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Impact · 3 min read

Why education is one of the three areas

National tests show how many students score below the first achievement level in reading and math. New Mexico’s results are among the lowest.

Education is one of the three areas the proceeds from Human Hope Daily plans are meant for. This article sets out the need in that area, using public data only. Human Hope Foundation’s address is in Albuquerque, New Mexico, so the figures cover both the country and the state. That is the only reason the state appears here. It says nothing about where any program operates.

What the national assessment measures

The National Assessment of Educational Progress, or NAEP, is run by the federal National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). It tests fourth- and eighth-grade students in reading and mathematics and reports the share of students at or above three achievement levels: NAEP Basic, NAEP Proficient and NAEP Advanced.

Two cautions come from NCES itself. NAEP Proficient does not represent grade-level proficiency, so a student below Proficient is not necessarily below grade level. And NCES says the achievement levels should be interpreted with caution. For that reason this article gives most weight to the lowest group: students who scored below NAEP Basic, the first of the three levels.

The country in 2024

In 2024, 41 percent of fourth-graders in the nation’s public schools scored below NAEP Basic in reading. Among eighth-graders the figure was 34 percent. In mathematics, 24 percent of fourth-graders and 41 percent of eighth-graders in public schools scored below NAEP Basic.

Put plainly, about four in ten public school fourth-graders did not reach the first achievement level in reading.

Finishing school is a second measure. In school year 2021-22, the US average graduation rate for public high school students was 87 percent, according to NCES. That is the share who graduate with a regular diploma within four years of starting ninth grade. New Mexico’s figure for that year was not available in the national data.

New Mexico in 2024

New Mexico’s public school results were lower than the nation’s on all four tests.

In eighth-grade mathematics, New Mexico’s average score was lower than those of all 51 other states and jurisdictions in the comparison. In fourth-grade reading it was lower than 50 of them and not significantly different from one.

There is one improvement to record. The share of New Mexico fourth-graders at or above NAEP Proficient in mathematics rose from 19 percent in 2022 to 23 percent in 2024.

These are averages for public schools across a whole state. They do not describe any one school, teacher or child, and a test in two subjects is not the whole of an education.

What the foundation can say

Human Hope Foundation was incorporated on September 15, 2026. It is a new organization, and this article makes no claim about programs, partners, results or people served. What can be stated is its purpose statement, word for word: “The organization operates on a nonprofit basis to provide charitable, educational, and community support services to individuals and families in need.”

Educational services are named in that purpose. The numbers above describe the need. They do not describe anything the foundation has done about it.

What a plan purchase does

A plan is a purchase of access to Human Hope Daily. It is not a donation. The IRS has not recognized the foundation as tax-exempt, and purchases are not tax-deductible. After the cost of running the platform (payment processing, hosting, email and support), the proceeds support the foundation’s community programs in education, practical care and social wellbeing.

Education is one of those three areas. This article does not say how the proceeds are divided among them or what they have paid for, and it claims nothing beyond that.

Sources

Published by Human Hope Foundation. A plan is a purchase, not a donation, and is not tax-deductible.