Albuquerque Public Schools
Celebrating Success and Charting Our Path Forward
In her weekly message, Superintendent Gabriella Blakey welcomes new board members, reflects on the good things happening at APS and challenges staff to keep the momentum going.
Happy New Year, and welcome back! I hope your holidays were amazing and that you’re feeling invigorated to tackle the second half of the school year.
With the new year comes a newly constituted Board of Education. I want to take a moment to welcome our three new board members, Rebecca Betzen, Joshua Martinez, and Warigia Bowman, to the APS family, and to congratulate Board Member Courtney Jackson as she begins her second term. I always look forward to seeing newly elected board members take the oath of office surrounded by their families. All four were sworn in during Wednesday evening’s board meeting.
I also want to congratulate new Board President Ronalda Tome-Warito, Vice President Betzen and Board Secretary Heather Benavidez and Finance Committee Chair Bowman. They were elected to the board leadership posts by their colleagues.
I look forward to working with our entire board as we continue the pivotal work of improving outcomes for each and every one of our students.
On that note, I want to thank you, our staff, for your hard work and to celebrate some of the successes we’ve achieved in recent months.
- Reading proficiency among APS students in grades 3-8 is up nearly 5 points on the annual state assessment. Math proficiency is up more than 2 points.
- Our reading and math scores are the highest they’ve been since the state began administering the current test in 2022. And our reading scores are up 8.5 points in three years.
- A dozen of our high schools improved SAT reading scores, and four improved in math.
- Several of our schools improved their state designations. Nine schools exited CSI or MRI status — a huge accomplishment. Those schools are: Armijo Elementary, Ernie Pyle Middle School, Jefferson Middle School, Jimmy Carter Middle School, John Adams Middle School, Kit Carson Elementary, Lavaland Elementary, Pajarito Elementary and Sombra del Monte Elementary.
- Barcelona Elementary, Emerson Elementary and Manzano Mesa Elementary also improved their designations.
- We’ve seen a 4.1 percentage point increase in Goal 3, which means that students are graduating with more meaningful opportunities because they’ve acquired more industry certifications, dual credit, advanced coursework and bilingual seals.
- And we’re also seeing significant improvement in Goal 4, our skills, habits and mindsets goal.
So, again, thank you to everyone who rolled up their sleeves and did the hard work that moved the needle in these and many other areas. I urge you to continue pushing so that we can sustain the momentum and continue to improve outcomes for our students.
Transformation is happening across our district.
That includes the deeper personalized learning many of our elementary students are getting through Genius Hour and the redesign at our middle and high schools focused on making sure students feel like they belong and that the education they are receiving is relevant to them.
Real change is happening because of you.
So let’s push forward and challenge ourselves to do everything in our power to help our students develop the skills they need to succeed in the world. Let’s help them become problem solvers, collaborators, critical thinkers, innovators, good communicators, advocates and so much more!
Enjoy your weekend.