I am writing today to announce the closure of the New Mexico Independent. After three and a half years of operation in New Mexico, the board of the American Independent News Network, has decided to shift publication of its news…
While environmental activists played their part yesterday during demonstrations at the capitol building, going so far as to dress up as solar panels and to sing the tune of “You Are My Sunshine,” their counterparts, the anti-cap-and-trade contingency who has…
Roughly one quarter of University of New Mexico students are unimpressed with the state’s flagship public school, according to a survey that questioned college students about their higher education experiences.
New Mexico’s graduation rates rose slightly in the latest annual national report that annually tracks how many students in each state graduate high school in four years.
But the slight improvement was not enough to catapult New Mexico out of the bottom of the national rankings.
The state’s graduation rate climbed to 56 percent for the 2006 school year, from 54.1 percent in 2005, according to Diplomas Count, an annual report that is a joint project between Education Week magazine and the Editorial Projects in Education Research Center.
The slight improvement pushed New Mexico to 48th in graduation rates for the 2006 school year out of 50 states and the District of Columbia. New Mexico was 50th in graduation rates for the 2005 school year, the report shows.
New Mexico’s Secretary of Education Veronica C. García reacted to the news Tuesday.
“While progress is good, the fact remains that far too many of our children take too long or fail to graduate from high school,” García said in a press release. “This has an enormous impact on our economy and negatively impacts their future quality of life.”
Despite the slight improvement, New Mexico’s graduation rates remain well below the national average at 69.2 percent.
New Jersey topped the list, graduating 82.1 of high school students in four years. Nevada brought up the rear, graduating only 47.3 percent of its students in four years, according to the report.
The report shows that New Mexico girls graduate in four years at a higher rate than boys — 61.3 percent compared to 53.2 percent. Among ethnic and racial groups, Native Americans (49.5 percent) and blacks (49.2 percent) graduate in four years at a lower rate than Hispanics (51.6 percent), Asians (64.7 percent) and Anglos (67.8 percent), according to the report.
Under Gov. Bill Richardson, New Mexico has adopted several policies to improve graduation rates, including paying teachers more.
