New Mexico spends less on math programs than on other disciplines, and long has had lousy results in math education.
Now Senate Education Committee Chair Bill Soules is pushing to change that equation.
He presented his Senate Bill 235 to his committee Wednesday, saying it aims to boost math education just as the state did when it adopted structured literacy to improve reading skills.
“We worked on structured literacy within our schools, a very important area,†said Soules, a Las Cruces Democrat. “But it’s now time that we start talking about math and the very low performance of students in New Mexico in the math area.â€
Only 14% of eighth graders in New Mexico achieved scores showing proficiency on standardized math tests last year, . The overall statewide math proficiency rate was 22%, state data shows, compared with 38% for reading.
Still, the state Public Education Department’s spending plan for literacy programs in dwarfs that for math: Of a requested $54 million budget increase for both literacy and math programs, only 9.2% would be for math.
Public education spending in the state already has grown by more than $1.6 billion since 2018. A House bill still being hammered out in the Legislature calls for about $4.5 billion for education in the next fiscal year — the single largest share of the state’s $10.8 billion budget plan.
Screenings, interventions, training
Soules’ bill isn’t exactly about money. It doesn’t allocate any funding, in fact.
It calls on the Public Education Department’s Mathematics and Science Bureau to recommend programs and request funding — just as the department did to expand the role of structured literacy through funding for literacy coaches.
Other provisions in the bill also mirror those in the 2019 measure that codified a structured literacy program.
It would require schools to screen students for math ability from kindergarten through fifth grade and conduct early interventions for struggling learners — which includes parental notification.
The education department would be tasked with expanding its oversight of math programs and developing an instructional framework for school administrators.
Districts and charter schools would be charged with developing elementary and secondary professional learning plans for math educators.
As part of the structured literacy initiative, the state allocated funds to train and hire literacy coaches to assist educators and administrators in establishing practices. The Public Education Department is requesting to infuse the program with an additional $14 million in the next fiscal year to train those literacy coaches.
To implement a similar support role for math instruction, SB 235 would mandate math coaches — who already work in some schools — to have a mathematics specialist endorsement from a Public Education Department-approved program.
The bill received unanimous approval this week from the Senate Education Committee after it was amended to remove portions that required early math interventions to identify students diagnosed with dyscalculia, a learning disability akin to dyslexia but for numbers.
Soules said the dyscalculia language “just muddied things,†and amended the language to broadly reflect students struggling in math, rather than just those with the learning disability.
The measures moves next to the Senate Health and Public Affairs Committee.
Wide support, but many caveats
Numerous people spoke in support of the bill at Wednesday’s Senate Education Committee hearing, with no testimony in opposition. Higher Education Cabinet Secretary Stephanie Rodriguez, who has dyscalculia, said it took 15 years “of constant struggle and bad grades†until she was screened for the learning disability.
“I still went to college, but there are many other children in New Mexico who go their entire life of schooling thinking they may not be college material or may not enter a trade program because math is too hard,†she said, adding the bill could “change the narrative.â€
Ellen Bernstein, president of the Albuquerque Teachers Federation, said she supports bolstering math instruction. However, she urged lawmakers to consider the “extreme†workload of elementary school teachers and already “overtested†young children, pointing to the bill’s mandate for screening students as early as kindergarten.
Jacqueline Costales, the Public Education Department division director of curriculum and instruction, celebrated the bill’s early intervention policy, citing the 5 percentage point jump in reading proficiency that followed the 2019 implementation of reading interventions, according to data from the Nation’s Report Card.
“This bill will do the same thing in mathematics,†she said.
Amanda Aragon, executive director of NewMexicoKidsCAN, said one of her big reasons to support the bill was the parent notification system. She cited a 2023 Gallup poll that found 88% of parents believe their child is at grade-level proficiency in math.
“If you think your kid is doing great in math, you’re not getting them tutoring. You’re not signing up for the after-school programming,†she said.
LANL Foundation touts STEM bill
Kersti Tyson, the Los Alamos National Laboratory Foundation’s K-12 program director, said Soules’ bill “is headed in the right direction†but it’s not perfect.
“The math classes of yesterday need to look really different today,†said Tyson, who has been a math educator for 25 years.
There’s been a “seismic shift†in math education over the past 20 years, she said, with the “new national standard of practice†prioritizing the building of conceptual math understanding, particularly through student-led problem solving.
The onus is on the state in providing teachers the instructional supports to make those changes, she said, and on teachers to adjust classroom methods to reflect the new standard.
“Where change happens is at the classroom level,†she said, “and so what we’re looking for in that bill is working with the teachers to say, ‘Hey, Look, here’s the practices. Here’s the curriculum.’ “
One bill she said accomplishes the task better is Senate Bill 107, sponsored by Sen. Harold Pope, D-Albuquerque, which proposes creating a STEM Innovation Network through New Mexico State University. The innovation network — and its proposed $6 million in funding — would aim to foster cutting-edge teaching practices by strengthening STEM career pathways, linking educators with professional learning resources and supporting K-12 STEM initiatives.
The bill was brought up during the Senate Education Committee meeting, with Soules saying his bill can work with Pope’s.
“Our kids in New Mexico are brilliant, and they need the opportunities that help tap into that brilliance,†Tyson said. “That’s what I believe this work like Senate Bill 235 can help us to accomplish.â€
