APS reports gains across the board in early reading

Albuquerque Public Schools reported gains across the board in elementary school reading scores, though despite improvements, students identified in the Yazzie-Martinez lawsuit still scored far lower than their peers in every grade.

Almost 40% of third graders scored at grade level on the state English/Language Arts evaluation, up from about 32% last year. All groups of third graders saw improvements from last school year to the current one, including Native American students, students with disabilities and other students identified in the lawsuit.

“I am happy to report that we are on track and we are seeing notable growth,” APS Superintendent Gabriella Blakey said at a board meeting Wednesday.

The 2019 Yazzie-Martinez decision ruled that the state of New Mexico has a constitutional obligation to provide every student with an equal opportunity and a sufficient education, especially Native American students, English language learners, students with disabilities and economically disadvantaged students — all of which make up around 70% of New Mexico’s student population, according to the Public Education Department.

Yazzie-Martinez third graders and Black third graders — who are not specifically named in the lawsuit, but are included in the group by APS — scored a reading proficiency rate of almost 32%, more than six points higher than the previous year. 

By comparison, this year, 38% of all third graders were proficient, while about 79% of third graders who were not in those groups met the benchmark.

The district’s goal is to increase third-grade reading scores for Yazzie-Martinez and Black students by 10% from 2021 to 2028. The scores are up nine percentage points this school year since 2021.

First graders scored an overall proficiency of 29%, while Yazzie-Martinez and Black first graders scored at 24% — about a percentage point above the district’s three-year goal, Blakey said. All other first graders not included in those groups scored 55% proficiency.

For second graders, about 33% of Yazzie-Martinez and Black students scored at proficiency, up from about 20% at the beginning of the 2021-2022 school year. The total proficiency rate for all second graders was about 38%, while the reading proficiency rate for students not included in the targeted groups was almost 70%.

“Monitoring progress matters because it shows us whether our systems and supports are closing longstanding gaps for historically underserved students,” Blakey said Wednesday.

This school year is the first that the district has used Amira, a state-mandated artificial intelligence literacy testing tool for grades kindergarten through third.

The program garnered mixed responses from teachers and board members, who raised concerns about its efficacy and its dependence on screen time. Board Member Rebecca Betzen said she’d heard from students the evaluations could be fraught with errors and easy to circumvent.

“I'm trying to picture what this looks like for this child that is already frustrated being put in front of a computer,” Betzen said.

Students are required to spend a minimum of 30 minutes a week on Amira, district officials said.

For evaluating Yazzie-Martinez students and Black students, where racial or personal bias may play a factor, Amira represents a way to test without any partiality, said Chris West, executive director of APS’s Office of Accountability and Reporting.

“I do think that while there’s nothing better than a teacher interacting with a child, this is getting closer to an unbiased perspective,” West said.

Natalie Robbins covers education for the Journal. You can reach her at nrobbins@abqjournal.com.