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Alpha School for Young Children — a Las Cruces based early childhood education provider — is opting out of new testing requirements set by the state for preschool and kindergarten students.
New Mexico’s Early Childhood Education and Care Department (ECECD) is requiring three- and four-year-old children to take the Minnesota Executive Function Scale which evaluates skills like working memory, cognitive flexibility, and inhibitory control.
This test is given via iPad or similar device and is structured like a game to keep students engaged. According to ECECD, the test should only take 2-5 minutes.
Alpha Owner and Director Ray Jaramillo said that the test “goes against everything that I believe that children should be doing” and that testing these skills in an isolated, screen-based fashion is counterproductive.
“Executive function comes from real life where they are learning how to self-regulate, infants are learning executive function,” Jaramillo said.
Jaramillo also said increased screentime is another negative to taking the test. He cites a video posted by ECECD that says too much screen time is not good for adults and “too much screen time isn’t good for tiny humans either or their development.”
“The State of New Mexico, the early childhood education department who is requiring this, also put out a podcast talking about the screen time being too much,” Jaramillo said. “It’s absolutely crazy.”
ECECD said that the test is planned to take 2-5 minutes and that the podcast episode of 'The Early Show with Alex' does not say that it meets the threshold for too much screen time.
In response to this test, Jaramillo has sent home optional forms for parents to fill out if they do not want their children to take the test. The form states that Alpha does not “believe that this type of screen-based, standardized assessment is developmentally appropriate for young children” and cites studies showing that in person interaction is better for developing executive function.
“We have had 99% that have opted out,” Jaramillo said.
ECECD Director of Early Care, Education and Nutrition Sandy Trujillo-Medina said that this test was set up to collect more data after a request came from the New Mexico Legislative Committee. According to a press release in 2024, the state allocated nearly $785 million for early childhood education and care for the 2025 fiscal year.
“The New Mexico Legislative Finance Committee’s 2025 report on pre-kindergarten quality and educational outcomes emphasized the need for more consistent and objective data across programs,” Trujillo-Medina said.
Trujillo-Medina said that the test is given two times a year and is “designed to be developmentally appropriate and it does not contribute to excessive screentime.”
As for any consequences for opting out, she said that parents will not face any repercussions for signing an opt-out form but would not comment further on if that was the same for a childhood care provider, saying, “the providers do have to utilize and adhere to the New Mexico pre-k standards.”
Update: This story was updated at 11:35 a.m. Aug. 14 to correct how often the test is given and to include a response from ECECD on whether the test counts as excessive screen time according to the podcast.
