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APS expands career, STEM and specialty pathways, highlights transition program Outcomes Coffee
Summary
Superintendent Gabriela Duran Blakey outlined expansions to magnet, STEM and career programs — including a new IB feeder at Cleveland Middle, K‑12 environmental STEM pathways and the academies of Albuquerque — and described transition services such as Outcomes Coffee that give students on‑the‑job training.
Superintendent Gabriela Duran Blakey used the State of the District address to describe program expansions across Albuquerque Public Schools designed to connect students with college, career and hands‑on learning.
Blakey highlighted a new International Baccalaureate (IB) feeder pathway with IB at Cleveland Middle School and plans to add an elementary IB feeder; a K‑12 environmental STEM pathway at Los Padillas and Mountain View elementary through Polk Middle and Rio Grande High School that offers certificates in areas such as drone operation and sustainable agriculture; and an engineering magnet pathway at Mission Avenue, Garfield Middle School and Valley High School.
She also described College and Career High School, a partnership with Central New Mexico Community College (CNM) that allows students to take college classes tuition‑free and graduate with an associate degree or professional certificate. Blakey said that College and Career High has a graduation rate of over 96 percent. She described an Early College Academy — a Blue Ribbon school — where students take high school classes in the morning and university or CNM classes in the afternoon; that program, she said, has a 99.8 percent graduation rate.
Blakey spotlighted transition services for students aged 18–22 and the Outcomes Coffee shop the district opened last spring to provide on‑the‑job training in customer service and workplace skills for students with transition needs. "They are learning important soft skills like communicating with customers and managing difficult situations," she said of participants.
The superintendent also described the academies of Albuquerque, a high school redesign that will create career‑themed academies aligned to New Mexico workforce needs, and a middle‑school redesign in partnership with Arizona State University to reduce the dropoff that too often occurs between fifth and sixth grade. She said United Way and the nonprofit Ford NGL would convene and facilitate partners for the academies work.
Blakey framed these programs as part of the district’s effort to offer choice and career readiness for students with diverse needs and aspirations. The transcript records program descriptions and graduation‑rate figures but does not include detailed enrollment numbers, funding lines or third‑party memoranda of understanding.
