HOUSE MEMORIAL 43

57th legislature - STATE OF NEW MEXICO - second session, 2026

INTRODUCED BY

Anita Gonzales

 

 

 

 

 

A MEMORIAL

REQUESTING THE LEGISLATIVE EDUCATION STUDY COMMITTEE AND THE PUBLIC EDUCATION DEPARTMENT TO CONDUCT A COMPREHENSIVE STUDY ON THE VARIANCES AND METHODOLOGIES, INCLUDING THE LEXILE FRAMEWORK, USED TO RANK PUBLIC SCHOOL PERFORMANCE AND GROWTH IN NEW MEXICO AND IN SURROUNDING STATES.

 

     WHEREAS, New Mexico public schools are dedicated to educating students at the highest possible level; and

     WHEREAS, national rankings of public schools across the United States are determined by varying factors, with significant differences from state to state; and

     WHEREAS, if there were greater equity and consistency in the variables used for such determinations, New Mexico would not consistently appear among the lowest-ranked states in education; and

     WHEREAS, New Mexico's public education system produces highly accomplished educators, medical professionals, judicial leaders, scientists and career and technical education professionals, all of whom contribute significantly to their communities, the state and the nation; and

     WHEREAS, because New Mexico is not well served by national rankings that do not take a deep dive into the overall performance of New Mexico's public schools by including the weighting of factors such as poverty and language barriers that influence performance, New Mexico could benefit from a study of student performance using a universal metric that is available and used throughout New Mexico and other states; and

     WHEREAS, if educational rankings were based on consistent and universally comparable measures across states, such as the Lexile framework, which is nationally and internationally recognized, a more authentic picture of New Mexico's true student proficiency and growth rates relative to the performance of national peers could be imagined and confirmed; and

     WHEREAS, the national assessment of educational progress provides limited state-level-only performance data and is only administered to about one and one-half percent, or four thousand five hundred, New Mexico students in the fourth and eighth grades every two years, and each of the more than three hundred thousand students in New Mexico already has multiple data sets of Lexile metrics available; and

     WHEREAS, every school district and charter school in New Mexico already has several years' worth of relevant Lexile data available for inclusion in a timely, longitudinal study; and

     WHEREAS, the Lexile framework is used by forty-two states in their state accountability systems, and is, to some extent, used by all fifty states and hundreds of countries worldwide through a variety of kindergarten through twelfth grade interim assessments, and the Lexile framework allows educators to immediately inform and adjust instructional practices in real time as opposed to a static, often delayed, summative snapshot; and

     WHEREAS, a December 2025 white paper study by Evress analytics, commissioned by the New Mexico coalition of educational leaders, serves as a proof of concept of such a study, examining reading ability over time using a universally recognized measure of reading growth and proficiency;

     NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO that the legislative education study committee be requested to collaborate with the public education department in conducting a comprehensive study on the variances and methodologies used to rank public schools in New Mexico and surrounding states and to collect and examine the performance of New Mexico students in all school districts and charter schools as measured by the students' Lexile scores that can be easily compared to those of peers in other states without conversion or policy-based biases and to present its findings and recommendations to the New Mexico legislative council no later than November 1, 2026; and

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the study examine the differences in data between New Mexico and other states by looking at comparable variables, including Lexile performance data from each state for which the data is available to generate precise performance rankings and accountability measures, from other states and available for New Mexico from the public education department to identify differences and to determine if the data is evaluated equitably; and

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the study analyze student achievement in mathematics and reading; dropout and graduation rates; per-pupil funding levels; school safety indicators; class sizes; and instructor qualifications and credentials; and

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that copies of this memorial be transmitted to the director of the legislative education study committee and the secretary of public education.

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