By Jose Z. Garcia
On Friday, Governor Richardson accepted the “America’s Greatest Education Governor Award” from the National Educational Association, a lobby group for teachers. Among the reasons given for extending the award was his “fighting to put physical education back into elementary schools, and taking junk foods out, increasing teacher pay and restoring collective bargaining rights for educators.”
But these accomplishments, after all, have nothing to do with academic achievement and a lot more to do with issues in which the NEA is interested. So we should also ask: Did the Richardson administration, in addition to the benefits cited above, improve the academic record of students in New Mexico, which, for most parents, is the bottom line?
In other words, how do Johnny and Maria rank in reading and math? Let’s find out.
The bottom line
New Mexico students did not improve their academic performance during the Richardson administration. The evidence suggests a very slight decline. The prestigious American Legislative Exchange Council, using many factors of evaluation, ranked New Mexico 48th in the nation in 2007, the same ranking it gave New Mexico in 2002. It ranked New Mexico 49th during most years of Richardson’s administration.
During the late 1990s New Mexico routinely scored in the low 40s, so the last few years represent a definite decline. And the U.S. Chamber of Commerce this year gave New Mexico an “F” in its report card for overall academic achievement, an “F” for the academic achievement of low income and minority students and an “F” for the return on investment per dollar spent.
Why these scores were given will be evident below.
The numbers
In looking at the record, I went to three major sources: the American Legislative Exchange Council’s Report Card on American Education, the Department of Education’s National Assessment of Education Progress and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Education Report Card. Here’s what I found:
Math: In 2003, the year Richardson became governor, New Mexico lagged 9 points behind the nation in fourth grade math and 7 points behind in eighth grade math, about the same as the lag in the 1990s.
Five years into the Richardson administration, in 2007, things were worse. The gap between New Mexico and the rest of the country had grown to 11 points in math scores of fourth graders and 17 points in eighth grade math scores. Only one state was below New Mexico in fourth grade math, and two in eighth grade math.
Reading: In 2003 the reading gap between New Mexico and the rest of the country was 11 points in the fourth grade and 9 points in the eighth grade. In 2007 the fourth grade reading gap remained at 11 points and the eighth grade gap had grown to 10 points.
This placed New Mexico 49th out of 51 (the data includes the District of Columbia) in fourth grade reading, and 50th in eighth grade reading, five years after Richardson was elected governor.
Hispanics: Given that Richardson is Hispanic, one might expect the gap in scores between Hispanic and white non-Hispanic students in the state would have been addressed and closed. But the evidence does not support this expectation.
Fourth grade math scores of Hispanic students remained exactly 20 points behind white non-Hispanic math scores between 2003 and 2007. There was a barely discernible improvement in the gap in eighth grade math scores, from a lag of 28 points in 2003 to a lag of 25 points in 2007.
The lag between Hispanic and white non-Hispanic reading scores likewise remained virtually identical, moving from 20 points in 2003 to 21 points in 2007 in fourth grade reading, and from 25 points in 2003 to 24 points in 2007 in eighth grade reading. Hispanic students in New Mexico remained behind Hispanic students in other states in math by about 4 points throughout the Richardson administration, and in reading by 1-2 points.
This is a switch from the mid-1990s, when New Mexico Hispanics were ahead of Hispanics in the rest of the country.
The gap between white-non Hispanic students and Hispanic students in New Mexico remained the same, with scores of both groups below national averages during the Richardson administration.
Non-Hispanics: White non-Hispanic math scores among fourth grade New Mexicans trailed national white non-Hispanic students by 6 points in both 2003 and in 2007, and by 5 points in eighth grade math scores in both 2003 and 2007. So white non-Hispanic students in New Mexico did not improve relative to the white non-Hispanics in the rest of the country.
Black student performance in New Mexico was about the same as Hispanic student performance during the Richardson administration, jumping four points ahead of Hispanics in 8th grade math from 2003-2007, remaining 1-2 points behind Hispanics in fourth grade math between 2003 and 2007, and remaining between 2 and 5 points ahead of Hispanics in reading scores between 2003 and 2007.
Not a lack of resources
Frequently, teachers associations such as the NEA equate performance of students with expenditures of money on schools. But a lack of money and other resources cannot be the cause of New Mexico’s educational failure. New Mexico ranks 31 in expenditures per pupil, 30th in pupil-teacher ratio (better than the national average), and 37th in average instructional salaries, even though we are a poor state. Yet New Mexico ranks 48th in educational achievement.
Arizona is 50th in expenditures per pupil (New Mexico spends $2,080 more per pupil than Arizona), and 50th in student-teacher ratio (nine students more per classroom than New Mexico), but ranks 33rd in academic excellence.
The case of Washington, D.C. is even more dramatic: It ranks third in per-capita expenditures (it spends $5,520 more per pupil than New Mexico), and first in teachers’ salaries (teachers receive $19,558 more than New Mexican teachers, on average), yet it is dead last — 51 — in educational achievement.
Money spent on students, while important, is not a determining factor.
The good news
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s report card, while failing New Mexico in academic achievement and return on investment, does give a glimmer of good news. Basically, the educational system is honest enough to earn “B” grades in “truth in advertising about student proficiency” and “data quality.”
These are not trivial accomplishments, since a major first step in addressing systemic failure is to measure just how bad it is. So this is a good sign.
And perhaps a key to understanding New Mexico’s failures in spite of a relative abundance of resources lies in the “C” grade given by the chamber for New Mexico’s “rigor of standards” category. You are unlikely to improve unless standards and expectations are high.
A little public help from a governor would go a long way toward sending the message to students, teachers and administrators that they will be held accountable to higher standards than is now the case.
Several states have proved during the years Richardson has been governor that it is not impossible to improve educational outcomes. Texas, for example, moved from 43rd to 29th between 2002 and 2008. During the same period New Jersey moved from 26th to ninth.
Pennsylvania jumped from 41st in 2001 to 17th in 2008. South Dakota moved from 35th in 1999 to 5th in 2008. And Virginia moved from 27th in 2001 to 11th in 2008. Why did one of these governors not receive the NEA award this year?
The politics of education
Given the record of failure in New Mexico education, why would the NEA give the governor its award?
The answer, of course, lies in the politics of education. The NEA is one of the most powerful trade unions in the country, interested far more in its political clout nationwide and in the welfare of teachers who deduct part of their salary for the organization than in the educational achievements of students.
Richardson, an accomplished fundraiser, has undoubtedly done favors over the years for the institution, and it is undoubtedly repaying him, during a moment when his reputation could use some propping up.
In this sense the award can be likened to the award given for school board of the year by the New Mexico School Boards Association to the Gadsden Independent School District, one of the worst-performing in the state. The award came at a moment when Superintendent Cynthia Nava — also State Sen. Cynthia Nava, who chairs the Education Committee — was discovered to be $4 million in the hole with no explanation (except for politics) as to how the district could go for four years without a single, required, annual audit.
But these awards, however much they might enhance the reputation of the recipients, do not change the sobering realities of math and reading scores in New Mexico or the GISD, nor will they make Johnny and Maria one bit more competitive in the globalized economy of tomorrow. New Mexico schools still rank at the bottom of the barrel of academic achievement.
Garcia has taught government and politics at New Mexico State University for 30 years. He has been active in Democratic Party politics in Doña Ana County for many years. He publishes his own blog, La Politica: New Mexico!