New Mexico
Public Education Department
300 Don Gaspar
Santa Fe, New Mexico 87501-2786
Hanna Skandera
Secretary
www.ped.state.nm.us
Larry Behrens
Public Information Officer
505-476-0393
Larry.Behrens2@state.nm.us
NEWS RELEASE
For Immediate Release: January 31, 2014
Class of 2013 Maintains Graduation Rate at 70.3%
Governor Proposes Several Initiatives to Help Students Stay in School, Graduate, and Better
Prepare for the Workforce or College
Santa Fe – The New Mexico Public Education Department (PED) today announced the statewide
graduation rate of 70.3% for the Class of 2013. The statewide rate for the Class of 2013 is unchanged from
the previous year, maintaining the seven percentage point increase achieved by the Class of 2012.
Since 2011, graduation rates have significantly improved for the state’s Hispanic, Native American, African
American, Economically Disadvantaged, and disabled students—with gains in some groups as large as 13
percentage points. Many of the state’s school districts have seen back-to-back improvement in graduation
rates since 2011, including: Albuquerque, Rio Rancho, Gallup, Taos, Aztec, Lake Arthur, Hobbs, Dulce,
Magdelena, Mora, Cobre, Las Vegas City Schools, and Hatch.
Still, three in ten New Mexico students do not graduate from high school. Today’s announcement
reinforces the need for targeted funding and programs designed to identify struggling students early on, get
them the assistance they need in order to keep them in school, and prepare them to graduate from high
school with the skills necessary to succeed in college or the workforce.
“A high school diploma is a ticket to a better life for our kids, and when our state produces more wellprepared graduates, we strengthen our workforce and our economy as well,” said Governor Susana
Martinez. “Maintaining previous growth in our graduation rate is positive news, but there is so much more
work to be done. By focusing our funding on the classroom, and on targeted efforts to directly support
students, we can expand early college high schools, combat truancy, identify strugglers early on and get
them individualized help at every stage of their schooling, better engage parents, and ensure that every
student is prepared for a productive future —whether they choose to go to college or choose to enter the
workforce.”
New Mexico’s minority populations have shown signs of strong improvement in graduation rates. For
example, disabled students in New Mexico have improved two years in a row to a rate of just over 60%, an
increase of over 13 percentage points from 2011. The state’s Hispanic students have also shown
New Mexico Public Education Department
improvement for the last two years by nearly nine percentage points, on the way to a graduation rate of 68%
- only slightly lower than the statewide average. Since 2011, New Mexico’s American Indian, African
American, Economically Disadvantaged and English Language Learners have improved 8.3, 8.5, 8.2, and
9.5 percentage points respectively.
“Raising standards, requiring accountability, and investing in reforms that get direct help to our students are
the keys to producing more graduates in New Mexico,” said PED Secretary Hanna Skandera.
Several critical reforms aimed at improving graduation rates are currently on the Governor’s agenda during
the current legislative session, including:
New Mexico’s Early Dropout Warning System—Put in place this school year, the early warning system
combines several indicators to continually inform teachers and school leaders if a student is not meeting
important graduation benchmarks as early as the 3rd grade. The legislature’s current budget proposal
removes all funding for this important program.
Early College High Schools—Community business leaders, higher education institutions, and school
districts join together to form an early college high school where students can earn college degrees and
work-ready certificates while still working on their high school diploma. In the last year, the Governor has
announced 10 new early college high schools and is supporting a second round of seed funding this year to
expand them further.
Support for College and Career Readiness—Funding for high school sophomores to take the PSAT or
PLAN assessments for free, helps students better prepare for college entry exams and assess their collegereadiness needs early in their high school years. For those students choosing to enter the workforce after
high school, this initiative also includes programs that would prepare students to earn certifications for
professional occupations.
Advanced Placement Teacher and Student Expansion— Increased participation and success in
Advanced Placement (AP) classes are key factors in helping students better achieve in high school and
become more academically and financially prepared for college. Governor Martinez supports further
expanding access to AP classes – particularly in economically disadvantage areas, and she supports
recruiting/training new AP teachers and rewarding teachers who increase the number of successful students
in AP courses.
Parent Portal—This effort would fund online portals for parents to keep track of their child’s academic
progress daily. Using this technology, parents and teachers would be able to work together more easily to
intervene earlier if a student is missing homework assignments, getting poor grades in a particular subject,
or is unexpectedly absent from class.
Truancy Reduction—Governor Martinez is supporting a measure currently before the legislature to
encourage high school students to attend class regularly. In this program, those students who are habitually
truant—meaning 10 or more unexcused absences—could risk losing their driver’s license until they return
to school.
Textbooks for the Classroom—Governor Martinez has proposed a 43 percent increase in budget dollars
dedicated to purchasing textbooks and other learning materials for our classrooms. We can’t expect our kids
to graduate with the skills and knowledge they need to succeed if they don’t have up-to-date learning
materials.
New Mexico Public Education Department
“And of course, we know that students who aren’t able to read proficiently by the end of the third grade are
four times more likely to drop out of high school,” continued Governor Martinez. “We have to get help to
struggling readers early on, and finally end the practice of simply passing students along when they haven’t
mastered the basics.”
Graduation rates by district and school are posted online at the PED website:
http://ped.state.nm.us/Graduation/index.html
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New Mexico Public Education Department