gov. Bill Richardson proposed and is likely to sign into law next week, that will push students into Advanced Placement classes, online courses or dual enrollment courses in community colleges.

Rivera has all three on her transcript.

Advanced Placement classes are offered at most high schools, and students who score high on the rigorous AP exams are eligible for college credits.

Dual enrollment classes are offered by community colleges and universities across the state. Students receive high school and college credit.

Online courses are a popular option for students who can't fit all the classes they want into the traditional high school day. Online classes are also popular with students who don't like a teacher at their regular high school or who have to make up an F in a required class.

The Legislature passed the Cyber Academy Act with a $6.4 million appropriation to offer online courses to all New Mexico students at no cost.

Each member of the class of 2013 will have to have at least one of these options to receive a diploma.

State Secretary of Education Veronica Garcia said the options should be attractive to students and an incentive for them to customize their schedules and even stay in school.

She said the dropout rate has reached a crisis with about 5,000 of the state's 98,000 students leaving New Mexico high schools each year.

More options for students should help improve graduation rates, she said. Also, the state has raised the legal dropout age from 16 to 18 to give parents more leverage if their children want to leave school.

Dropouts and their parents are subject to the state's Compulsory School Attendance Law and could be cited for truancy in Children's Court. The court approach is not punitive, but families with truant children usually have to go through counseling and develop a plan for making sure their children are in school.

The largest groups of dropouts are the youngest students, 1,515 freshmen and 1,428 sophomores statewide last year. Dropout numbers taper off the junior year to 1,094 and the senior year to 824. Most seniors are 17 or 18.

"You can't drop out now until you are 18. Parents will have the law behind them, and I think it could have an impact on our dropout rates," Garcia said. "I hope more kids will stay in school."

They should, if the high school is more meaningful and more relevant, she said.

The online and community college courses "will open the door to careers," Garcia said. "What we believe is going to happen is that kids will take culinary arts, interior design, computer programming at CNM, UNM, NMSU and will be more likely to continue on" after high school graduation.

Garcia said rural New Mexico schools are far more advanced in taking advantage of options for high schoolers. "Lovington has kids graduating with 24 college credit hours," she said.

High schools will evolve and be more attractive to private and home-schooled students, as well, Garcia predicted.

"High School Redesign is going to make a difference. It will bring people back to public school," she said.

Unlike some students who are sliding through their senior year, Del Norte's Rivera has nine classes, three of them Advanced Placement courses and four at CNM.

"My parents say I'm overloading myself," she said. "They see me up late doing homework. But the opportunities are there, and CNM is a great experience.

"I'm not in my high school with a principal and others telling me what to do. I like managing my own schedule. I'm a person who likes having choices."

Other students may not want the kind of schedule she has, but Rivera said raising standards will challenge them.

"I don't think they will drop out," she said. "Higher standards will have good results in the long run, in my opinion."