Education advocates weighing in on draft Yazzie/Martinez plan

Jun. 27—Education advocates are hoping a revised version of a blueprint for addressing poor educational outcomes in New Mexico will include more specifics on program success, funding levels and timelines as the state closes its public comment period for the Yazzie/Martinez Draft Action Plan.

The roughly 50-page document, devised as a companion to a 2022 comprehensive strategic plan the state released earlier this year, offers target goals for a number of initiatives — including increasing academic proficiency, reducing staffing vacancies in schools, improving graduation rates and tackling high levels of college-level remediation.

The 2018 ruling in the landmark Yazzie/Martinez lawsuit, named for the parents of New Mexico schoolchildren who were plaintiffs in the litigation, cited low test scores and graduation rates along with high remediation rates as evidence the state was failing to provide students with the qualified educators, culturally competent curriculum and resources required for success after high school graduation.

The lawsuit's findings seek improved outcomes, particularly for 23 school districts and 70 percent of New Mexico's student population who are either low-income, disabled, English-language learners or Native American. Many of those students likely hold more than one of those identities.

Originally set to be released in late 2021, the state Public Education Department published the plan in May, with a public comment period that wrapped up on June 17. Some groups and districts have said they're taking more time before submitting comment, including Santa Fe Public Schools.

The department did not provide information about the number of comments that have been submitted.

In addition to the release of the draft plan, the education department is assembling a "Martinez/Yazzie Response Team" that will consist of community representatives, at-risk program coordinators and others. The group will be overseen by Deputy Secretary Vickie Bannerman, who heads identity, equity and transformation efforts for the education department.

For Gabrielle Heisey, the parent of an Albuquerque high schooler who requires special education services, the state's draft leaves much to be desired when it comes to serving students with disabilities.

She and other members of Organizing Parents Education Network, submitted comments on the draft last week, addressing the section that details the plan for students with disabilities.

The section details several initiatives geared toward improving conditions for students with disabilities, including a $600,000 investment in a program that provides discretionary funds to special education teachers, plus the implementation of dyslexia screenings for all students and the creation of the Office of the Special Education Ombudsman.

But advocates say the existing projects don't forge a clear pathway to the goals the plan lists for students with disabilities, who have the lowest reading and math proficiency rates in the state.

The state says it plans to improve student achievement in both subjects by 50 percent for disabled students— and all other "at-risk" groups named in the lawsuit — by the 2025-26 school year.

The claims were met with skepticism by some.

"There is no plan for the overall success of students. The consensus from OPEN is that the state took data and ideas from already implemented projects and threw them in this response hoping no one would notice," reads a comment submitted to the state from members of the Organizing Parents Education Network. "As a group we are aware of the projects and thus do not feel the state has done enough for students."

Laurel Nesbitt, senior attorney at Disability Rights New Mexico, echoed those concerns, targeting the state's plans to improve the four-year graduation rate for the student group to 81.4 percent by 2026. Nesbitt said some students with individualized education programs lose support when they exit the public school system if they don't have proper transition plans.

"If there haven't been adequate transition services provided ... then graduation is not necessarily a mark of success," she said.

Nesbitt said she'd like to see more details on how the state will increase "capacity" mentioned in the comprehensive plan, including professional knowledge and funding when it comes to special education — a teaching field that has seen high rates of vacancies in recent years.

She applauded the education department for its initiatives around structured literacy and reading training programs for teachers but called for more specifics on how exactly success will be measured.

"I do think there's some potential for increasing capacity, but the plan lacks the kind of detail that would demonstrate how that actually is succeeding at this point," she said.

The plan has similar sections addressing the needs of English-language learners, Native American students and economically disadvantaged kids. Those areas will be scrutinized by other education groups, including the New Mexico Association of Bilingual Educators and the Tribal Education Alliance.

"We want to see bilingualism and bilingual education as the norm," New Mexico Association of Bilingual Educators board President Suzanne Gorman wrote in an email. "We want an education system that reflects the strengths and assets of our diverse communities of New Mexico."

Meanwhile, New Mexico Voices for Children, a children's advocacy nonprofit, is hoping a revised version of the plan will provide more details on funding required to sustain existing programs for students over time. While the plan includes examples of recent funding allocations, it doesn't include projected needs for coming years.

Attorneys from the New Mexico Center on Law and Poverty, who represent the Yazzie plaintiffs in the suit, also are calling for more specificity in the plan.

"The state's on the right track in asking for input on this plan," said attorney Alisa Diehl.

Diehl said she wants to see estimated numbers of education professionals needed by the state to move the dial, budget estimates and more evidence of how officials will measure whether students are prepared for college or career pathways.

"These components should have been included before the plan was released. Because only the state can calculate these needs; only the state has this data," she said.

The group will submit public comment to the state by July 8, Diehl said.

In May, a district court judge ordered the state to provide more data to Yazzie/Martinez plaintiffs, including information on teacher professional development and staffing needs for high-vacancy jobs like nurses and bilingual educators.