Study: K-3 Plus Boosts Student Scores

From left, Damian Chavez, Sadie Zamora and Erick Martinez work as a team to answer math questions. The Kirtland Elementary students competed to be the first team to correctly answer questions projected on the board. (Adolphe Pierre-Louis/Journal)

FOR THE RECORD: This story failed to include the fact that funding to K-3 Plus and preschool has increased significantly under Gov. Susana Martinez’s administration. Specifically, statewide funding for K-3 Plus more than doubled between the last budget year and the current budget year, when it went from $5.3 million to $11 million. During the same time span, preschool funding increased by about one-third.

A program that extends the school year for low-income students is getting positive results, and researchers say it could be a cost-effective alternative to mandatory retention policies advocated by Gov. Susana Martinez.

A report by the Legislative Finance Committee’s research staff examined data on about 26,000 New Mexico students who finished third grade in 2011. They looked at a number of questions related to early literacy, and one key finding was that students enrolled in the “K-3 Plus” program had higher test scores in reading, writing and math than students with similar demographics who were not enrolled. They also found positive results for students who took state-funded preschool.

The K-3 Plus program gives parents of kindergartners through third-graders the option of signing up their kids for an extra five weeks of classes before school starts.

At the same time, researchers found that only 12 percent of students who were held back at the end of third grade moved up to the “proficient” level during their second year of third grade.

State education chief Hanna Skandera has advocated for a law that would require retention of third-graders who had not learned to read. Lawmakers refused to pass such a law in the past two sessions.

Skandera said the LFC report is “incomplete,” since it only examined the effectiveness of retention the way New Mexico currently does it. The bills she has advocated would require early intervention, to try to avoid holding students back.

“I 100 percent agree that retention as we do it now has not been successful,” Skandera said. “I agree the research is mixed on ‘does retention work?’ Retention by itself is not a solution.”

She said the LFC report fails to look at the interventions that are built into a good retention program.

The report describes K-3 Plus and preschool as programs that make a difference in student performance, and describes retention as having “mixed” results.

This summer, K-3 Plus is offered at 75 schools in 20 districts across the state, serving about 9,300 students. To be eligible, at least 85 percent of a school’s population must qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, which is a measure of poverty.

The K-3 Plus portion of the LFC report was based on research at Utah State University, which examined data on New Mexico’s program to see if it should be replicated elsewhere.

Kirtland Elementary School in Albuquerque has offered K-3 Plus since the program was launched in 2007. Alene Hardin, who has been teaching second grade for 20 years, is in her fifth year of teaching K-3 Plus.

“Personally, I think it’s money well spent, because most of these kids would be doing nothing,” Hardin said. She said many of her students get little enrichment over the summer, and starting the school year early helps them get ready for second-grade curriculum.

“It keeps them from regressing so far,” she said. “They’re much more ready to start second grade.”

Wednesday was the last day of K-3 Plus at Kirtland. Students started classes June 27 and have a break before school starts Aug. 13.

In Hardin’s class Wednesday, students were divided into teams and competed to quickly and accurately answer math problems that dealt with telling time, adding the values of different coins and identifying number patterns.

The Utah State report found that students who had at least one year of K-3 Plus got significantly better scores on the state Standards-Based Assessment than similar students who were not in the program. They also found that students who had two years of K-3 Plus outscored those with just one year.

The LFC report also looked at the effects of preschool and found that it makes a significant difference in New Mexico. Among the third-graders included in the study, those who had attended New Mexico Pre-K had test scores that were essentially identical to the scores of non-Pre-K students. That is remarkable, according to the report, because more of the students enrolled in Pre-K are low-income, Hispanic and learning English than in the overall third-grade population.

The report said a student could attend Pre-K and four years of K-3 Plus for a cost to the state of about $7,000, which is roughly the cost of sending a student through third grade a second time. The report suggests this might be a better use of the money, since the intervention programs show proven results, while retention has a spottier record.

In the current budget year, the state appropriated $19.2 million directly to preschool programs, and roughly another $41 million flowed through the state funding formula for school districts to provide services to 3- and 4-year-old students with special needs. The federal government also spent about $57 million on Head Start in New Mexico, bringing total preschool spending in New Mexico to about $117 million.

For K-3 Plus, the state budgeted $11 million this year, enough to cover costs for up to 9,600 students.

The LFC report recommends the PED increase oversight of K-3 Plus, to make sure the program’s quality is consistent statewide. It also recommends better coordination, so more students get the full benefits of preschool and an extended school year.

— This article appeared on page A1 of the Albuquerque Journal