Roswell, NM — Following a presentation to the NM Legislative Education Study Committee (LESC) on early literacy efforts in New Mexico schools, Senators Candy Spence Ezzell and Ant Thornton called for New Mexico to provide key interventions to students who are not yet reading at grade level.
One key intervention is the universal adoption of curriculum based in the science of reading, thus ensuring that students receive phonics instruction proven to teach them to read. Once this research-based reading approach is implemented statewide, the Senators then suggested that students still not reading at grade level by the end of the third grade be retained for another year of phonics instruction in Grade 3. When implemented together, these two interventions contributed to the remarkable growth by students in Mississippi over a ten year period, often referred to as the "Mississippi Miracle."
LESC staff cited studies by ExcelinEd ( https://excelined.org/policy-playbook/early-literacy/ ), though staff focused only on that organization's endorsement of the "science of reading" while disregarding its strong recommendation to "retain students for intensive intervention." Mississippi's gains were only accomplished after BOTH of these approaches were used consistently.
As Senator Candy Spence Ezzell (R-Roswell) noted, "Students in Roswell and elsewhere are benefiting from stronger reading instruction, but we are doing our New Mexico children no favors if we simply pass them along to the next grade without the ability to read proficiently."
Senator Ant Thornton (R-Sandia Park) further observed that "it's far more compassionate to have students master the ability to read in third grade than to allow them to be promoted to middle and high school, where their reading difficulties often lead to them making the unfortunate choice to drop out of school."
