The state Senate Finance Committee summoned five school district superintendents to the Capitol on Wednesday for a fact-finding session on student enrollment, classroom size, budget, audit updates, and math and reading proficiency.

The issue of New Mexico's new A-to-F system for grading schools ran throughout the meeting, with most of the superintendents saying they agree with the basic premise of the system but don't understand the measuring factors used to come up with the grades.

Neither, apparently, did several legislators on the committee. Sen. Carlos Cisneros, D-Questa, said many people are "confused about how the grades were calculated," and Sen. Howie Morales, D-Silver City, said, "I just don't see it as a realistic system for grading schools."

After the session, Morales said he had questions about how the Public Education Department gathered data and utilized them to assign the school grades. He said the Senate Finance Committee planned to request details on the grading formula, which, he said, the Public Education Department had so far been reluctant to release.

The five superintendents — chosen at random, according to Sen. John Arthur Smith, D-Deming, the committee chairman — were Bobbie Gutierrez of Santa Fe, Linda Hale of Hatch, Steven O'Quinn of Lovington, Vannetta Perry of Socorro and George Peru of the Cobre Consolidated School District near Bayard.

All five provided data requested, answered questions of the committee members and occasionally offered unsolicited suggestions during the roughly two-and-a-half-hour meeting.

Perry, for instance, said that while she supports the idea of merit pay for teachers based on students' academic scores — a notion being proposed by Gov. Susana Martinez and education Secretary-designate Hanna Skandera — she would like to find a way to reward teachers collectively.

In other words, if a sixth-grade class showed improvement, all sixth-grade teachers teaching that class, regardless of subject matter, should be rewarded, she said.

Gutierrez suggested legislators push to help enforce the state's compulsory attendance law to cut down on truancy and the overall dropout rate. She also said it's time for the state to find money to raise teacher salaries.

Smith, in response, said he was relieved that the five districts had not been forced to make major layoffs over the past few years, given the state of the economy.

Morales pointed out that New Mexico ranked 31st and received a C in the recent Education Weekly Quality Counts report. Gov. Martinez has often referred to New Mexico being 48th or 49th in the nation when it comes to education, which Morales said he believes isn't accurate.

First-place Maryland garnered a B-plus in the recent report, with 11th-ranked Florida — renowned for its educational-reform efforts — scoring a C-plus.

The state also received an overall C under the preliminary grades released by the state last week. Schools will receive an official grade — which could be slightly different — by next summer.

Smith said after Wednesday's session that the committee is seeking more information directly from educators in the trenches rather than Roundhouse insiders in an effort to discover flaws in the system.

"This is how we can make improvements to education, rather than just having the Public Education Department report to the Legislature on what's going on," he said.

He said he intends to make this sort of session a mainstay of legislative sessions in the future.

Contact Robert Nott at 986-3021 or rnott@sfnewmexican.com.