Site Map | Archives

Home › Living › School City

Measure requiring high school proficiency test awaits New Mexico governor's signature

By Susie Gran
Tuesday, February 19, 2008

related linksMore School City
related linksMOST RECENT TRIB STORIES

related linksTRIB IN THE BLOGOSPHERE*

*Note: The Tribune does not create and is not responsible for the blogosphere's headlines and stories. These links to blogs talking about ABQTrib.com are automatically generated. Use them at your own risk.
STORY TOOLS

SHARE THIS STORY [?]

A New Mexico high school diploma will be a lot harder to come by under a bill awaiting the governor's signature.

Students no longer will be handed a diploma based on passing grades in required courses, if the bill becomes law. Instead, they'll have to demonstrate they are ready for college or a career by passing a diploma test, Education Secretary Veronica Garcia said Monday.

The class of 2011 will be the first required to pass the test, if Gov. Bill Richardson signs the measure.

Senate Bill 460 has the elements necessary "to insure that when they (the seniors) graduate, our diploma means something," Garcia said. "I hope he signs it soon."

However, the measure does not spell out which test seniors will be required to pass. Garcia said her department will be working on that in the near future.

By the fall, the Public Education Department should have rules in place for districts to follow, she said.

"We'll be gathering input now and over the summer," she said.

Options include the 11th grade proficiency test, national college entrance exams known as the ACT and SAT, the Work Keys assessment or a portfolio — a collection of work by the student.

The bill says districts may use the New Mexico Standards Based Assessment — the same test that indicated some 20,000 high school juniors weren't proficient in math and reading in 2007.

The Public Education Department predicted $409,000 annual bill for retesting seniors who failed to score proficient on 11th-grade test.

The department received about $4 million for testing from the Legislature this month, Garcia said.

"If the grade 11 assessment were used as a high school exam today, nearly 70 percent of students will not pass," according to the Public Education Department's analysis of the bill.

But Garcia said she expects students to score higher on the proficiency exam over the next several years because the high school curriculum has been strengthened.

If test performance does not improve, the state might have to establish a new cutoff score for graduation, she said.

"They still have plenty of time to take their courses and be ready," Garcia said of the current freshmen.

"We think more kids will be better prepared to take the test" due to the more rigorous curriculum offered, she said. "And, they will need to take the test seriously."

The bill says the state will issue certificates of completion to those students who do not pass the test for a diploma.

Ellen Bernstein, president of the Albuquerque Teachers Federation, which did not oppose the bill, said she expects the Education Department to involve educators in the testing scenario.

"This has huge ramifications," she said. "I'm hopeful PED will be very careful and involve the people who work in the field every day."

Since the bill offers several testing options and the portfolio avenue to indicate competency, it didn't draw the opposition a single test would, Bernstein said.

"High stakes attached to a single test is not working," Bernstein said, based on several states that have tried to impose an exit exam for graduation.

In some states, the passing scores had to be lowered when high percentages of students failed and public outcry followed.

The Center for Education Policy, which publishes annual reports on exit exams, predicts seven in 10 students nationwide will be taking exit exams this year.