APS reports drops in eighth grade math, improvement in sixth and seventh grades - Natalie Robbins, Albuquerque Journal
Math proficiency among eight graders at Albuquerque Public Schools has fallen slightly, according to last year’s state assessment, and for eighth grade students identified in the Yazzie-Martinez lawsuit, progress dropped more.
In order to meet its goals for sixth and seventh graders, the district will need to make significant progress in math proficiency scores by the end of the year.
Based on assessment data from the 2024-25 school year, 19.2% of all eighth graders were proficient in math, down from 19.5% the year before.
Among Native American and Black students, students with disabilities and other students identified in the Yazzie-Martinez lawsuit, math proficiency slipped from 12.8% in the 2023-24 school year to 10.8% on the last assessment.
The 2019 Yazzie-Martinez decision ruled that the state of New Mexico has a constitutional obligation to provide every student with an equal opportunity and a sufficient education, especially Native American students, English language learners, students with disabilities and economically disadvantaged students — all of whom make up around 70% of New Mexico’s student population, according to the Public Education Department.
Black students saw massive gains in math proficiency when scored individually. The rate of proficiency for Black eighth graders went from 7.8% in 2024 to 17.3% last year, a growth rate of 122%.
Native American students also recorded gains: Native eighth graders at APS scored a math proficiency rate of 11.9% last year, up from 8.1% the year before.
Disabled students and English language learners reported some of the lowest scores. Disabled students increased their math proficiency by 0.6 percentage points for a total score of 3.8%, while English language learners increased theirs by 1.8 points for a score of 4.3%.
Losses appeared among students who received free or reduced meals. Math proficiency for these students dropped 2.1 percentage points for a proficiency rate of 10.5%.
Hispanic eighth graders’ scores rose half a percentage point for a total proficiency score of 12.4%, while white and Asian students saw drops of 6.6 and 3 percentage points for total scores of 42.3% and 42.5%, respectively.
The district’s goal is a proficiency score of 21.1% among Yazzie-Martinez and Black eighth graders by May 2028. The score will have to increase by more than 10 percentage points in the next two years for APS to meet its benchmark.
Among all sixth graders, math scores went up by one percentage point from this time last year for a proficiency rate of 24.6% in the middle of this school year. Yazzie-Martinez and Black sixth graders scored just over 1 percentage point higher than last year for a total score of 16.2%.
To meet its goal of 22.6% math proficiency among Yazzie-Martinez and Black students in the sixth grade, APS must increase their scores by 6.4 percentage points by May.
APS Superintendent Gabriella Blakey said Wednesday she still thought it was possible for the district to meet its goal using a set of strategies for improvement decided upon by APS officials, which include professional development for teachers.
“It is a very big jump … to get to the end of the year at the goal that we're reaching for. But we do feel like the strategies are implemented in a way throughout the year that we will be able to make it,” Blakey said.
Seventh grade math proficiency went unchanged from this time last year, for a total score of 20.9%. Of Yazzie-Martinez and Black seventh graders, 14.2% scored proficient in math compared with 55.5% of all other seventh graders.
APS must raise the scores of Yazzie-Martinez and Black seventh graders to 19% by the end of the year to meet its goal.
Some middle schools have made significant individual progress in math proficiency, including Desert Willow Family School, an alternative K-8 magnet school in APS. Desert Willow reported improvements of 55.6 percentage points in sixth grade math and 30.7 percentage points in seventh grade math, a sign that quick and substantial gains may still be possible, Blakey said.
“We do think that we can make significant gains, because we've seen some of the schools be able to do it, and we can leverage those strategies,” she said.
School board member Rebecca Betzen said she was doubtful schools would be able to make meaningful gains in math in the back half of the year.
“I don’t know that we can ask teachers to do any more than we’re already asking of them,” Betzen said.
Senate Bill 29, signed into law last week by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, is an attempt to bolster math instruction statewide by requiring the Public Education Department to develop statewide standards for teaching the subject in conjunction with the New Mexico Mathematics and Science Advisory Council.
The bill also mandates additional undergraduate coursework on math pedagogy for prospective teachers, and requires teachers to conduct regular math assessments from kindergarten through third grade.
Truth or Consequences church evacuated after threat - Algernon D’Ammassa, Albuquerque Journal
Police in Truth or Consequences evacuated a church during its Sunday morning service after an unidentified individual called emergency dispatch and threatened to detonate a pipe bomb there.
Police Chief Luis Tavizon told the Journal the church’s security cameras recorded footage of an individual exiting a vehicle in the parking lot and roaming around, appearing to check doors at the back side of the church. It was not yet clear whether that activity was related to the telephoned threat. “We got the license plate, and there is still an investigation on that,” Tavizon said.
Police established a safe perimeter and conducted a sweep of the church after the congregation evacuated, Tavizon said, and were allowed to return after officers cleared the campus.
Tavizon said memories linger in the region of the Aug. 2, 2015, bombing of two Las Cruces churches, when homemade devices exploded 20 minutes apart at the Calvary Baptist Church and Holy Cross Catholic Church. No injuries were reported in those incidents. A suspicious device was subsequently found at Las Cruces’ First Presbyterian Church by a groundskeeper and linked to the two explosions. The case remains unsolved.
In an unrelated case from 2023, Nathan Wallace was convicted for possessing a pipe bomb and ammunition near the playground of East Mesa Baptist Church and sentenced to more than four years in prison.
“With the state of everything, what had happened in Cruces … it’s a little concerning,” Tavizon said. “We wanted to make sure we did our due diligence to figure out what was going on. We’ll be working with our federal partners to trace that plate number and figure out who made that threat.”
In the meantime, he said Truth or Consequences police would conduct extra patrols in the area.
Pastor Caleb Cooper of the New Hope Revival Church posted on social media that police arrived at the church moments after he had led the congregation in a prayer for “a hedge of protection” shielding church sites from acts of terrorism.
“God knows all things,” Cooper wrote in the post, adding that police officers “had us all exit the building and did a wonderful job sweeping the building! No bomb was found and everyone was safe!”
Cooper did not respond to queries from the Journal, but posted video of himself behind the church podium praying, “God … I ask you to place a hedge of protection around us and shield us in the days to come.” Cooper said police arrived minutes later.
The incident prompted a public statement from state Republican Party Chairwoman Amy Barela, who wrote, “Incidents like this are deeply concerning, and they are an important reminder that threats and violence have no place in our communities, our politics, and least of all our churches. No matter our differences, intimidation and fear must never be used as tools to silence or endanger others.”
New Mexico leaders condemn Cesar Chavez following sexual abuse allegations - Source New Mexico staff
New Mexico officials on Wednesday responded with swift condemnation to revelations of sexual abuse allegations — detailed in the New York Times — against civil rights activist and United Farm Workers co-founder Cesar Chavez.
Some of those allegations came from fellow union organizer and New Mexico native Dolores Huerta, who issued a statement detailing for the first time two incidents with Chavez, one in which she said she was “manipulated and pressured into having sex with him,” and another time, she wrote, when “I was forced, against my will, and in an environment where I felt trapped.”
Both, she said, led to pregnancy and she had two children that she arranged to have raised by other families.
Huerta, who was raised in California, received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2012; she co-founded with Chavez the National Farm Workers Association, which later became the United Farm Workers union.
“I carried this secret for as long as I did because building the movement and securing farmworker rights was my life’s work,” Huerta wrote. “The formation of a union was the only vehicle to accomplish and secure those rights and I wasn’t going to let Cesar or anyone else get in the way. I channeled everything I had into advocating on behalf of millions of farmworkers and others who were suffering and deserved equal rights.”
She decided to come forward now, she said, referencing the New York Times investigation, after learning she was not alone.
“The knowledge that he hurt young girls sickens me,” Huerta, who is 95, wrote. “My heart aches for everyone who suffered alone and in silence for years. There are no words strong enough to condemn those deplorable actions that he did. Cesar’s actions do not reflect the values of our community and our movement.”
In a statement provided to Source NM, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham called the allegations, which were reported in the New York Times, as “shocking and horrifying” and said she supports “a full and thorough investigation of these deeply disturbing allegations, and my heart goes out to my friend Dolores Huerta and anyone else who suffered abuse. It’s important to remember that the labor rights movement — built on respect for human dignity and collective power — is larger than any one individual. We remain committed to honoring that history and the basic human rights that the movement fought to recognize.”
U.S. Sen. Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.), in a statement, characterized the allegations against Chavez as “horrific.” Abuse of any kind, he continued “especially against children, is indefensible and a betrayal of the values that Latino leaders have championed for generations. There is no excuse.”
Chavez’s name, Luján said, should be removed from “landmarks, institutions, and honors. We cannot celebrate someone who carried out such disturbing harm.”
New Mexico House of Representatives Speaker Javier Martínez (D-Albuquerque) echoed that call in a statement Wednesday afternoon, calling the allegations against Chavez “horrific” and saying Chavez’s name should be “swiftly” removed from public entities.
“I pray for all of the survivors, including Dolores Huerta,” Martínez said. “I keep Dolores, her family, and the entire farmworker movement in my heart.”
Schools in Albuquerque, Santa Fe, Deming and Las Cruces bear Chavez’s name, and monuments and murals celebrate him throughout the state. In an emailed statement to Source NM on Wednesday, Santa Fe Public Schools spokesperson Tara Melton said the district is “aware” of the allegations against Chavez and that staff members are considering next steps, in line with district policy, regarding a name change at one of the district’s elementary schools.
“Any consideration of a name change would ultimately be brought before the Board of Education for discussion and direction,” she said. “We remain committed to engaging thoughtfully with our community and ensuring that any decisions are made through the appropriate processes and with careful consideration.”
Officials from other districts with schools named after Chavez did not respond to Source NM’s request for comment Wednesday.
In Albuquerque, Avenida Cesar Chavez stretches roughly two miles and ends at the National Hispanic Cultural Center, before turning into Avenida Dolores Huerta for less than a mile.
In a statement to Source NM, Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller characterized the “revelations” about Chavez as “horrifying,” and said he would work with city staff to re-evaluate how Chavez is honored across Albuquerque. In addition to the street named after him, the city also operates the Cesar Chavez Community Center.
“While he has meant a great deal to many families, this new information demands we widen our lens,” Keller said. “No one’s historic stature puts them beyond accountability. My heart is with the victims who carried the weight of this despicable abuse for so long, including our friend and fierce civil rights advocate Dolores Huerta, whose historic contributions stand on their own.”
State Rep. Andrea Romero, who chairs New Mexico’s Jeffrey Epstein “truth commission,” in a statement said the “heartbreaking revelations” were a “horrifying reminder that systemic abuse does not discriminate, no matter a man’s reputation or the movement he built.
“The painful pattern of powerful men using their positions to silence survivors, while the institutions around them look away, is precisely what the Epstein truth commission was created to confront,” Romero said.
U.S. Rep. Teresa Leger Fernández (D-N.M.) noted in a statement that she was “heartbroken and deeply disturbed by the stories that have come forward from women who say they were abused as girls by Cesar Chavez, and Dolores Huerta’s painful account of what she endured.”
Both the farmworker and civil rights movement, she said, were “built by countless people — especially women and families who sacrificed everything for a better future. That history is bigger than any one person. Honoring that legacy means facing painful truths and continuing the work for justice with honesty and humanity.”
U.S. Rep. Gabe Vasquez (D-N.M.) issued a statement describing the accounts of abuse and rape by Chavez as “abhorrent and appalling, and I condemn his actions in the strongest terms possible. The survivors who came forward must be heard, supported, and taken seriously. This moment demands real accountability, including removing his name from our schools, streets, and other public landmarks. The movement Chavez helped advance belongs to the people and to the farmworkers, not any one person, and confronting the truth is necessary to move forward with justice, compassion, and integrity.”
Both the Cesar Chavez Foundation and United Farm Workers issued statements, the latter canceling any involvement with Cesar Chavez Day activities on March 31.
“Instead, we call on our allies and supporters to take part in immigration justice events and acts of service to support farmworkers or empower vulnerable people in their own communities,” UFW’s statement said.
The Cesar Chavez Foundation statement said the organizations were working in partnership
to establish “a safe and confidential process for those who wish to share their experiences of historic harm, and, if they choose to, participate in efforts toward repair and reconciliation.”
ICE detention facilities in New Mexico likely to stay open despite new state law - Santa Fe New Mexican
The federal government seems intent on operating immigration detention facilities in New Mexico, despite a new state law discouraging local cooperation.
The state’s Immigrant Safety Act is set to take effect May 20 – it bans local governments from cooperating with federal immigration enforcement.
However, the Santa Fe New Mexican reports federal agencies are pursuing workarounds in Cibola and Torrance counties.
At the state’s third immigration detention site, Otero County is pursuing its own workaround to allow its facility to continue operating.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is seeking a direct contract with private prison operator CoreCivic to operate immigrant detentions centers in Cibola and Torrance counties.
The company currently contracts with ICE using Cibola and Torrance counties as the middlemen.
Ultimately, states lack the authority to restrict private companies from working with ICE.
Federal report commends NM health officials on measles outreach, vaccine efforts in 2025 outbreak - Danielle Prokop, Source New Mexico
A federal report published last week commends New Mexico health officials for their communication and vaccine outreach during last year’s measles outbreak.
A string of 100 reported measles infections between February and September 2025 marked the first outbreak in New Mexico since 1996. All but one of New Mexico’s measles cases stemmed from infections in West Texas that ultimately spread to 31 states and remain ongoing in several of them. New Mexico has reported 12 new detections of measles in 2026, all in detention centers in Doña Ana, Hidalgo and Luna counties.
The new report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention notes that the New Mexico Department of Health’s “comprehensive public messaging strategy,” coupled with increased rollout of vaccines last year, coincided with a 55% increase of vaccinations when compared to the same period the prior year. Between February and September, when the outbreak was declared, more than 32,890 children received vaccinations, while the number of adults — 5,748 — was a more than three-fold increase from 2024.
The report credits the increase to the state’s rollout of vaccination information in Spanish and English, including a dedicated measles website, social media posts and a phone line that received more than 2,000 calls related to measles during the outbreak. The report also documents the state’s deployment of 60 mobile vaccination clinics in 11 counties at schools, public health offices, correctional facilities and community centers. Officials deployed the clinics in counties with cases, but also as a preventative measure requested by local health officials.
NMDOH Communications Director Robert Nott said in a statement the agency responded to the measles outbreak by expanding on community partnerships forged during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“One agency can not get this job done on its own — we had to work together as a health network to provide access to vaccinations and protect the community,” Nott said.
Independent public health experts at New Mexico State University also praised the state’s efforts.
Jagdish Khubchandani, a professor of public health at the school, told Source NM the state’s response “was done exceptionally well. Its multiple teams, multiple strategies to reach out to people is critical,” he said, particularly given disruptions to federal agencies’ websites and information dissemination.
Elizabeth England-Kennedy, an assistant public health professor, said the state should engage in further research to determine what messages resonated best with the public and work to replicate those in the future.
“We should take a look at what happened in this case and map out the communication strategy,” she said. “New Mexico is clearly going to be able to replicate it, but this could be a blueprint for other states, and I think that would be really valuable to have out there for other state departments and other health networks.”
Desiree Smith, the director of the New Mexico School Nurses Association, credited the state’s high vaccination rate — about 98% of kindergartners completing at least one shot — for protecting outbreaks in schools, while some Texas charter schools had to temporarily close.
“We are very fortunate that we didn’t have any outbreaks within the schools,” Smith told Source NM. “It is fantastic and really says a lot about our high vaccination rate acting as a shield, allowing our classrooms to remain safe learning environments while other states faced classroom closures.”
Smith, a school nurse based in Portales, said in her conversations with parents who had exempted children from measles vaccinations mostly centered on the dangers from measles infection — which can cause blindness or even death.
“In my experience, a lot of the parents who got vaccinated after exemptions just didn’t want their kids to miss out on 21 days of school if they were exposed,” Smith said.