Category: Updates

Yet another report makes it abundantly clear that locking kids out of classrooms during the Pandemic has had an incredibly detrimental impact on student outcomes.

As we’ve noted repeatedly, New Mexico students lost more classroom time than students in all but 5 other states last year. The new report which is discussed in this Politico article is based on Performance on the iReady test administered nationally by Curriculum Associates.

Quoting from the piece, scores “plummeted for all students compared to the last time it was given before the health crisis began. Nearly three million students took the test both times. But achievement among children who attend schools with large proportions of Black and Latino students suffered the most, the data shows.”

“In reading, declines were nearly twice as steep for students at majority Latino schools as they were for children at majority white schools.”

A study we reported on just last week ALSO highlighted learning loss thanks to the abandonment of in-person learning. 

A new report by Tara Beam, an adjunct scholar with OAK NM outlines some of the myriad ways in which Critical Race Theory (CRT) concepts already permeate New Mexico curriculums thanks to the 2010 adoption of Common Core State Standards.

In her brief Beam outlines how anti-American or just plain trivial texts and subjects in history receive precedence in CURRENT curriculum over foundational documents of American history and Western civilization.

While Beam notes and explains some of the ways in which PED’s proposed curriculum standards would worsen the situation, she focuses most of her attention on how parents, teachers, and average citizens can push back and assert control over what is taught in New Mexico classrooms.

The full report is available here.

Here is a link to a writeup of a new study from the National Bureau of Economic Research. The chart below really illustrates the point:

But, it is notable that NONE of the states studied above saw students lose as much time in the classroom as did New Mexico students who lost the 6th-most classroom time in the nation.

The critical statistic is the 2019 Pass Rate and 2021 Pass Rate columns which show significant declines in EVERY SINGLE STATE studied. The only states that saw reasonably small declines were Wyoming and Florida, both of which kept kids in physical classrooms at a much higher level (above 90%) than other states.

According to the report:

Researchers estimated that “offering full in-person instruction rather than fully hybrid or virtual instruction reduces test score losses in math by 10.1 percentage points (on the base of 14.2 percentage points),” and that with English language arts, “the loss is reduced in fully in-person settings by 3.2 percentage points.”

We can only imagine the impact in New Mexico, which already ranks 50th in education and lost more classroom time than any of the studied states.

Were you appalled by the efforts of Gov. Lujan Grisham and her Secretary of Education to replace the entire Floyd, NM school board for having the temerity to stand up in opposition to her school mask mandate? I was.

The Floyd issue is tied up in court, but quietly, the PED is proposing some rule changes to make it  more difficult for local shool boards to defend themselves against the PED by limiting the types of attorneys they can use to defend themselves and forcing school board members to pay for them by themselves (as opposed to the district).

You can download the proposed rule on this issue here.

PED is NOW accepting public comments and will do so until November 12, 2021 at 5 p.m. (MDT). There will be a public hearing  Friday, November 12 from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. (MDT) at Mabry Hall in Santa Fe.

All written rule feedback should be submitted to:

• Email: rule.feedback@state.nm.us
• Fax: 505-827-6520
• Mail: Policy Division, Public Education Department, 300 Don Gaspar Ave., Santa Fe, NM 87501

Below is a brief discussion of some of the important changes PED is requesting. The proposed rule is: 6.30.6 NMAC, Suspension of Authority of a Local School Board:

1. The proposed rule makes it explicitly clear that while a local school board  member has a right to counsel, the school board member must use a legal counsel that is independent of the local school board’s counsel.  The current rule only says a local school board member has a right to counsel, no restrictions are provided.
2. Similarly, the proposed rule states that a local school board member must pay their own expenses related to their hearing defense and that the local school districts shall not pay for such expenses.  The current rule makes no reference as to who should or should not pay the legal expenses.  (I cannot recall if the Floyd school members paid for their own legal costs or if the local school district paid.)

The following appeared in the Albuquerque Journal on October 10, 2021.

This fall, voters in the Albuquerque Public Schools service area have some important issues to consider when they vote. For starters, it has been well-documented that in each of the four seats up for election this fall, none of the incumbents will appear on the ballot. In other words, the APS school board is in for some significant changes, no matter what the results are.

What that change looks like will be up to the voters.

My organization, OAKNM, sent surveys to all candidates for school board in APS and numerous other larger school districts across the state to ask for candidates’ views on big issues facing school boards. In Albuquerque, these included everything from splitting APS into multiple districts to masking kids and the role of charter schools.

Whether candidates completed these and other surveys or not, there are two clear sets of candidates: those who support and receive support from the unions and those who don’t. Typically, union support has been the deciding factor in local school board races, but, with this election occurring at the same time as the Albuquerque mayoral and City Council elections – not to mention the United soccer stadium vote – everyone expects higher turnout than seen in the past.

As an education reformer, this makes me happy. Given everything our kids have gone through over the past 18 months, our education system, already ranked at the bottom, failed our children completely. Of course, we don’t know just how badly because the state’s standardized test for 2020 and 2021 was administered to only a fraction of the student population, or not at all. Estimates vary, but we’ve seen figures for lost time ranging from a few weeks to more than a year.

Do you believe the situation was handled well? Do you think it was appropriate for unions to play an outsized role in reopening, masking and even vaccination policies during the pandemic? Are you concerned that the Sheryl Williams Stapleton scandal is only the tip of the iceberg? If so, you need to vote in this election and get yourself educated on the issues facing the district.

In addition to the school board races, APS has quietly placed (a $200 million general obligation bond and) a property tax question on ballots. The question on the ballot asks for a tax levy of $3.838 per $1,000 of net taxable value on residential property and $4.344 on non-residential. The question(s are) with billions of stimulus money flowing into New Mexico schools, students fleeing APS in droves and the Legislature sitting on “more money than they know what to do with,” per the Senate Finance Committee chairman, why is APS asking for (more)?

Here in Albuquerque and across New Mexico, education reform is on the ballot. Voters need to get educated about the candidates and issues that will, at long last, pull our state out of last place. Get out to vote and take a friend or relative with you.

Opportunity for All Kids New Mexico, www.oaknm.org, is an organization dedicated to reforming New Mexico’s education system.

This week RGF President Paul Gessing had an opportunity to provide (School) Choice Media’s Story of the Day. The story was regarding a student in a liberal part of Wyoming (Laramie) that was arrested and pulled out of the school in handcuffs for refusing to wear a mask.

You can watch the short story below.

“Student Arrested After Standoff Over Laramie High School Mask Requirement” – @PGessing of @RioGrandeFndn has the #StoryOfTheDay.#SchoolMaskMandates pic.twitter.com/EsMq3sOezb

— Choice Media (@ChoiceMediatv) October 12, 2021

Please see the following comments regarding the Public Education Department’s proposed social security curriculum. (Here is a PDF of our comments). See the actual comments below the discussion of HOW to submit your own!

PED is NOW accepting public comments and will do so until November 12, 2021 at 5 p.m. (MDT). There will be a public hearing  Friday, November 12 from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. (MDT) at Mabry Hall in Santa Fe.

All written rule feedback should be submitted to:

• Email: rule.feedback@state.nm.us
• Fax: 505-827-6520
• Mail: Policy Division, Public Education Department, 300 Don Gaspar Ave., Santa Fe, NM 87501

After a careful examination of New Mexico’s proposed social studies curriculum there are numerous components of that curriculum which disturbingly reflect Critical Race Theory (CRT). Large numbers of Americans of all political leanings oppose CRT and its divisive approach to history. Therefore this proposed curriculum needs to be significantly revised or completely abandoned.

CRT is not America’s actual history. Rather, it is a worldview, unsupportable by the evidence, in which all of America’s key institutions are inextricably rooted in white supremacy. It is an activist agenda demanding the destruction of those institutions.

CRT holds that racism is embedded deeply in American life, unconsciously into white American psyches, and that it is impossible for white Americans to understand their own racism or that of the system, let alone to remove it. The only solution: tearing away the only systems that have ever provided widespread liberty and prosperity. As CRT founder Derrick Bell wrote, “The whole liberal worldview of private rights and public sovereignty mediated by the rule of law needed to be exploded.”

1. In Ethics, Cultural and Identity Studies there is a requirement that students assess how social policies and economic forces “offer privilege or systemic inequity in accessing social, political, and economic opportunity.” This is classic CRT theology. 6.29.11.23(A)(1)(d)
2. Throughout the entire social studies curriculum for K-8 grades, there is a continue focus on the differences, rather than the similarities, among various groups of people.  This, too, is classic CRT as the purpose is to divide people among various minority groups, which can quickly lead to victimhood.
3. There are also numerous examples where a teacher can impose the notion of “justice and fairness,” unequal power relations, “past and current injustices”, although those terms are open to many interpretations. These phrases are also classic CRT as it perpetrates the sense of inequity in our society along racial lines. 6.29.11.11(E)(2) and 6.29.11.15(E)(7) and 6.29.11.15(E)(12)
4. Within High School U.S. History, a requirement that students “evaluate what an efficient, equitable, and just economic system would look like in the U.S.”  This is again classic CRT as it imposes the belief on students that our current capitalistic system must be eliminated to eliminate racism. 6.29.11.21(A)(1)(i)
5. Within High School U.S. History, students are required to create an action plan for a more just and equitable America for diverse groups of people including Native Americans and African Americans.  This is another CRT theology component in that America is automatically unjust and inequitable to various minority groups.  6.29.11.21(A)(3)(kk)
6. Within High School U.S. History, students are required to examine the past, present, and future of gun violence in the U.S. Of course, there are no standards provided to discuss the constitutional rights of gun owners, or that individuals, not an inanimate object, are responsible for gun violence in America or how gangs, drug cartels, etc. have resulted in greater gun violence in our society. No positives regarding gun usage by women or minority groups are put forth. 6.29.11.21(A)(1)(gg)
7. In the 5^th Grade, students are required to describe how inequity in the U.S. laid the foundation for conflict that continues today. Another classic example of CRT as it stresses racial disparity in terms of inequality. 6.29.11.13(A)(3)(b)
8. Within High school U.S. History, students must examine the short-and long-term effects of CIA involvement in Latin America. How about pairing this with a discussion of Communism and the negative impact it has had in Cuba and other Latin American nations. 6.29.11.21(A)(1)(x)
9. In the 7thGrade, students must compare the patterns of exploration, destruction and occupation of the Americas by the Spaniards. 6.29.11.15(D)(3)(g)
10. Within High School U.S. History, students must explore the movement against police brutality.  6.29.11.21(A)(3)(mm)

The novelist William Faulkner wrote, “The past is never dead. It’s not even past.” It is true that any social studies curriculum will have its flaws and oversights. History and social studies are inherently controversial subjects. But, selectively “studying” our collective history and requiring it to be taught in a highly politicized and divisive way is wrong and it has no place in our public schools.

All I ask is that New Mexico’s schools do their best to objectively teach America’s real history. Slavery and conquest are certainly part of that, but so is America as a beacon of freedom for people from around the world. The flaws of our Founding Fathers are worth discussing, but so are the miracles of the Constitution, Declaration, and the eventual fulfillment of the “promissory note” for ALL Americans inherent in those documents.

Millions of people around the world have and would still like to come to America because it is a unique nation founded on the idea of liberty, not slavery as the CRT theorists would insist. New Mexico’s social studies curriculum should at least allocate as much time and study to those things that make America a beacon of hope and freedom as those warts which hold us back from building a more perfect union.

At OAK NM we remain open-minded about new PED Secretary Kurt Steinhaus. But, if this is in fact what he just told the LESC (the education-oriented arm of the Legislature) he is “out to lunch.”

According to data from none other than the NEA, New Mexico’s teacher pay is somewhat lower than average (ranked 32nd overall). Keep in mind that New Mexico has a low cost of living relative to other states. Doubling New Mexico’s average teacher salary woulndn’t just make our teacher pay “competitive.” It would blow #1 New York out of the water.

Does Steinhaus REALLY not know these basic statistics? Hopefully he has some more cost-effective and creative ways to getting New Mexico out of dead-last in education.   

Gov. Lujan Grisham’s Education Department just released its new social studies standards. You can find all 122 pages here. As described below the standards are rife with Critical Race Theory (CRT) themes and other questionable material that may not fit squarely within CRT (read more on what that means here).

Before getting into some of the specific problems with the proposed standards, PED is NOW accepting public comments and will do so until November 12, 2021 at 5 p.m. (MDT). There will be a public hearing  Friday, November 12 from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. (MDT) at Mabry Hall in Santa Fe.

All written rule feedback should be submitted to:

• Email: rule.feedback@state.nm.us
• Fax: 505-827-6520
• Mail: Policy Division, Public Education Department, 300 Don Gaspar Ave., Santa Fe, NM 87501

Here is a rundown of SOME of the problems with the proposed standards:

1. In Ethics, Cultural and Identity Studies there is a requirement that students assess how social policies and economic forces “offer privilege or systemic inequity in accessing social, political, and economic opportunity.” This is classic CRT theology.   6.29.11.23(A)(1)(d)
2. Throughout the entire social studies curriculum for K-8 grades, there is a continue focus on the differences, rather than the similarities, among various groups of people.  This, too, is classic CRT as the purpose is to divide people among various minority groups, which can quickly lead to victimhood.
3. There are also numerous example where a teacher can impose the notion of “justice and fairness,”  unequal power relations, “past and current injustices”, although those terms are open to many interpretations.  These phrases are also classic CRT as it perpetrates the sense of inequity in our society along racial lines.  6.29.11.11(E)(2) and 6.29.11.15(E)(7) and 6.29.11.15(E)(12)
4. Within High School U.S. History, a requirement that students “evaluate what an efficient, equitable, and just economic system would look like in the U.S.”  This is again classic CRT as it imposes the belief on students that our current capitalistic system must be eliminated in order to eliminate racism.   6.29.11.21(A)(1)(i)
5. Within High School U.S. History, students are required to create an action plan for a more just and equitable America for diverse groups of people including Native Americans and African Americans.  This is another CRT theology component in that America is automatically unjust and inequitable to various minority groups.  6.29.11.21(A)(3)(kk)
6. Within High School U.S. History, students are required to examine the past, present, and future of gun violence in the U.S.  Of course, there are no standards provided to discuss the constitutional rights of gun owners, or that individuals, not an inanimate object, are responsible for gun violence in America or how gangs, drug cartels, etc. have resulted in greater gun violence in our society. No positives regarding gun usage by women or minority groups are put forth.    6.29.11.21(A)(1)(gg)
7. In the 5^th Grade, students are  required to describe how inequity in the U.S. laid the foundation for conflict that continues today.  Another classic example of CRT as it stresses racial disparity in terms of inequality.  6.29.11.13(A)(3)(b)
8. Within High school U.S. History, students must examine the short-and long-term effects of CIA involvement in Latin America. How about pairing this with a discussion of Communism and the negative impact it has had in Cuba and other Latin American nations.    6.29.11.21(A)(1)(x)
9. In the 7thGrade, students must compare the patterns of exploration, destruction and occupation of the Americas by the Spaniards.   6.29.11.15(D)(3)(g)
10. Within High School U.S. History, students must explore the movement against police brutality.   6.29.11.21(A)(3)(mm)

RGF will be formulating its own comments in a subsequent post, but you are encouraged to submit your own and highlight this.