HOUSE JOINT MEMORIAL 37

51st legislature - STATE OF NEW MEXICO - first session, 2013

INTRODUCED BY

Rick Miera

A JOINT MEMORIAL

REQUESTING THE PUBLIC EDUCATION DEPARTMENT TO ESTABLISH A WORKING RELATIONSHIP WITH SAVE THE CHILDREN TO ENSURE READING LITERACY OF INDIAN CHILDREN.

     WHEREAS, the ability of elementary school students to master reading at grade level is an indicator of future success, and studies have conclusively shown that reading proficiently by the end of third grade is a crucial marker in a child's educational development; and

     WHEREAS, student reading comprehension at the elementary school level is a major factor that influences future comprehension of other core learning subjects, and a student's reading level at the end of third grade was also shown to be a predictor of graduation and college attendance, even when demographic characteristics were included as controls; and

     WHEREAS, failure to read proficiently is linked to higher student dropout rates and suppression of individual learning potential as well as a reduction in New Mexico's competitiveness and general productivity; and

     WHEREAS, save the children is an internationally respected nonprofit organization that has delivered crucial services to children in New Mexico for sixty-four years since its response to the Navajo blizzard of 1948; and

     WHEREAS, save the children has invested millions of dollars from private sources in New Mexico over the last seven decades in programs focused on nutrition, education, child care, literacy and overall family support; and

     WHEREAS, save the children's New Mexico programs have evolved to focus on current literacy-centered school partnerships to improve the reading comprehension and literacy of Native American children in nine schools in New Mexico; and

     WHEREAS, the save the children rural literacy initiative after-school program provides the students served with the equivalent of an additional three and one-third months of academic reading instruction; and

     WHEREAS, save the children is committed to reading results that can be quantified and measured against existing state standards-based assessments and through short-cycle assessments delivered in conjunction with the program; and

     WHEREAS, save the children wishes to enhance its learning partnership with the public education department to improve literacy for Native American students, to assist with their physical fitness through its "Healthy Choices Program" and to increase cultural competency requirements by expanding its Native American after-school curriculum to include a new "Cultural Enrichment Program";

     NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO that the public education department be requested to establish a working relationship with save the children to ensure that reading literacy data collected by save the children through the department's Indian education division's rural literacy initiative, and through the STAR and accelerated reader literacy programs administered through participating Native American schools by save the children, be aligned and compared with the literacy data collected for students participating in the rural literacy initiative by the department; and

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the public education department work jointly with save the children to allow save the children to provide the funding necessary to complete the alignment of literacy data for each student in the Indian education division's rural literacy initiative with the department's standards-based assessment and common core standards measurements; and

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that copies of this memorial be transmitted to the secretary of public education and the director of save the children.

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