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What absolutely floors me about all this is that there is a whole class of people
who will go on endless rants blaming parents (often very accurately) but absolutely
refuse to consider the schools themselves as being a significant part of the problem.
It's as if they consider the schools to be above reproach which is patently untrue.
Nobody likes to acknowledge that the system that educated them and now educates their kids is a deficient one, whether in NM or MA or FLA
Except that the graduation rate of 56% in New Mexico is not comparable to the 76% in MA, but is inline with the 58% in FL.
Median income in NM about 52K, 65k in FL, and is 89k in MA.
Big gap in socioeconomic levels = big gap in education success.
The more money a family has, the more likely they are to expose their children to reading, travel, extracurriclar activities like sports, music and art lessons. Children who do nothing over the course of summer are at a disadvantage to students who are enrolled in activities that continue to stimulate learning...drama, camp, sports, art and educational programs.
The schools are supposed to be partnering with the parent to educate the child. No, you cannot blame one and not the other. An important fact though is that learning and education should begin before a child is old enough to be formally schooled. The school is placed in an awkward situation when one 5 year old enters with no exposure to books, language, learning and another child enters who has been exposed to these things already.
What absolutely floors me about all this is that there is a whole class of people
who will go on endless rants blaming parents (often very accurately) but absolutely
refuse to consider the schools themselves as being a significant part of the problem.
It's as if they consider the schools to be above reproach which is patently untrue.
Parents are the first to be blamed, for very good reason. Not only are they not demanding more of their kids, but they're not demanding more of the schools they pay for. I believe school boards are elected in NM as they are in other states...no? (This is a real question, I don't have kids in school in NM)
Schools also deserve a significant share of the blame -and there's plenty to go around- but people get the schools they will accept. Until the public (parents and others) demand more of the schools and students, they'll likely not get more...but it still takes two to tango.
I haven't seen much finger pointing at parents (to the exclusion of schools) in this thread so far. It seems most people realize this is a systemic problem.
Wasn't referring to just what has been posted in this thread, but the overall unwillingness
on the part of a significant number of people to ALSO acknowledge that the school
systems are deficient.
Except that the graduation rate of 56% in New Mexico is not comparable to the 76% in MA, but is inline with the 58% in FL.
Median income in NM about 52K, 65k in FL, and is 89k in MA.
Big gap in socioeconomic levels = big gap in education success.
The more money a family has, the more likely they are to expose their children to reading, travel, extracurriclar activities like sports, music and art lessons. Children who do nothing over the course of summer are at a disadvantage to students who are enrolled in activities that continue to stimulate learning...drama, camp, sports, art and educational programs.
The schools are supposed to be partnering with the parent to educate the child. No, you cannot blame one and not the other. An important fact though is that learning and education should begin before a child is old enough to be formally schooled. The school is placed in an awkward situation when one 5 year old enters with no exposure to books, language, learning and another child enters who has been exposed to these things already.
I didn't mean to point out MA specifically, only to point out that this is not a uniquely NM problem. My guess is that specific MA schools in low income areas have similar grad rates as some in NM. Just a guess.
We agree completely on the correlation between income levels and educational accomplishment.
A statistic I would like to see ( if anyone has a link please post ) is the percentage of NM HS graduates who go on to obtain a degree ( I'd like to see AA, Bachelor's, Master's, etc. )
I don't believe a HS diploma is really much to brag about, frankly.
I believe school boards are elected in NM as they are in other states...no? (This is a real question, I don't have kids in school in NM)
Rio Rancho has a five-member, elected School Board and is the statutory governing body for the school district. It has had some problems and voter turnout was dismal in the last election. I believe it was about 10% of registered voters.
I really do not know how it works in other districts.
I was involved with meetings, programs, elections etc. I am not happy with two of the board members.
(The ABQ Journal is a good newspaper and people in ABQ can be proud of it.)
The sad thing is that the inadequately prepared young woman in the story is now going to a community college that won't teach her much more.
Sorry, I do not find the ABQ Journal a good paper, it was at one time, now it is all "Hollywood".
As for the education in NM, first there has to be more emphasis on keeping kids in school and keeping young girls from thinking having babies is the way to be truely grown up. Until then things will remain the same. This is so sad.
States with high teen birth rates are the lowest on a socioeconomic scale...NM ( 64.1 per 1,000 ) , MS ( 68.4 ) , TX (63.1 ) ....lowest rates in the NE states, MA's rate is 21.3 per 1,000.
publishes a ranking of NM school districts based on standardized test scores and some really surprise me.
Roy, NM is high but only has a few students.
But places like Texico and Clayton are highly ranked -- are they really higher income than average in NM? I would not think so.
And why is Santa Fe so pathetically low? 54 out of 74? My guess is that Santa Fe is considerably above average in income for the state of NM. So why are the schools ranked so low?
What upsets me about Santa Fe is that people hardly seem to notice the low scores. There is a lit bit of attention to the high drop rates, but much less to the low scores. Sometimes the gap between Anglos and Hispanics is mentioned, but without acknowledging that scores are low for both groups.
Part of the answer for Santa Fe may be that middle class parents have given up on the public schools????
I don't know the state that well. Is there a tendency for school districts closer to Texas to do well? Is there an influence of a Texas political culture that values education more highly?
These are all questions. I sure don't know the answers.
Last edited by Santa Fe; 12-15-2009 at 08:29 PM..
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