CESDP Home Page New Mexico Highlands University



Rural Education


Migrant Education
Planner
NM Standards Reference Guides

The New Mexico Content Standards, Benchmarks and Performance Standards are part of the New Mexico Policy on Educational Standards, Standards for Excellence that provide implementation regulations for educational standards and student expectations for New Mexico schools and students.

In New Mexico, the academic content standards include standards, grade level benchmarks and performance standards. The content areas include:

  • Arts Education
  • Career Readiness
  • Health Education
  • Language Arts
  • Mathematics
  • Modern, Classical, and Native Languagesv
  • Physical Education
  • Science
  • Social Studies
  • Instructional Strategies for English Language Development
The New Mexico Special Education Expanded Performance Standards apply to special education students with the most significant cognitive disabilities. Students across the nation are being taught using a standards-based curriculum. There is variation in the definition and use of standards-based curriculum but there are common elements:

  • Fairness and effectiveness are at the heart of the rationale for academic standards
  • Standards provide common language and shared expectations about what all students should know and be able to do.
  • Standards-based instruction and assessment are designed for student engagement and demonstration of knowledge and skills. Curriculum, instruction and assessment are keys to standards implementation.
  • Standards-based education can lead to awareness of where gaps in student achievement and the educational system may exist.
  • Ongoing professional development and support for educators and families are critical in the implementation of effective standards-based systems in our schools.
Standards-based education is committed to the principle that every child can excel given the opportunity to develop and apply knowledge and skills over time. Standards-based curriculum, instruction and assessment support challenging activities and rich materials for learning that foster thinking, creativity, reasoning, analyzing, problem solving, and application of knowledge and skills.

Educators are engaged in professional development activities that support implementation of standards, assessing students using scoring guides, and effective instructional practices for ALL students. The New Mexico Standards Reference Guides contain current New Mexico Public Education Department Content Standards, Benchmarks, and Performance Standards.

The guides are divided into 2 documents with grade spans K-8, and 9-12. The goal is to make them convenient, useful, and manageable in size. The Reference Guides are designed not simply to be read, but used. You are invited to use the guides as a student, family or community member, educator of children, youth, and adults, board member, or policy maker. You may use the guides as you:

  • Develop a working knowledge of the standards that can be applied to curriculum, instruction, and assessment.
  • Look at what will be expected of students at various levels in their schooling.
  • Commit to developing equity for all students to achieve the standards.
  • Develop consistency in the application of the standards.
  • Communicate with students, peers, parents, ed leadership, board members, policy makers, or the public about student expectations.