According to scores released in August, only about 28 percent of New Mexico’s kids tested as proficient or better in reading (KOAT.com, 2016). Overall, 2016 PARCC scores are a little better than those of the previous year, but not much better. According to the Albuquerque Journal, only 27.7 % of New Mexico’s students met or exceed expectations in English, and those who had the most difficulty were students with disabilities and students for whom English is not their first language. Less than 10% of those students scored as proficient in English (Burgess, 2016).

217,000 students, 97% of New Mexico’s K-12 student population, took the PARCC test in 2016. While Hanna Skandera , New Mexico PED’s Secretary of Education, views slight improvements in some areas as definite progress, American Federation of Teachers NM President Stephanie Ly does not agree, saying “results prove that PARCC is not working for students” (Burgess, Albuquerque Journal, 2016).

New Mexico teachers are still concerned that PARCC results count too much in teacher evaluations. Of 21,000 teachers evaluated, 23.3 % were evaluated as “minimally effective,” while another 5.4 % were rated “ineffective.” This means that close to 1 in 3 teachers were rated below “effective” for 2016. According to Charles Goodmacher, National Education Association of New Mexico spokesperson, PARCC results figure as 35% of a teacher’s evaluation. “That’s really high compared to other states,” he said (Carmona, Jr., Valley Daily Post, 2016).

Stephanie Ly, in a statement issued after the release of NMPED’s “2016 Teacher Evaluation Results,” said the scores were “. . . meaningless for educators, and provide no real feedback or useful methods for improvement((Carmona, Jr., Valley Daily Post, 2016).