The latest National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) scores are out. Remember that the Florida Model is based on that state’s success in improving reading scores among all students, but especially poor ones. There is some useful data to point out regarding Florida and New Mexico. I’ve posted two charts (thanks to Matt Ladner and Jay Greene). First, the chart below shows 4th grade NAEP reading scores for free and reduced lunch kids (a measure of poverty). Notice that Florida’s poor kids perform 5th best in the nation. Among states, New Mexico is 3rd worst (thank God for California!).
Interestingly, New Mexico’s educational under-performance is not limited to the poor. Middle and upper income whites perform relatively poorly in our state while Florida is again among the best-performing states in the nation.
As I’ve written before, many in the New Mexico Legislature seem all too happy with the status quo.
Just to dream for a moment – How much money could the state save by eliminating the “Skuyls of Edication” at our public universities AND reformatting the teacher certification program away from the influence of “Perfessional Edicators”? (Most education majors are at the bottom of their universities in measures of intellectual capability, yet we let these low-normal intellects control billions of $s. On the other hand, look what happens when we get an intellectual-vetted clown in the White House.)