STUDY FRAMEWORK FOR PUBLIC SCHOOL RANKINGS

HM043

HOUSE MEMORIAL 43

57
th legislature
- STATE OF NEW MEXICO -
second session
, 2026

INTRODUCED BY

Anita Gonzales

A MEMORIAL

REQUESTING THE LEGISLATIVE EDUCATION STUDY COMMITTEE AND THE
PUBLIC EDUCATION DEPARTMENT TO CONDUCT A COMPREHENSIVE STUDY ON
THE VARIANCES AND METHODOLOGIES, INCLUDING THE LEXILE
FRAMEWORK, USED TO RANK PUBLIC SCHOOL PERFORMANCE AND GROWTH IN
NEW MEXICO AND IN SURROUNDING STATES.

WHEREAS, New Mexico public schools are dedicated to
educating students at the highest possible level; and

WHEREAS, national rankings of public schools across the
United States are determined by varying factors, with
significant differences from state to state; and

WHEREAS, if there were greater equity and consistency in
the variables used for such determinations, New Mexico would
not consistently appear among the lowest-ranked states in
education; and

WHEREAS, New Mexico's public education system produces
highly accomplished educators, medical professionals, judicial
leaders, scientists and career and technical education
professionals, all of whom contribute significantly to their
communities, the state and the nation; and

WHEREAS, because New Mexico is not well served by national
rankings that do not take a deep dive into the overall
performance of New Mexico's public schools by including the
weighting of factors such as poverty and language barriers that
influence performance, New Mexico could benefit from a study of
student performance using a universal metric that is available
and used throughout New Mexico and other states; and

WHEREAS, if educational rankings were based on consistent
and universally comparable measures across states, such as the
Lexile framework, which is nationally and internationally
recognized, a more authentic picture of New Mexico's true
student proficiency and growth rates relative to the
performance of national peers could be imagined and confirmed;
and

WHEREAS, the national assessment of educational progress
provides limited state-level-only performance data and is only
administered to about one and one-half percent, or four
thousand five hundred, New Mexico students in the fourth and
eighth grades every two years, and each of the more than three
hundred thousand students in New Mexico already has multiple
data sets of Lexile metrics available; and

WHEREAS, every school district and charter school in New
Mexico already has several years' worth of relevant Lexile data
available for inclusion in a timely, longitudinal study; and

WHEREAS, the Lexile framework is used by forty-two states
in their state accountability systems, and is, to some extent,
used by all fifty states and hundreds of countries worldwide
through a variety of kindergarten through twelfth grade interim
assessments, and the Lexile framework allows educators to
immediately inform and adjust instructional practices in real
time as opposed to a static, often delayed, summative snapshot;
and

WHEREAS, a December 2025 white paper study by Evress
analytics, commissioned by the New Mexico coalition of
educational leaders, serves as a proof of concept of such a
study, examining reading ability over time using a universally
recognized measure of reading growth and proficiency;

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE HOUSE OF
REPRESENTATIVES OF THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO that the legislative
education study committee be requested to collaborate with the
public education department in conducting a comprehensive study
on the variances and methodologies used to rank public schools
in New Mexico and surrounding states and to collect and examine
the performance of New Mexico students in all school districts
and charter schools as measured by the students' Lexile scores
that can be easily compared to those of peers in other states
without conversion or policy-based biases and to present its
findings and recommendations to the New Mexico legislative
council no later than November 1, 2026; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the study examine the
differences in data between New Mexico and other states by
looking at comparable variables, including Lexile performance
data from each state for which the data is available to
generate precise performance rankings and accountability
measures, from other states and available for New Mexico from
the public education department to identify differences and to
determine if the data is evaluated equitably; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the study analyze student
achievement in mathematics and reading; dropout and graduation
rates; per-pupil funding levels; school safety indicators;
class sizes; and instructor qualifications and credentials; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that copies of this memorial be
transmitted to the director of the legislative education study
committee and the secretary of public education.

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