PED urging schools to test for learning gaps

The New Mexico Public Education Department is urging all schools to test students this fall to establish a reliable baseline to combat any learning gaps that may have occurred and to guide educational catch-up efforts.

Fall testing is one strategy in a $50 million suite of supports and professional development the PED is providing to districts and charter schools to address COVID-19 pandemic-related learning gaps.

“We’re ready to support schools in fall testing,” Public Education Secretary designate Kurt Steinhaus said in a news release last week. “These tests will be used only to provide educators with a broader baseline to determine where students stand after 18 months of pandemic-related disruptions so we can address any learning gaps and assure that all our kids are on track for academic and life success.

“No single strategy is a silver bullet in addressing the effects of the pandemic on learning, and we would be nearsighted to think otherwise,” he said. “That’s why the Public Education Department has worked tirelessly to provide educators with professional development, detailed guidance, high-quality instructional materials and other tools to address learning gaps.”

Typically, students in grades three through eight take the Measures of Student Success and Achievement, or MSSA, and those in 11th grade take the SAT to measure student progress.

However, only 10% of third- to eighth-graders and only 25% of high school juniors took the tests in 2021 after the state received an accountability waiver from the U.S. Department of Education.

The waiver allowed New Mexico to test students “to the greatest extent possible” instead of meeting the usual requirement of 95% participation.

With many families still in remote learning, about 14,000 of the 143,500 enrolled students in grades three through eight participated in testing, and 6,088 of more than 24,300 11th-graders took the SAT.

While a handful of very small school districts tested all their students, more than half of New Mexico’s districts tested none. Students who took end-of-year tests performed lower than in typical years. The 25% of high school juniors who took the SAT also showed lower scores.

But because so few students tested, the results cannot be generalized to the total student population or to any subgroup of the population.

“That’s why PED is emphasizing a robust testing schedule for the fall semester so we can quickly determine a baseline for our students after the pandemic year and target our resources, including instructional time, to fill any gaps,” Public Education Deputy Secretary Gwen Perea Warniment said.

Families of the 10% of students who tested in the spring recently received Individual Score Reports, which indicate whether a student tested is on target, near target or below target in meeting grade-level standards for the test subject.

New Mexico will report assessment data to the federal government as required but with a clear communication the data is statistically unreliable for purposes of comparison.

“If the participation rate and representation thresholds are not met, aggregate information should not be used,” PED Assessment Director Lynn Vasquez said.

New Mexico educators are not waiting for fall testing data to begin the work of getting students back on track to meet and exceed academic goals. The $50 million-plus in state investments include the PED’s interactive Roadmap to Accelerated Learning and Renewal and related professional development.

Accelerated learning is an instructional framework based on the goal that all students should engage with grade-level academic work while educators provide just-in-time support for missed learning needed to do that grade-level work. It is an alternative to remediation, in which teachers focus on below-grade-level work, a strategy that could compound the effects of the pandemic.