FACTORS AFFECTING STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT IN NEW MEXICO

The recent public education reform in the state of New Mexico aimed at increasing student performance and teacher effectiveness has caused a great controversy amongst local educators. In compliance with the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, the reform was the basis for a teacher evaluation system based 50% on student standardized test scores by using the Value-Added Method (VAM). Studies show that VAM is an imperfect statistical tool that does not fully control for external factors that may affect student test scores such as socioeconomic status (SES) and parent involvement, and many warn against assigning too much weight to the model especially when used for high-stakes purposes such as the reform in New Mexico. Using a multivariate regression, this research investigates how statistically significant measures of SES (using school-level data on students eligible for free and reduced lunch) and parent involvement (using school-level parent-teacher association (PTA) membership data) are in predicting the standardized test scores of New Mexico’s public elementary school students. Results from the regression are expected to be consistent with existing literature: a negative correlation between student eligibility for free and reduced lunch and test scores, and a positive correlation between PTA membership and test scores. This research contributes to the fields of economics of education and educational policy, with further implications in public policy.