It may be the middle of summertime, but report cards came out Monday (July 9).

But they weren’t for kids. The report cards for 831 public schools in New Mexico were offically delivered for the first time, using an A-through-F grading system that passed the state legislature in 2011 under Gov. Susana Martinez and her secretary-designate at the Public Education Department (PED), Hanna Skandera.

Here’s how the taxpayer-funded elementary, middle and high schools in the state did:

*39 got A’s

*198 got B’s

*275 got C’s

*250 got D’s

*69 got F’s

How did your school do? Click here to see the results posted by the PED.

This is the second set of grades to be released. A preliminary group of grades for each school were released back in January but this new set of grades marks the official results for the past school year.

The number of schools getting A’s fell from 73 in the preliminary assessment to 39 while the number of schools getting F’s dropped from 89 to 69. All told, 62 percent of the public schools received a C or better.

The grading system has been touted as a way for parents to better understand how the schools in the state are serving their kids. Prior this, schools were basically judged on a pass-fail system that simply determined if they met Adequate Yearly Progress or not.

The 2011 law passed despite opposition from teacher’s unions and as recently as last month, a committee meeting hearing by the Legislative Education Study Committee was marked by Republicans as well as Democrats expressing concern over how the grades are formulated. Some legislators, such as Sen. Howie Morales (D-Silver City), worry that students who go to schools that receive D’s and F’s might be stigmatized.

But the PED included a PowerPoint presentation on its website explaining step by step how the numbers are derived and Skandera said that under the No Child Left Behind Act, about 98 percent of New Mexico’s schools would have received failing grades for the year.

Martinez — who is also calling on legislators to pass additional education reforms — told Capitol Report New Mexico the A-F system is part of a larger movement to pull New Mexico up in national educational rankings, where it has consistently finished in the bottom five in the nation:

How are the scores calculated? Here’s a breakdown for elementary and middle schools: (Click on the graphic to view it unobstructed.)

And for high schools: (Click on the graphic to view it unobstructed.)