Albuquerque Public Schools has released a 5-year strategic plan for improving student outcomes. The district says over 2,000 students, staff and community members weighed in on the document and it’s the first time its administration and school board have collaborated in this way. Several of the goals focus in on the state’s most underserved students.
The “Emerging Stronger” plan has four goals related to reading, math, college and career readiness, and life skills.
The district aims to increase reading proficiency for third graders and math proficiency for eighth graders by 10 points. Specifically, it’ll measure improvement among students the Yazzie-Martinez ruling identified as receiving an insufficient education, as well as Black students.
A judge ruled in the Yazzie case that the state violated the constitutional rights of Native American students as well as those learning English, living with disabilities or from families with low incomes.
“If we can improve instruction for those who are struggling, those who are not will also benefit,” the district wrote in the plan.
Less than 20% of APS eighth graders are where they need to be with math and only one in three third graders are meeting the mark in language arts, according to the district, which it calls “unacceptable.”
The other two goals deal with skills students take beyond APS classrooms.
By 2028, the district wants to see more graduates with college credits, industry certifications or bilingual proficiency.
APS also wants more students to embody what it calls “the skills, mindsets, and habits most aligned to life success,” which it defines as perseverance, self-regulation, self-efficacy
and social awareness.
The district plans to create a report card to track its progress and says it’s open to pivoting if an approach isn’t seeing results.
While APS says the plan is attainable with district-wide commitment, it also says executing it will be “a Herculean task.”
It's hosting two events to introduce the plan — a family and community dinner Tuesday, Aug. 29, and a summit and student panel Wednesday. Both are invitation-only.
