The Nation’s Report Card was released this week – which tracks fourth- and eighth-grade student performance in reading and math, by state, every two years – and New Mexico sadly ranks last of all 50 states in every category, with math and reading proficiency declining substantially over the past decade. Results from the gold-standard NAEP assessment find that fewer than one in four New Mexico students are proficient in reading and math.
You can find the graphic of the day/week/month below that shows that skyrocketing public spending on education (up 64%! over the past decade) has not helped New Mexico’s public school students perform better academically. It’s as clear as day: spending is WAY up, and student math and reading continues to regress.
Graphic from Edunomics Lab at Georgetown University.As the Chamber has said for quite some time, money alone is clearly not the answer to improving our schools. We must dramatically change and improve the policies and practices of education, with a relentless focus on student learning as our North Star.
Lest anyone says “it can’t be done,” we have two recent examples of states historically “at the bottom” rocketing up the national rankings in response to dramatic policy changes. Last decade, Mississippi left states in the dust as it adopted policies requiring early learners to read by the third grade, elevating the standards of literacy instruction, and transparently tracking student performance in a way that informed and engaged parents. New Mexico had a chance to follow the same course at the time, but lawmakers and adult-focused special interests largely rejected it. The result? Mississippi students have risen academically ever since, and New Mexico students have been left behind.
More recently, in the latest NAEP results, we find that Louisiana has risen from 50th in 2019 to 16th in fourth-grade reading today. Wow! The state has also risen from 45th in 2019 to 29th in eighth-grade reading today. In math, Louisiana is ranked in the top five for growth in math proficiency and was one of only 14 states to see growth in eighth-grade math scores. Never mind that pesky pandemic – Louisiana is getting it done! Again, a no-nonsense approach to literacy instruction and elevated expectations are credited with Louisiana’s gains, as well as the state’s successful deployment of high-impact tutoring, evidence-backed curriculum, and back-to-the-basics approach in the classroom.