Committee approves memorial asking study of school-ranking methods and the Lexile framework

The House Education Committee approved a due-pass recommendation on House Memorial 43, which asks the Legislative Education Study Committee and the Public Education Department to conduct a comprehensive study of the methodologies used to rank public-school performance and growth, including the Lexile reading framework.

Kevin Summers, executive director of data and accountability for Clovis Municipal Schools, and other superintendents and education leaders testified that Lexile measures provide a universal, comparable metric for reading and recommended deeper review of how New Mexico's results are compared with other states. Supporters said the memorial does not change funding or accountability systems; it requests a study to determine whether interstate comparisons are equitable and whether alternative metrics would improve fairness.

Representatives moved and approved a due-pass recommendation on the memorial; the committee noted that funding for a study had not been specified but that some of the analysis overlaps with existing Legislative Education Study Committee work.

The memorial will proceed according to legislative rules for memorials and studies.