Is perception the reality?: Study aims to prove NM students perform better than believed | Local News | lasvegasoptic.com

Leaders in New Mexico public education say that a recent, statewide study suggests students in the Land of Enchantment are doing much better than what national tests typically portray.

The results of the study – which were published in December – reveal that reading growth among the students who were assessed “meets or exceeds national norms,” according to a press release from the New Mexico Coalition of Educational Leaders, the group that commissioned the study.

According to the press release, the study shows that New Mexico sets a higher bar for reading proficiency and that its proficiency rates would “rise sharply” if it were to follow the standards of other states. 

“Everybody hears the narrative (that) New Mexico is dead last in multiple categories, especially education,” said Lee White, who spearheaded the study. White serves as superintendent of Loving Municipal Schools and is president-elect of the New Mexico Superintendents Association, which is a part of NMCEL.

According to information posted on nationsreportcard.gov, New Mexico students consistently rank below the national average in areas such as science, math and reading. The most recent year for which information is available is 2024.

Information on the website states that the Nation’s Report Card is a national assessment of student achievement. It is based on data collected via the National Assessment of Educational Progress, a nationwide student assessment.

White said he has visited classrooms in different school districts throughout the state and witnessed “great teaching going on.” He said the experience made him wonder how it was possible that New Mexico was considered to be so far behind in national rankings. 

White discussed the matter with other leaders involved in the state’s public education, including Kevin Summers, who serves on the NMCEL board and is the executive director of data and accountability for Clovis Municipal Schools. 

Summers and White noted that Lexile data – a rubric that measures reading proficiency – is gathered for all students in the United States and worldwide. Lexile is not a test in and of itself, Summers said, but rather it is a metric within standardized tests that can measure a student’s reading ability.

Because Lexile is the same from state to state, White said that it “is the only true measure that gives us comparable data from state to state.” Furthermore, as noted in the study’s introductory abstract, measuring reading proficiency is important as it is “a critical predictor of long-term academic and career outcomes.” 

White said he met with Parsa Rezvani, CEO of Everess Analytics, and enlisted the company’s help in analyzing Lexile data across the state. White said that Rezvani agreed to analyze the data free of charge, under the condition that at least two school districts in every region of the state participate in the assessment. 

Furthermore, White said, Rezvani requested that, no matter what, NMCEL accept the results of the study and allow Everess Analytics to publish the results. White said he told Rezvani that he “had no problem” with those terms, as he truly wanted to know how students across New Mexico were doing.

Everess Analytics assessed data from about 111,000 students – or 30 percent of the student population – in grades 3-8 from 29 school districts across the state. The school districts agreed to share Lexile data going back 10 years.

Dr. Darice Balizan, associate superintendent of West Las Vegas Schools, noted that although neither school district in Las Vegas participated in the initial study WLVS is “open to continued dialogue and future opportunities for collaboration.”

Balizan said via email that WLVS is a member of the NMCEL and is familiar with the study and its findings. 

“The study offers an important reframing of how literacy performance in New Mexico is interpreted and reported,” Balizan said. She said the study indicates that New Mexico “sets a higher bar for reading proficiency, and the findings suggest that lower reported proficiency rates may reflect higher standards rather than lower student performance.”

Balizan said that, for West Las Vegas Schools, the study’s findings reinforce what she sees in her district’s classrooms. 

“Our educators are deeply committed to high expectations and continuous improvement,” Balizan said. “We strive to help students read at increasingly complex levels over time, which is critical to long-term academic success.”

“We agree, New Mexico is not last,” Balizan went on to state.

The Optic was unable to reach leadership with Las Vegas City Schools for comment prior to its print deadline.

Everess Analytics assessed students from districts close to Las Vegas, including Raton Public Schools, Santa Fe Public Schools and Santa Rosa Consolidated Schools.

With Lexile data in hand, Everess Analytics – and White – were able to compare the reading proficiency of New Mexico students to that of their counterparts in other states. 

“The results are outstanding,” White said of what the study revealed. “We outperform the national average in Lexile.”

Everess Analytics compiled the reasoning behind the study, its framework and its findings, in a white paper titled “New Mexico’s Path to Reading Proficiency: A Lexile Growth Perspective.”

White said the students’ Lexile results also appear to indicate that student expectations in New Mexico for assessment are “much higher than the national average.” He noted that each state picks its own proficiency range.

“We expect our students to do more and perform more than most of the rest of the country,” White said. “That’s not a bad thing. I don’t want to change our expectations. I like high expectations. But I want a truer story told.”

For White and for Summers, the recent study differs from what is revealed by the National Assessment of Educational Progress, which Summers said is typically used to rank education in New Mexico and compare it to other states. 

“Typically, when we get that narrative that New Mexico’s last, it comes from the Nation’s Report Card, which gets its data directly sent from the federal government,” Summers said. “It’s the NAEP score that they’re basing that ranking on.”

NAEP assesses far fewer students compared to the Everess Analytics study, Summers said. He said NAEP assesses about 1.5 percent of New Mexico’s students, roughly 4,500 children. He noted that educators do not know what is on the NAEP and do not get access to school-level or student-level results; all they have access to is the data that NAEP reveals at the state level. 

White said he’s been in education almost 30 years and has never seen a NAEP test and has never seen the results for a specific student. School districts are chosen randomly to do the NAEP, but White said his district has not done the assessment in six years.

“But yet we’re told because of NAEP we’re terrible,” White said. “That’s not a fair comparison if you’ve never tested any of the kids in Loving to actually say that teachers are doing horrible.”

“It’s time for a change, it’s time to look at things in a real light, a truthful light,” White said.Leaders in New Mexico public education say that a recent, statewide study suggests students in the Land of Enchantment are doing much better than what national tests typically portray.

The results of the study – which were published in December – reveal that reading growth among the students who were assessed “meets or exceeds national norms,” according to a press release from the New Mexico Coalition of Educational Leaders, the group that commissioned the study.

According to the press release, the study shows that New Mexico sets a higher bar for reading proficiency and that its proficiency rates would “rise sharply” if it were to follow the standards of other states. 

“Everybody hears the narrative (that) New Mexico is dead last in multiple categories, especially education,” said Lee White, who spearheaded the study. White serves as superintendent of Loving Municipal Schools and is president-elect of the New Mexico Superintendents Association, which is a part of NMCEL.

According to information posted on nationsreportcard.gov, New Mexico students consistently rank below the national average in areas such as science, math and reading. The most recent year for which information is available is 2024.

Information on the website states that the Nation’s Report Card is a national assessment of student achievement. It is based on data collected via the National Assessment of Educational Progress, a nationwide student assessment.

White said he has visited classrooms in different school districts throughout the state and witnessed “great teaching going on.” He said the experience made him wonder how it was possible that New Mexico was considered to be so far behind in national rankings. 

White discussed the matter with other leaders involved in the state’s public education, including Kevin Summers, who serves on the NMCEL board and is the executive director of data and accountability for Clovis Municipal Schools. 

Summers and White noted that Lexile data – a rubric that measures reading proficiency – is gathered for all students in the United States and worldwide. Lexile is not a test in and of itself, Summers said, but rather it is a metric within standardized tests that can measure a student’s reading ability.

Because Lexile  is the same from state to state, White said that it “is the only true measure that gives us comparable data from state to state.” Furthermore, as noted in the study’s introductory abstract, measuring reading proficiency is important as it is “a critical predictor of long-term academic and career outcomes.” 

White said he met with Parsa Rezvani, CEO of Everess Analytics, and enlisted the company’s help in analyzing Lexile data across the state. White said that Rezvani agreed to analyze the data free of charge, under the condition that at least two school districts in every region of the state participate in the assessment. 

Furthermore, White said, Rezvani requested that, no matter what, NMCEL accept the results of the study and allow Everess Analytics to publish the results. White said he told Rezvani that he “had no problem” with those terms, as he truly wanted to know how students across New Mexico were doing.

Everess Analytics assessed data from about 111,000 students – or 30 percent of the student population – in grades 3-8 from 29 school districts across the state. The school districts agreed to share Lexile data going back 10 years.

Dr. Darice Balizan, associate superintendent of West Las Vegas Schools, noted that although neither school district in Las Vegas participated in the initial study WLVS is “open to continued dialogue and future opportunities for collaboration.”

Balizan said via email that WLVS is a member of the NMCEL and is familiar with the study and its findings. 

“The study offers an important reframing of how literacy performance in New Mexico is interpreted and reported,” Balizan said. She said the study indicates that New Mexico “sets a higher bar for reading proficiency, and the findings suggest that lower reported proficiency rates may reflect higher standards rather than lower student performance.”

Balizan said that, for West Las Vegas Schools, the study’s findings reinforce what she sees in her district’s classrooms. 

“Our educators are deeply committed to high expectations and continuous improvement,” Balizan said. “We strive to help students read at increasingly complex levels over time, which is critical to long-term academic success.”

“We agree, New Mexico is not last,” Balizan went on to state.

The Optic was unable to reach leadership with Las Vegas City Schools for comment prior to its print deadline.

Everess Analytics assessed students from districts close to Las Vegas, including Raton Public Schools, Santa Fe Public Schools and Santa Rosa Consolidated Schools.

With Lexile data in hand, Everess Analytics – and White – were able to compare the reading proficiency of New Mexico students to that of their counterparts in other states. 

“The results are outstanding,” White said of what the study revealed. “We outperform the national average in Lexile.”

Everess Analytics compiled the reasoning behind the study, its framework and its findings, in a white paper titled “New Mexico’s Path to Reading Proficiency: A Lexile Growth Perspective.”

White said the students’ Lexile results also appear to indicate that student expectations in New Mexico for assessment are “much higher than the national average.” He noted that each state picks its own proficiency range.

“We expect our students to do more and perform more than most of the rest of the country,” White said. “That’s not a bad thing. I don’t want to change our expectations. I like high expectations. But I want a truer story told.”

For White and for Summers, the recent study differs from what is revealed by the National Assessment of Educational Progress, which Summers said is typically used to rank education in New Mexico and compare it to other states. 

“Typically, when we get that narrative that New Mexico’s last, it comes from the Nation’s Report Card, which gets its data directly sent from the federal government,” Summers said. “It’s the NAEP score that they’re basing that ranking on.”

NAEP assesses far fewer students compared to the Everess Analytics study, Summers said. He said NAEP assesses about 1.5 percent of New Mexico’s students, roughly 4,500 children. He noted that educators do not know what is on the NAEP and do not get access to school-level or student-level results; all they have access to is the data that NAEP reveals at the state level. 

White said he’s been in education almost 30 years and has never seen a NAEP test and has never seen the results for a specific student. School districts are chosen randomly to do the NAEP, but White said his district has not done the assessment in six years.

“But yet we’re told because of NAEP we’re terrible,” White said. “That’s not a fair comparison if you’ve never tested any of the kids in Loving to actually say that teachers are doing horrible.”

“It’s time for a change, it’s time to look at things in a real light, a truthful light,” White said.

- Vanessa Macie - Las Vegas Optic, NM local news.

Is perception the reality?: Study aims to prove NM students perform better than believed | Local News | lasvegasoptic.com