The New Mexico Public Education Department Aug. 7 released student proficiency test results for the different schools in the area, and although many schools showed improvement, the overall scores for the districts appear mixed.
Alcalde Elementary and Hernandez Elementary showed marked progress in student proficiency for the Española School District.
In 2013, 23 percent of Hernandez students were proficient in reading and 11 percent were proficient in mathematics. By the subsequent year, both percentages jumped — 43 percent of students were proficient in reading and 38 percent were at their grade level or higher in mathematics.
Alcalde students also improved significantly. Almost half of all students could read at their grade level during the 2012-2013 academic year. That number jumped to 60 percent last year.
Forty-four percent of students were proficient in mathematics in 2013. That number climbed to almost 60 percent for the 2014 academic year that just passed.
However, the scores were not all positive. Many test scores at particular schools regressed, Velarde Elementary is one example. Two years ago, almost 60 percent of Velarde students were proficient in reading and almost 30 percent of them were at their grade level or higher in mathematics. This past year, the reading proficiency was a little more than 40 percent, while mathematics proficiency was at 17 percent.
Also, only two schools, Alcalde and San Juan Elementary, can boast mathematics proficiency scores higher than 50 percent — the majority of the remaining schools were in the 40s or below.
Mesa Vista school results were mixed, as well. El Rito Elementary proficiency scores dropped in both reading and mathematics, the difference between last year and two years ago is more than 15 percent.
While reading scores improved at Ojo Caliente Elementary, mathematics scores dropped.
However, other factors aside from proficiency scores, dictate parents’ choices when it comes to enrolling their children at certain schools.
“There are a couple of reasons I choose to have my children at Velarde,” parent Kelly Duran said. “The first reason is that it is a community school. Velarde is supposed to be a school that serves the community of Velarde, so it makes sense to send my children there. Also, it wasn’t that long ago Velarde was a blue ribbon school, so it was very high quality. I am hoping it will return to that level.”
Elizabeth Aguilar is a parent of an Española Valley High School student. Despite other options, she opted for the high school because of the extracurricular activities that are available.
“I enrolled my child at the high school because of wrestling,” Aguilar said. “He does wrestling and there are no other high schools in the area with wrestling.”
The state measures a student’s proficiency level based on certain requirements that are tied to Common Core.
According to the website www.corestandards.org, Common Core is a set of academic standards that outline mathematics and English skills that students need to learn by the time they finish different grade levels.
For example, according to the assessment framework provided by the New Mexico Public Education Department, by the time a student finishes third grade, that student should know how to quote a passage of literature and isolate the theme of a story. That student should also recognize different genres and be able to compare and contrast different works of literature.
In mathematics, that same student should know how to divide and multiply numbers up to 100 and have rudimentary knowledge of fractions. He or she should also understand place value, such as the difference between ones, tens and hundreds places.
The more capable the student is in mastering the requirements, the higher his or her proficiency score will be, and there are cutoff scores for each category.
“Above 65 percent is advanced,” Española School Superintendent Danny Trujillo said. “Getting a score between 40 percent and 65 percent is proficient. A score between 20 percent and 45 percent is near proficient. Below 20 percent is emergent.”
The higher the number of students who score above 40 percent, the higher the New Mexico Public Education Department grades that particular school.
Many of the parents believe it is not only the test results of a particular year that matters, they also think about school improvement.
“The math proficiency scores are horrible,” Abe Salazar, an Española Valley High School parent said. “The high school has been using a different curriculum to teach mathematics and it is really confusing. The school has now switched the program so I am hoping it will improve.”
Parents who were interviewed also said they do not necessarily concern themselves with test scores from the school but only how their particular child is doing.
“My daughter is doing well,” Duran said. “She is proficient or above proficient for the past couple of years. I am pretty happy with the situation she is in.”