30-01-2025
New Mexico students continue to struggle since pandemic, national test scores show
Jan. 29—New Mexico students, including those in Albuquerque, have not recovered academically from the pandemic, according to newly released test scores often called "The Nation's Report Card."
The scores released Wednesday from the National Assessment of Educational Progress show declines in reading and math scores among fourth grade and eighth grade students in the state between 2024 and 2019.
NAEP, a congressionally mandated assessment for decades, assesses how students perform over time. The test is administered every two years during the spring semester to a representative sample of students in each state. Students took the NAEP digitally for the first time in 2024, according to Albuquerque Public Schools Board President Danielle Gonzales, who sits on the board for the test.
"I think across the board, it's just bad news; it's just sobering and disheartening and should be a wake-up call to everybody," Gonzales said.
Eighth graders in the state saw a 13-point decline in their math scores between 2019 and 2024. Fourth graders saw a 7-point decline in math scores during the same time period.
Fourth graders and eighth graders in the state saw their reading scores on the assessment decline by 7 points between 2019 and 2024.
In Albuquerque, the declines did not reach the double digits, but showed APS students' struggles since the pandemic. Fourth graders saw their NAEP reading scores decline by 7 points between 2019 and 2024, while eighth graders saw a 5-point decline in their reading scores on the assessment over the same time period.
APS fourth graders saw their math proficiency decline from 30% to 26% over a five-year period since 2024. Eighth graders declined in math proficiency by three points, from 20% to 17%, over the same time period.
Overall, in math, fourth and eighth graders in New Mexico only outperformed Puerto Rico, according to NAEP data.
Eighth graders in the state tied for last in reading with Oklahoma, West Virginia and Alaska, the data said.
But for APS students, there was some good news when their NAEP scores were compared to 26 large urban districts included in the Trial Urban Districts Assessment, commonly known as TUDA. APS tied for second in eighth-grade reading.
While the U.S. Department of Education called the nationwide scores "heartbreaking" and New Mexico activist groups expressed concern for being "dead last once again," Albuquerque Public Schools said in a news release on Wednesday that the school district's NAEP scores have not significantly increased or declined since 2022 or 2019.
APS Superintendent Gabriella Blakey called the results "important" to use as "another data point we can use to look at progress." Blakey was unavailable for comment Wednesday, according to APS spokesperson Martin Salazar.
Gonzales said the NAEP scores should be "taken seriously," but the declines should not be blamed solely on the pandemic because she saw declines before that time.
The data's release comes against the backdrop of low student outcomes despite the state's record funding to education in recent years. The New Mexico Public Education Department is asking lawmakers for more than $5.5 billion this year. Hope Morales, executive director of Teach Plus New Mexico, a nonprofit, took aim at lawmakers on Wednesday following the scores' release.
"While our state should be commended for its record-breaking funding of education, these results show that we must do much more," Morales said in a statement.
