State's focus should be on student literacy

Set aside for a moment the political posturing and finger-pointing that quickly followed the announcement that just a fraction of New Mexico parents receive written notice when their children can’t read at the appropriate level.

Instead, focus on the kids.

Focus on the frightening statistic that 6,815 of the state’s 25,815 third-graders can’t read at grade level — roughly one out of every four, according to the short-cycle assessments districts choose, administer and report to the state.

Focus on the 96 percent of those 6,815 third-graders who can’t read who are then summarily promoted to fourth grade to continue their struggle — many en route to adding to the state’s horrific dropout numbers.

Thousands of New Mexico children are being shoved through a K-12 pipeline without ever knowing the joy of being able to read a great story, much less complete a job application.

And hundreds of millions of public dollars are being spent to shove them through that pipeline, with what can be quantified as a 26.4 percent literacy failure rate.

And all without most parents being told in writing their children need help with reading.

Yet instead of focusing on children who, by their districts’ own data, can’t read:

n American Federation of Teachers New Mexico President Stephanie Ly is using the information to advance the union’s anti-testing/anti-accountability platform by trumpeting in a news release that “standardized tests are not a meaningful, nor thorough, method to assess a student’s abilities.” That is disingenuous at best.

These short-cycle assessments are selected by districts, and assessments including the new Istation are adaptive, meaning they adjust their questions up or down based on a student’s ability to answer correctly, giving an accurate snapshot of where that student stands.

These district assessment numbers do correlate with the much-maligned PARCC assessment results — of the 6,815 third-graders who could not read according to their districts, 6,799 were Level 1 PARCC readers, i.e., they “did not meet expectations” on that test, either.

And this 26 percent illiteracy rate aligns with state graduation rates, where around 30 percent of students do not graduate in four years.

n Sen. Mimi Stewart, D-Albuquerque, is using the information to once again demand that the $2.75 billion — with a “b” — annual K-12 budget be increased and students continue to be promoted irrespective of literacy because “by the time they are 8 or 9 years old, they are part of a social group and their own cohort.”

Her stance ignores the fact that money hasn’t bought New Mexico education success yet — last year the state was 36th in annual per-pupil spending but 49th on quality of education measures. As for the cohort argument, New Mexico is struggling with a cohort of uneducated and unskilled residents that have it ranked second in the nation — for worst unemployment rate.

At the end of the day, New Mexico cannot afford to continue to focus on political posturing and finger-pointing. It needs to focus on ensuring the students who can’t read become literate.

— Albuquerque Journal