As new numbers indicate that New Mexico and have the lowest reading scores in the nation, state education agencies announced they will host the second annual free Summer Reading Program beginning in June to try and curb summer reading loss.
The Public Education Department recently released its that shows only 39% of students are proficient in reading.
The 2025 Summer Reading Program aims to serve 15,000 students across the state with a program focused on four hours of small group instruction daily. It will use structured literacy, a research-based model that considers how the brain learns to read and can help all students regardless of reading level.
Public Education Secretary Mariana Padilla said New Mexico students experienced a 6% learning loss for literacy last summer, which left educators playing catchup at the beginning of the school year. Padilla said that those students who participated last summer experienced a 5% growth in reading literacy.
"So those students who participated in the summer reading program were 11% on average ahead of their peers at the start of the school year," said Padilla.
The state also experiences in the nation and Padilla said that confidence in reading is crucial given that most of the content in a student鈥檚 day depends on reading.
We hear from students who don鈥檛 want to go to school because they don鈥檛 feel successful there and being able to read is really imperative for a student to feel like they can be successful.
This program is open to students from kindergarten through eighth grade and enrollment is now open at
Support for this coverage comes from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation.
