Dear Friends of NMSA:
You may have seen in the January 12, 2012 edition of the New Mexican that the New Mexico Public Education Department (PED) has released their new grading system for Santa Fe Public Schools. New Mexico School for the Arts (NMSA) received a grade C. We have contested this ranking.
Under the new A-F Grading System, New Mexico schools are rated on 6 different factors. In the category of Graduation Rate, NMSA was given a D. Since NMSA has only been in operation for a year and a half and will not graduate its first senior class until June 2012, we do not yet have any data on graduation rates, so PED took the score from the Santa Fe Public Schools data from the last 3 years. In the area of Career and College Readiness, PED overlooked NMSA’s Career and College Indicator data of ACT, Explore, Plan, PSAT, SAT, ACT, and AP scores that was submitted and therefore ranked the school an F.
NMSA has filed an appeal with the PED to augment these two areas of assessment so that NMSA receives a fair grade under the new ranking. The purpose of the A-F School Grading System is to measure growth, but the system does not account for a new school such as ours.
Do contact us if you have questions or would like additional information about the rigorous academic curriculum we provide at New Mexico School for the Arts. Please remember the school’s 2011 designation of AYP, or Adequate Yearly Progress, honoring NMSA for achieving a 95% participation rate on state assessments for proficiency in math and reading.
Thanks again for your continued support,
Cindy Montoya, Principal, NMSA – Charter School
and
Adelma Hnasko, Executive Director, NMSA- Art Institute