Center for Community Analysis

New newsletter aims to increase access to public data

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Things are looking better for students with disabilities at Las Cruces’ Mayfield High School. Since 2012, graduation rates for those students have risen from 59% to 81%. That compares to an increase for all Mayfield students from 76% to 89% over the same period, and 70% to 74% for all students statewide. Parents in Doña Ana County can explore those numbers and more on a dashboard created by the Center for Community Analysis at New Mexico State University. The data was compiled by Program Manager Erica Surova, who launched a new Data Newsletter in early January.

Bilingual Education

NMSU works to recruit, train needed bilingual teachers

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Knowing a second language can be a big advantage: Being bilingual can help people get a job in a vast range of professions, from fast food employees to doctors, and it’s been shown that children who can speak, read and write in two or more languages have cognitive advantages over monolingual kids, from better attention to the ability to more easily switch tasks. In New Mexico, one would think more people would have a leg up when it comes to being bilingual because so many enter the school system speaking a language other than English . According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 35 percent of New Mexicans speak a language other than English at home, with 30 percent Spanish speakers.  

But with a shortage of bilingual and dual language classrooms in New Mexico, bilingual students may have a difficult time maintaining the Spanish they learned at home. English learners have a diminished opportunity to become biliterate, or even succeed in school at all.