2006 New Mexico Statutes - Section 22-2C-11 — Assessment and accountability system reporting; parent survey; data system; fiscal information.

22-2C-11. Assessment and accountability system reporting; parent survey; data system; fiscal information.

A.     The department shall:

(1)     issue a state identification number for each public school student for use in the accountability data system;

(2)     adopt the format for reporting individual student assessments to parents.  The student assessments shall report each student's progress and academic needs as measured against state standards; and

(3)     adopt the format for reporting annual yearly progress of public schools, school districts and the department.  If the department has adopted a state improving schools program, the annual accountability report shall include the results of that program for each public school.  The annual accountability report format shall be clear, concise and understandable to parents and the general public.  All annual accountability reports shall ensure that the privacy of individual students is protected.

B.     Local school boards may establish additional indicators through which to measure the school district's performance in areas other than adequate yearly progress.

C.     The school district's annual accountability report shall include a report of graduation rates for each public high school in the school district.  As part of the graduation rate data, the school district shall indicate contributing factors to nongraduation such as transfer out of the school district, pregnancy, dropout and other factors as known.

D.     The school district's annual accountability report shall include the results of a survey of parents' views of the quality of their children's school.  The survey shall be conducted each year in time to include the results in the annual accountability report.  The survey shall compile the results of a written questionnaire that shall be sent home with the students to be given to their parents.  The survey may be completed anonymously.  The survey shall be no more than one page, shall be clearly and concisely written and shall include not more than twenty questions that shall be answered with options of a simple sliding scale ranging from "strongly agree" to "strongly disagree" and shall include the optional response "don't know".  The survey shall also include a request for optional written comments, which may be written on the back of the questionnaire form.  The questionnaire shall include questions in the following areas:

(1)     parent-teacher-school relationship and communication;

(2)     quality of educational and extracurricular programs;

(3)     instructional practices and techniques;

(4)     resources;

(5)     school employees, including the school principal; and

(6)     parents' views of teaching staff expectations for the students.

E.     The department shall develop no more than ten of the survey questions, which shall be reviewed by the legislative education study committee prior to implementation.  No more than five survey questions shall be developed by the local school board, and no more than five survey questions shall be developed by the staffs of each public school; provided that at least one-half of those questions shall be developed by teachers rather than school administrators, in order to gather information that is specific to the particular community surveyed.  The questionnaires shall indicate the public school site and shall be tabulated by the department within thirty days of receipt and shall be returned to the respective schools to be disseminated to all parents.

F.     The school district's annual accountability report shall be adopted by the local school board, may be published no later than November 15 of each year and may be published at least once each school year in a newspaper of general circulation in the county where the school district is located.  In publication, the report shall be titled "The School District Report Card" and disseminated in accordance with guidelines established by the department to ensure effective communication with parents, students, educators, local policymakers and business and community organizations.

G.     The annual accountability report shall include the names of those local school board members who failed to attend annual mandatory training.

H.     The annual accountability report shall include data on expenditures for central office administration and expenditures for the public schools of the school district.

I.     The department shall create an accountability data system through which data from each public school and each school district may be compiled and reviewed.  The department shall provide the resources to train school district personnel in the use of the accountability data system.

J.     The department shall verify data submitted by the school districts.

K.     At the end of fiscal year 2005, after the budget approval cycle, the department shall produce a report to the legislature that shows for all school districts using performance-based program budgeting the relationship between that portion of a school district's program cost generated by each public school in the school district and the budgeted expenditures for each public school in the school district as reported in the district's performance-based program budget.  At the end of fiscal year 2006 and subsequent fiscal years, after the budget approval cycle, the department shall report on this relationship in all public schools in all school districts in the state.

L.     When all public schools are participating in performance-based budgeting, the department shall recommend annually to the legislature for inclusion in the general appropriation act the maximum percentage of appropriations that may be expended in each school district for central office administration.

M.     The department shall disseminate its statewide accountability report to school districts; the governor, legislators and other policymakers; and business and economic development organizations.