May 27—The state Public Education Department last week unveiled an updated version of its online portal for statewide school statistics, called New Mexico Vistas.
The revamped site’s data from the 2022-23 school year didn’t change, but many school designations were shuffled, altering the level of state support schools will be set to receive.
Twelve public schools in Santa Fe received new designations, with several schools slipping from “traditional” status, or requiring no state intervention, to needing some level of state aid to improve.
Why the sudden change in status?
The Public Education Department “needed to revise its accountability calculations” after receiving nearly 300 appeals from districts and charter schools pointing out flawed data, the department’s Research, Evaluation and Accountability Division stated in a document explaining the changes.
“The current (revised) designations for [school year] 2022 — 23 are correct,” the document says. “However, the PED recognizes its work must be viewed as a process of continuous improvement and will continue to refine its processes in the accountability cycles ahead.”
For Santa Fe Public Schools, the data is another push to improve student outcomes, Superintendent Hilario “Larry” Chavez wrote in a message to The New Mexican.
“We have seen positive movement; however, we are not content,” Chavez wrote. “Our goal is to continue to improve each and every year.”
School officials have long voiced concerns about the accuracy of the data and designations included in the Public Education Department’s Vistas system.
Agency records obtained by The New Mexican show several school districts — including Santa Fe Public Schools, Rio Rancho Public Schools, and Gallup-McKinley County Schools — filed appeals indicating errors in 2021-22 proficiency data.
In one appeal to the Public Education Department, Beata Thorstensen, the Santa Fe district’s chief of assessment and accountability, wrote, “All math and science proficiency data appear to have been scrambled for ALL schools. … This appears to also have impacted school designations, removing underperforming schools from our list. This is a critical issue that requires immediate remedy.”
The revised Vistas designations resulted in a dip in classifications and additional state resources for several local schools.
Originally, Amy Biehl, Aspen and Gonzales community schools, Ortiz Middle School and Ramirez Thomas Elementary School were categorized as “traditional” schools. Now, all five are labeled for “additional targeted support and improvement,” meaning they serve one or more student subgroups performing in the lowest 5% of all public schools in the state.
El Camino Real Academy and Salazar Elementary School dropped from the additional targeted support level to “comprehensive support,” or schools in the bottom 5% of low-income schools overall.
It’s not all bad news, though. Four local schools improved their scores in the latest revision, with Santa Fe High School and Nina Otero Community School achieving “traditional” status. Desert Sage Academy moved from “comprehensive support school” to the second-lowest “additional targeted support” rung.
The award for most improved school unquestionably goes to Early College Opportunities High School, which earned “spotlight” status — putting it among the top 25% of New Mexico schools for the first time. The honor comes as the school enjoys a newly constructed campus on Zia Road.
The revisions also allowed the education department to update New Mexico Vistas’ user interface. Several educators connected to Teach Plus New Mexico — the local affiliate of a nationwide advocacy and leadership development organization for teachers — offered their feedback. The group urged the department to expand comparison options across schools, districts and the state, and to improve user-friendliness across the site, Teach Plus New Mexico Executive Director Hope Morales said in a statement.
“The revisions made to NMVistas will serve to facilitate a deeper understanding of school performance among families and other stakeholders, fostering collaborative efforts toward statewide system improvements,” she said.
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