NM Governor Bill Richardson Releases Final Report On Achievement Gap Summits

SANTA FE– Governor Bill Richardson and Education Secretary Veronica C. García today released the final recommendation report on the governor’s three-part achievement gap summit series. The summits were the first of a multi-pronged effort to close the academic achievement gaps for New Mexico’s ethnic minorities and bring back 10,000 dropouts to receive their high school diplomas: Graduate New Mexico! It’s Everybody’s Business!

The three events brought together over 400 people statewide including students, parents, school leaders, teachers, business and community leaders, and state and tribal policy makers and produced a total of 50 recommendations reflecting the consensus of participants.

“I am proud that New Mexican’s want to take responsibility for improving education in their communities. It was our goal to produce solutions local communities could immediately get to work on,” said Governor Richardson. “We are looking closely at all of these recommendations as we redouble our efforts to address the state’s persistent achievement gap.”

Governor Richardson held three summits, one each on African American, Native American, and Hispanic Education in October, November, and December of 2009. There were four cross-cutting recommendations across all three summits:

1. Sustained funding and investment in education

2. Full integration of cultural and language programs in the school curriculum

3. More student engagement and planning in aligning their personal goals with career awareness and training

4. More meaningful involvement from community leaders, parents and students in school policy and decision-making to ensure community values and priorities are taken into consideration.

“The report supports the High School Redesign efforts taking effect this year, Graduate New Mexico, and the Hispanic Education Act including: required academic and career planning in high school with the new Carve Your Path tool to be piloted this spring; parent and community involvement; increased flexibility through distance learning; and cultural competence training for teachers,” said Education Secretary Veronica C. Garcia. “New Mexico is on track with education spending.”

The summits were facilitated by New Mexico First, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that engages citizens in public policy. The full report can be accessed on the Public Education Department’s homepage at the following link: http://ped.state.nm.us/.