New Mexico students made tiny gains in literacy and dipped slightly in math proficiency last school year, according to preliminary results released Sept. 19 by the Public Education Department.
Notably, the results look slightly more favorable than those in data also released Sept.19 by the Legislative Education Study Committee, which showed 2023-24 scores flat. PED attributed the discrepancy to an error PED discovered on the data earlier this week.
Regardless, the results show that a large majority of the state’s public education students continue to fall short of grade-level proficiency. This suggests that New Mexico will remain close to the bottom nationally in student achievement.
The PED results do not include detailed demographic or grade-level breakdowns. Those results will be released on Oct. 4.
According to the PED, 39 percent of K-8 and 11th-grade students scored proficient or better on state literacy assessments, compared to 38 percent in 2023, and up from 34 percent in 2022. The LESC results showed that the literacy proficiency rate was flat at 38 percent.
In math, PED data show 23 percent of students in grades 3-8 and 11 proficient. That’s down one percentage point from 2023 and two points down from 2022. LESC numbers showed 22 percent proficient in 2024.
In grades 5, 8 and 11 science, scores were up three percentage points, from 34 percent proficient last year to 37 percent proficient in 2024.
