Focus

New Mexico presents a unique environment for testing new approaches with national relevance. Continually ranked at or near the bottom in the country for a number of youth indicators (teen pregnancy, suicide rates, poverty), New Mexico students also rank near the bottom in NAEP test scores across all subjects. The dropout rate is about 46% overall. Despite these factors, we see enormous opportunity for positive change in New Mexico’s education system.

New Mexico is small state in terms of population. With a K-12 student population of 320,000 across the entire state (smaller than many urban school districts), the potential for significantly improving education appears to be reachable, just in terms of size

Innovate+Educate believes that New Mexico presents a perfect test state to assess innovative education models for impact and scalability. Expected results will show efficacy in critical areas such as improved graduation rates, enhanced digital literacy, and improved STEM program success. Given the fact that New Mexico is home of two of the three largest national labs in the country, STEM principles are crucial in preparing a competitive workforce for New Mexico. Once validated, industry, with the help of government and education, can help lead national adoption efforts.