The long-term impact of prekindergarten programs is an important consideration given the trend of dedicating more resources to these programs. However, long-term impact of prekindergarten programs is not well-understood and recent studies have shown preschool effectiveness can vary across states and programs. A state run prekindergarten program in…

The purpose of the PreK Annual Report is to comply with statute and inform stakeholders regarding the Children, Youth and Families Department's (CYFD) and the Public Education Department's (PED) efforts and how these are connected to the State's current PreK initiatives. This funding was continued for the 2015-16 school year. In addition, CYFD…

The "FOCUS: Essential Elements of Quality, New Mexico's Tiered Quality Rating and Improvement System (TQRIS)," provides early childhood program personnel with the criteria, tools, and resources they need to improve the quality of their program. These quality improvements focus on children's growth, development, and learning--so that each…

In this article, the authors reflect on Myrna's Children's Village, their university laboratory school located in southern New Mexico in the USA. The Village serves children from the age of six weeks to five years through an array of early childhood programs. This diversity provides a unique context, while also posing issues and concerns, such as…

State-funded prekindergarten (preK) programs are increasingly common across the country. This study estimated the effects of eight state-funded preK programs (Arkansas, California, Michigan, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and West Virginia) on children's learning using a regression discontinuity design. These programs vary with…

This annual report contains postsecondary data that has been collected and analyzed using the New Mexico Higher Education Department's Data Editing and Reporting (DEAR) database, unless otherwise noted. The purpose of the DEAR system is to increase the reliability in the data and to make more efficient efforts by institutions and the New Mexico…

Ensuring that students are reading proficiently by third grade is a key component of keeping students on track to graduate high school and pursue college and careers. Because of the magnitude of this academic milestone, states typically pursue policies that promote early identification and intervention for struggling readers. However, teachers are…

On February 24, 2017, all of the authors of the state-of-the-state manuscripts published in the "Journal of Education Finance" met in Cincinnati, Ohio, to participate in a roundtable discussion focused on recent legislative actions in 38 states. A majority of those papers were revised to reflect a final report on legislative actions…

Objective: This report describes a pilot study to evaluate Animal Trackers (AT), a preschool program designed to (1) increase structured physical activity (PA) during the preschool day; (2) increase practice of gross motor skills; (3) provide teachers with an easy-to-use PA program regardless of teacher experience; and (4) implement a teacher…

The primary purpose of this report is to comply with the statutory requirement that important data regarding Hispanic students is published annually and shared with key stakeholders. The 2014-2015 Hispanic Education Report identifies and incorporates the following data: (1) By school district and by charter school statewide: (a) Hispanic student…

This issue of "The Evaluation Exchange" describes new developments in evaluating advocacy and policy change efforts that attempt to inform or influence public policy at the local, state, or federal levels. Heather B. Weiss introduces the themes in this issue in "From the Director's Desk," examining how evaluation of advocacy…