Policy Update: New Mexico: Building on a Base

Vital Statistics
89	Public school districts
731	Public schools
317,000	K-12 enrollment
61.3%	Minority students
30%	Children in poverty
13.8%	Students with disabilities
$1.7 billion	Annual K-12 expenditures (all revenue sources)

Outside consultants fanned out across New Mexico and asked focus groups for their opinions on how to help build on the accountability plan.

That policy aims to improve and streamline the information the state education department collects so districts can spend less time compiling data and more time improving student achievement. School-level report cards are to be more user-friendly and take stock not just of test scores, attendance, and dropout figures, but also school safety and community involvement.

In the spring of last year, New Mexico students in grades 4, 6, and 8 took a new achievement test aligned with the state's content standards in reading and language arts, mathematics, science, and social studies.

Pushed by legislation passed in 1997, the state also has added a financial-incentive program to reward successful schools and interventions to help academically troubled ones.

The new accountability measures build on an existing system. For years, the state has required each district to submit a strategic plan, known as the "educational plan for student success."

Each year, the state reviews district budgets to ensure that they reflect the goals stated in the educational plan. And all of New Mexico's schools must undergo state accreditation every three years.

The state last year doled out its first payments for improvement to 105 schools--out of 731--that showed the most improvement on standardized tests from 1995-96 to 1996-97. After ranking all schools, the state cut off the award list once the schools' enrollment made up 10 percent of the state's K-12 enrollment. State officials plan to add more indicators to determine who receives the payments, which worked out to $6.87 per student at the chosen schools last year. The state hopes to stretch the legislature's $500,000 allocation over two years.

Critics say the pot of money allocated for the program is too small to be a powerful incentive, but advocates see the system as an important step toward rewarding progress.

Historically, it has been financial foul-ups that prompted the state to act; now, New Mexico is looking to intervene for academic reasons.

For schools with short-term problems, the state has organized technical-assistance teams to help plot solutions. In the coming months, the state will compile a list of schools that need intensive help.

State-sponsored diagnostic teams will evaluate those schools and offer advice. Rather than impose top-down remedies, however, state leaders left it up to individual schools to come up with improvement plans that the state monitors.

If a school has not shown enough improvement after two years, the state will step in.

But it's still not clear what form that state intervention will take. Steinhaus says that the state has the legal authority to consider what many consider to be punitive measures, such as a state takeover or "reconstitution" of a school's staff. But he thinks state leaders would prove reluctant to use such measures and probably would appeal to the local district to solve the problem on its own.

"New Mexico is pretty heavy on the process of leading the school into finding its own solution," Steinhaus says. "We're not about the threat with a big stick."

Policymakers are hopeful that New Mexico's new statewide achievement test will bring greater accountability. Part of the test is norm-referenced, meaning that the performance of New Mexico students is compared with that of peers nationwide. Part of the test is criterion-referenced--measured against state content standards and benchmarks--and includes open-ended questions that must be scored by hand.

State leaders plan to ask the legislature to expand the test beyond grades 4, 6, and 8 to include grades 3, 5, and 7.

New Mexico's high school competency exam, which students must pass to receive a diploma, has been aligned with the state's academic-content standards. Students, who first take the test in the sophomore year, have four chances to pass it before the end of senior year.

But critics continue to argue that the state has set the bar for passing too low.

In recent years, about 3 percent of seniors did not pass the test, which includes reading, writing, language arts, math, science, and social studies.

One of the most talked-about moves in the legislature last year focused on teacher pay--a sensitive topic in a state where average salaries are among the nation's lowest.

Republican Gov. Gary E. Johnson signed into law what was billed as the state's largest pay raise for teachers in 16 years. But the formula put into place to determine the raises has some wondering how many teachers actually will receive the promised 9 percent raise, says Paul Broome, a lobbyist for the New Mexico affiliate of the American Federation of Teachers. Other school employees, from bus drivers to cafeteria workers, on average should receive a 6.5 percent pay increase.

The legislature also formed a task force to look into teacher recruitment and retention, including the nagging problem of teachers who cannot afford to live in communities such as Taos and Santa Fe where housing prices have skyrocketed.

A number of bills to enhance teachers' professional development failed in the legislature. And the governor continued his trend of vetoing a project that provides financial support to teachers seeking certification from the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards.

But policymakers say they will find the NBPTS money elsewhere. And the legislature, for the first time, earmarked $3.5 million in the basic-aid formula to go to districts for professional development.

Most observers agreed that 1998 was a good year for school funding in a state where talk about resources, or a lack thereof, often dominates the education scene.

Lawmakers funneled more than $100 million in additional money to schools, a nearly 8 percent increase in state aid. Close to 47 percent of the total 1999 state budget was set aside for schools.

But the state now must grapple with a pending school finance lawsuit filed by the Zuni school district on the Zuni Indian reservation. The district wants the state to equalize state aid for building and maintaining schools, rather than rely on local property taxes to yield money for school facilities. The reservation has almost no taxable property.

Although the governor has called for his of-fice to have more of a say in education matters, Johnson was unable last year to persuade the Democratic-led legislature to grant him his wish.

A bill to hand the governor greater control over education policy failed, as did Johnson's proposal to establish private school vouchers and expand charter schools.

The legislature approved a study of the state's charter school program; the New Mexico law is considered among the nation's weakest. Lawmakers are expected to take a stab at revamping the law this year. And the governor managed to rally support for an open-enrollment bill intended to make easier an existing policy enabling students to cross district borders to attend school.

As expected, education dominated the gubernatorial race that Johnson won over Democrat Martin Chavez, who recently stepped down as the mayor of Albuquerque. Voters were faced with a stark contrast between the candidates: Johnson supports school vouchers and opposes collective bargaining for teachers; Chavez opposed vouchers and supported bargaining.