SANTA FE – New Mexico’s top educator said Wednesday the state will carry out testing of K-12 students this spring, after receiving waivers to federal testing requirements for the past two years.

“We do have a statewide standardized assessment that will be given at the end of this school year,” Education Secretary Kurt Steinhaus told state senators at his confirmation hearing.

He said that the department will also try to backfill the lack of testing in part by asking school districts to submit internal testing data for analysis by the state this summer.

Like most states, New Mexico took advantage of a blanket waiver on federal testing requirements in 2020. It was one of a handful to obtain a waiver in 2021.

But data points from 2019 won’t be directly comparable to the testing in 2022. That’s because Steinhaus’ boss, Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, replaced the testing system of her Republican predecessor after taking office that year.

The plan was to pivot to another testing format in 2020, but that was delayed because of the pandemic. Grisham is running for re-election this year with few objective metrics of educational achievement in the K-12 system.

Steinhaus was confirmed by the Senate committee in a 9-2 vote. He has led the education department since August.