State Gets Mixed Return on Public School Investment

A $700 million increase in public school funding since 2003 has yielded mixed results in student performance and some state education leaders say more could be done to hold schools accountable and get better results.

Almost two-thirds of the state’s public schools are classified as “schools in need of improvement” as a result of low student test scores and failure to meet other standards under the federal No Child Left Behind Act. The 506 schools now in the school improvement cycle is twice the 236 in the cycle in 2005.

At the same time, while the percentage of eighth graders proficient in reading has grown from about 52 percent to 62 percent and the percentage for math has grown from 24 percent to 43 percent, the rates for fourth graders has remained fairly flat at about 50 percent for reading and 40 percent for math.

An LFC brief presented to the committee in August suggests, given the state’s substantial investment in the schools, schools must rethink how they spend existing funding for better results before the state expands spending.

The brief notes that, while the Public Education Department is authorized to take over schools that repeatedly fail to meet performance standards, the agency is overwhelmed with struggling schools and has yet to step in.

Stan Rounds, Las Cruces schools superintendent, told the committee federal standards are too broad, identifying schools that miss just one of 37 criteria as failing, and do little to help identify problems.

Financial bonuses in state law for schools that perform well are too small and too vague to act as an incentive, he said. The incentives program has not been funded for several years.

Winston Brooks, superintendent of the Albuquerque schools, said just 27 of the districts 131 schools met federal standards but the district met 10 of 14 performance goals it set for itself.

The distict is one of three urban districts in a national study that looks at whether several student assessments throughout the year and data-driven instruction can do more to improve student performance than the once-a-year, high-stakes assessment now in federal law.