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New Mexico’s plan provides little detail about the interventions that will be initially implemented in low-performing schools.
However, the state’s plan does clearly state what action will be taken in a school that fails to improve three years after being initially identified for comprehensive support and improvement. Schools must choose between closure, restart, champion and choice, or significant restructure and redesign. If the school does not choose one of these options, the state department will choose one for it. This represents a clear, concrete list of interventions in low-performing schools, and suggests that New Mexico is taking seriously the challenges faced by those schools.
The state does not fully articulate how it will distribute its 7 percent set-aside for school-improvement activities, but it does plan to leverage it through a competition.
It has also committed to funding plans that use the strongest base of evidence. The state is also planning to use a 3 percent set-aside dedicated to Direct Student Services to support expanded learning time, AP course access, K-3 literacy and mathematics, pre-k services, personalized learning, and student transportation (for students enrolled in schools of their own choosing).