‘We are on track’: Report shows APS student group surpasses math proficiency goals

Sixth and seventh grade Albuquerque Public Schools students identified as underserved by a landmark court ruling are on par with the targets the district has set for them, according to a presentation to the Board of Education on Wednesday.

While the group of students hit the math proficiency targets set for them, they underperformed compared to the classes monitored the previous school year.

“We should be celebrating,” Board Vice President Courtney Jackson said during the meeting. “There is really good news in this report.”

The groups monitored reflect underserved students as defined by the Yazzie-Martinez case in which Wilhelmina Yazzie, the parent of a Native student at Gallup-McKinley County Schools, and Louise Martinez, the parent of a Hispanic student at APS, successfully sued the state for providing an inadequate education. The state’s public education department defines English language learners, economically disadvantaged students, Native American students and students with a disability as Yazzie-Martinez students. The APS report also accounts for Black students and reflects end-of-year assessments.

The targets mark interim goals set as part of a broader series of goals established by the board in 2023, one of which was to increase math proficiency among Yazzie-Martinez eighth grade students from 11.1% in May 2023 to 21.1% by May 2028.

While the students surpassed their goals, the figure represents a slight decrease from the proficiency rate of 21.6% that the sixth grade monitored classes displayed for the 2023-24 school year, and from the 17% achieved by seventh graders that same year.

At the end of the 2024-25 year, the target proficiency for sixth grade Yazzie-Martinez students was 19.6%. They ultimately achieved a 20.4% math proficiency rate, according to the data presented, which shows they are almost an entire percentage point ahead of their target for the school year.

For seventh grade Yazzie-Martinez students, the goal for this school year was set at 16% proficiency, and students performed almost a percentage point higher at 16.6%. The district averages for math proficiency overall were 30% for sixth grade students and 25.2% for seventh grade students.

“We are on track for meeting our math goal, we’re on track for meeting the goals for these Martinez-Yazzie students, and that’s definitely worth celebrating,” Board President Danielle Gonzales said during the meeting. “I hear a lot of questions in the community about ‘Are you on track or off track?’ And so I think it’s really important to just say loud and clear we are on track.”

During the presentation, Board Member Janelle Astorga asked how federal funding cuts might impact the progress made. Antonio Gonzales, deputy superintendent of leadership and learning, acknowledged that some positions key to helping the district hit its targets could be impacted.

“The reality is that several of these positions currently into next year are funded through various forms of federal funding, via Title II, III, IV,” Gonzales said. “We know that these funds are in different stages of question in regard to the standing injunction and implications involved in the recent legislation passed at the federal level.”

APS has predicted that 60 positions could be impacted by a recent federal funding freeze, but has committed to retaining those jobs for the next school year, according to its spokesperson, Martin Salazar.