LANL Foundation News:

ESPAÑOLA — The LANL Foundation, in partnership with the Thornburg Foundation and Education Research & Development (EdRD), today released Strengthening the Teaching Profession in New Mexico through Professional Learning, the most comprehensive statewide analysis to date of how New Mexico can better support educators.

Drawing on national research, policy analysis, and feedback from more than 2,000 New Mexico educators—including teachers, school and district leaders, aspiring educators, and New Mexico Public Education Department staff—the study offers a research-based guide for strengthening New Mexico’s educator development system. 

The report comes at a pivotal moment for New Mexico. Recent research on expanding instructional time concluded that additional learning time produces only modest and uneven improvements unless that time is used intentionally for high-quality instruction. As New Mexico works to improve student achievement, address teacher shortages and retention challenges, and fulfill its constitutional obligation to provide all students with a sufficient education, this report examines the complementary question: How do states build the systems that enable teachers to provide consistently high-quality instruction? The study concludes that sustained, high-quality professional learning is essential to achieving those goals. 

“In order to support students, we must support teachers. The outcomes and system we all hope for depend on educators who have time to plan, learn, reflect, and work together. We cannot expect to measure the success of our investments while ignoring that educators have been asking for support for years. If we demand high quality instruction – and we should – we must provide opportunities for educators to develop mastery of their profession,” said Gwen Perea Warniment, Ph.D., President & CEO of the LANL Foundation. “We are grateful for the educator voice that is clearly evident and informed this report.”

Drawing on national research, the report highlights substantial evidence that well-designed professional learning—learning that is sustained, and coordinated— improves teaching practice, student achievement and teacher retention. A landmark U.S. Department of Education study found that well-designed professional learning can produce student achievement gains equivalent to approximately 21 percentile points, while teachers working in strong professional learning environments are 1.5 times more likely to remain in the profession beyond five years. 

Yet the report found New Mexico’s current system relies heavily on one-time workshops and compliance-driven training rather than teacher learning that strengthens classroom practice. 

The study found:

• More than 40% of educators reported current professional learning is ineffective or a poor use of time.
• Educators overwhelmingly preferred collaborative, job-embedded professional learning over one-time workshops and recognized its importance for improving their teaching. 
• Significant gaps remain in opportunities related to mathematics, STEM, social studies, and practices that support students with increasing behavioral health needs.
• While New Mexico has strong building blocks—including a statewide professional learning framework and the “High-Quality Professional Learning Marketplace”—the current system remains fragmented and does not meet educators’ needs.

The report calls for more access to professional learning and a stronger statewide infrastructure to support continuous growth throughout an educator’s career.

Key recommendations include:

• Increasing dedicated time for professional learning, coaching, collaboration, and lesson planning.
• Expanding coaching and other job-embedded professional learning opportunities.
• Strengthening instructional leadership and teacher leadership pathways.
• Better aligning professional learning with educator preparation, licensure, and career advancement.
• Establishing a dedicated professional learning bureau within the New Mexico Public Education Department to strengthen statewide leadership and accountability. 

The report concludes that sustained, job-embedded professional learning is critical to improving student outcomes, strengthening teacher retention, and advancing New Mexico’s broader education goals, including those envisioned under the Martinez/Yazzie ruling. 

“Meaningful, ongoing, collaborative professional learning is a vital piece of a thriving educator ecosystem. In the highest-performing education systems globally, teachers spend more time working collaboratively than they do teaching students. This study confirms that New Mexico’s teachers don’t want more mandates—they want more time and better-designed opportunities to learn from one another,” said Tim Bedeaux, K–12 Education Policy Officer at the Thornburg Foundation.

The report adds to broader statewide educator workforce initiatives, including work led by the New Mexico Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (NMACTE) to modernize teacher preparation standards and a statewide educator workforce policy framework being developed by Education Research & Development (EdRD) and NMACTE. Further, a current working group, led by the Legislative Education Study Committee and the Learning Policy Institute, is examining a comprehensive framework for a well-designed educator ecosystem.

Together, these efforts are creating a more coordinated educator career continuum—from recruitment and preparation through induction, professional learning, leadership development, and retention—that better supports teachers throughout their careers and improves outcomes for New Mexico students.

Strengthening the Teaching Profession in New Mexico through Professional Learning is available at lanlfoundation.org.