HM 43

                                1  HOUSE MEMORIAL 43
                                2    57TH LEGISLATURE - STATE OF NEW MEXICO - SECOND SESSION, 2026
                                3  INTRODUCED BY
                                4  Anita Gonzales
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                                10  A MEMORIAL
                                11   REQUESTING THE LEGISLATIVE EDUCATION STUDY COMMITTEE AND THE
                                12   PUBLIC EDUCATION DEPARTMENT TO CONDUCT A COMPREHENSIVE STUDY ON
                                13   THE VARIANCES AND METHODOLOGIES, INCLUDING THE LEXILE
                                14   FRAMEWORK, USED TO RANK PUBLIC SCHOOL PERFORMANCE AND GROWTH IN
                                15   NEW MEXICO AND IN SURROUNDING STATES.
                                16
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                                17        WHEREAS, New Mexico public schools are dedicated to
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                                18   educating students at the highest possible level; and
                                19        WHEREAS, national rankings of public schools across the
                                20   United States are determined by varying factors, with
                                21   significant differences from state to state; and
                                22        WHEREAS, if there were greater equity and consistency in
                                23   the variables used for such determinations, New Mexico would
                                24   not consistently appear among the lowest-ranked states in
                                25   education; and
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                                1  WHEREAS, New Mexico's public education system produces
                                2    highly accomplished educators, medical professionals, judicial
                                3    leaders, scientists and career and technical education
                                4    professionals, all of whom contribute significantly to their
                                5    communities, the state and the nation; and
                                6  WHEREAS, because New Mexico is not well served by national
                                7    rankings that do not take a deep dive into the overall
                                8    performance of New Mexico's public schools by including the
                                9    weighting of factors such as poverty and language barriers that
                                10   influence performance, New Mexico could benefit from a study of
                                11   student performance using a universal metric that is available
                                12   and used throughout New Mexico and other states; and
                                13  WHEREAS, if educational rankings were based on consistent
                                14   and universally comparable measures across states, such as the
                                15   Lexile framework, which is nationally and internationally
                                16   recognized, a more authentic picture of New Mexico's true
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                                17   student proficiency and growth rates relative to the
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                                18   performance of national peers could be imagined and confirmed;
                                19   and
                                20  WHEREAS, the national assessment of educational progress
                                21   provides limited state-level-only performance data and is only
                                22   administered to about one and one-half percent, or four
                                23   thousand five hundred, New Mexico students in the fourth and
                                24   eighth grades every two years, and each of the more than three
                                25   hundred thousand students in New Mexico already has multiple
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                                1    data sets of Lexile metrics available; and
                                2  WHEREAS, every school district and charter school in New
                                3    Mexico already has several years' worth of relevant Lexile data
                                4    available for inclusion in a timely, longitudinal study; and
                                5  WHEREAS, the Lexile framework is used by forty-two states
                                6    in their state accountability systems, and is, to some extent,
                                7    used by all fifty states and hundreds of countries worldwide
                                8    through a variety of kindergarten through twelfth grade interim
                                9    assessments, and the Lexile framework allows educators to
                                10   immediately inform and adjust instructional practices in real
                                11   time as opposed to a static, often delayed, summative snapshot;
                                12   and
                                13  WHEREAS, a December 2025 white paper study by Evress
                                14   analytics, commissioned by the New Mexico coalition of
                                15   educational leaders, serves as a proof of concept of such a
                                16   study, examining reading ability over time using a universally
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                                17   recognized measure of reading growth and proficiency;
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                                18  NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE HOUSE OF
                                19   REPRESENTATIVES OF THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO that the legislative
                                20   education study committee be requested to collaborate with the
                                21   public education department in conducting a comprehensive study
                                22   on the variances and methodologies used to rank public schools
                                23   in New Mexico and surrounding states and to collect and examine
                                24   the performance of New Mexico students in all school districts
                                25   and charter schools as measured by the students' Lexile scores
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                                1    that can be easily compared to those of peers in other states
                                2    without conversion or policy-based biases and to present its
                                3    findings and recommendations to the New Mexico legislative
                                4    council no later than November 1, 2026; and
                                5  BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the study examine the
                                6    differences in data between New Mexico and other states by
                                7    looking at comparable variables, including Lexile performance
                                8    data from each state for which the data is available to
                                9    generate precise performance rankings and accountability
                                10   measures, from other states and available for New Mexico from
                                11   the public education department to identify differences and to
                                12   determine if the data is evaluated equitably; and
                                13        BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the study analyze student
                                14   achievement in mathematics and reading; dropout and graduation
                                15   rates; per-pupil funding levels; school safety indicators;
                                16   class sizes; and instructor qualifications and credentials; and
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                                17        BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that copies of this memorial be
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                                18   transmitted to the director of the legislative education study
                                19   committee and the secretary of public education.
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