Los Alamos schools ask state to pause Amira literacy screener

Jennifer Guy asked New Mexico Secretary of Public Education Mariana D. Padilla on the morning of Aug. 2 to let Los Alamos Public Schools pause required use of Amira while district concerns about the program’s security and accuracy are reviewed. If the state grants that request, kindergarten through second-grade teachers in Los Alamos could reclaim some mandated testing time, but the district would also have to show how it will still identify struggling readers quickly and consistently.

Amira is not an optional classroom add-on in New Mexico. The Public Education Department requires dyslexia screening statewide, and the department’s assessment schedule places that work under the Literacy Division. In an April 7, 2025 memorandum to superintendents, charter school administrators and district test coordinators, Secretary Padilla said using data for decision-making is a core part of the state’s Multi-Layered System of Supports. That makes Los Alamos’ request more than a vendor dispute, since the district is asking to step away from a system the state has tied to its broader literacy framework.

The department’s August 2025 Amira guidance says the state continues to fund Amira ISIP statewide for early literacy in English and Spanish, and notes that Istation was rebranded as Amira after a merger. Amira’s New Mexico materials say the product listens as students read aloud, which is why accuracy questions matter so much for early reading intervention in K-2 classrooms. Vendor pages also claim the screener is more than 99% accurate on one educator-facing page and up to 98% accurate on another help page, but those figures are company claims, not independent findings.

Guy has worked in education in New Mexico for 35 years, and Los Alamos Public Schools has made broad achievement goals central to its public messaging. The district’s strategic plan says 100% of Los Alamos students will meet or exceed expectations in academic success, social-emotional wellbeing and civic responsibility. Against that backdrop, the superintendent’s letter signals that the district wants more control over which reading data teachers use, and how much classroom time is spent collecting it.

The issue reaches beyond Los Alamos County because Amira has been expanding elsewhere, including Newark Public Schools, which adopted Amira Learning as part of a state plan to boost reading skills. In Los Alamos, though, the immediate question is narrower and more local: whether teachers should keep spending time on a screener they say they do not fully trust, or whether the district must prove a better way to spot reading trouble in the first years of school.