New Mexico's high school graduation rate is 76.7%, but for more than 64,000 students, it's 95%.
That's thanks to the state's Career Technical Education programs, which offer high school courses focused on career technical areas such as law enforcement, architecture, manufacturing, information technology, and health sciences, the Albuquerque Journal reports.
"They observed how millions in new state investments, and changes to graduation requirements, set up a successful path for students participating in career tech classwork that want to enter the workforce right out of high school," Janelle Taylor Garcia, the state's public education secretary, says in a press release.
The state has devoted $40 million to CTE programs since 2013, and grants have been made available at the local level, KOAT reports.
"The instruction on those areas provided students with realistic hands-on experience at school," says Taylor Garcia, who last school year visited schools in three districts.
A customized collection of grant news from foundations and the federal government from around the Web.
A Gilesgate-based shop and community facility, Hexham’s Core Music, launches a separate workshop where up to six people will be trained how to repair guitars and make ukuleles. The European Social Fund grant supported the project and has secured funds through the County Durham Communication Foundation to equip the workshop in Burn Lane.