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New Mexico

Verified against current sources (2026-05-07) Cite this page ↓

New Mexico offers Bilingual Education both as a standalone certification and as an add-on endorsement; ELD/ESL is available both as a standalone license and as an add-on endorsement. SEI training is not mandated for all teachers. As of 2021, 18.8% of public-school students are classified English Learners (NCES). Re-verified against current SEA sources on 2026-05-07.

18.8%
classified ELs (2021-10-01)
view trend →
Bil + ELD
credential types offered

Credentials

Bilingual Education Endorsement (incl. Native American/Indigenous languages)

  • Standalone certification
  • Add-on endorsement
Approved program
Unknown
Coursework
Required
Practicum
Not required
Subject test
Required
Language proficiency
Required

Under 6.64.10 NMAC: initial Level 1 candidates complete 24-36 semester hours in bilingual education AND pass the bilingual education licensure exam (6.60.5 NMAC); existing license holders add 12 semester hours plus the licensure exam. Native-language proficiency is regulated separately at 6.64.10.9 NMAC: at least an eighth-grade level of oral and written proficiency in the target non-English language. NMPED-facing materials describe the Spanish-language route as Prueba (the Praxis Spanish proficiency exam). Native American / Indigenous language teachers may instead pursue the 520 Native American Language and Culture (NALC) certificate under 6.63.14 NMAC, which substitutes tribal verification of language and cultural competence for the standard licensure exam.

TESOL Endorsement

  • Standalone certification
  • Add-on endorsement
Approved program
Unknown
Coursework
Required
Practicum
Unknown
Subject test
Required

TESOL endorsement under 6.64.11 NMAC. Initial Level 1: 24 semester hours plus PRAXIS English to Speakers of Other Languages (5362). Existing license: pass PRAXIS plus 12 semester hours, OR 24 hours alone. The English language proficiency examination is required only for international reciprocal license holders (6.64.11.8.D); domestic candidates have no language-proficiency exam gate.

Sheltered English Instruction (SEI)

Not mandated for all teachers.

NM does not have a universal SEI / EL-instruction endorsement mandate. The bilingual and TESOL endorsements remain voluntary specializations under NMAC Title 6. A 2019 bill to require all new teachers to hold bilingual or TESOL did not become law. Context: the consolidated Yazzie/Martinez v. State of New Mexico litigation (2014 filing, 2018 ruling that NM is failing to provide sufficient education to ELs and Native American students) has driven a multi-year remedial action plan; plaintiffs filed objections to the State's November 2025 Comprehensive Remedial Action Plan in February 2026, citing inter alia the persistent shortage of bilingual-endorsed teachers. As of 2026-05-07 no statutory or regulatory universal EL-teaching mandate has been enacted.

State policy signals

Seal of Biliteracy

Recognition for graduating students proficient in English plus another language.

Adopted in 2014.

Source: sealofbiliteracy.org (opens in a new tab)

ELP assessment

Annual English Language Proficiency test used for EL identification and reclassification.

ACCESS for ELLs · WIDA Consortium member.

Source: wida.wisc.edu (opens in a new tab)

History of licensure

Dated policy and verification events shaping this state's EL teacher credentials.

  1. New Mexico Bilingual Multicultural Education Act enacted (NM Laws 1973, ch. 137)

    New Mexico became the second state (after Massachusetts in 1971) to mandate bilingual education by statute. The Bilingual Multicultural Education Act (BMEA), now codified at NMSA 1978 §§ 22-23-1 to 22-23-6, requires the State to fund Bilingual Multicultural Education Programs (BMEPs) for EL students and Native American students whose home language is not English. The BMEA is the legal foundation for NM's bilingual endorsement and the BMEP program structure that the 2018 Yazzie/Martinez ruling later found the State was inadequately funding. The act was significantly amended in 2003-2004 (HB 212 / SB 219) to broaden the definition of eligible students.

    web.ped.nm.gov (opens in a new tab)

  2. New Mexico State Seal of Bilingualism-Biliteracy enacted

    NM Laws 2014, ch. 46 (House Bill 330) created the State Seal of Bilingualism-Biliteracy. NMPED rules at 6.32.3 NMAC implement the program; first awards issued to the high school class of 2016.

    web.ped.nm.gov (opens in a new tab)

  3. Yazzie/Martinez ruling — NM failing EL and Native students

    Consolidated Yazzie v. State and Martinez v. State litigation (filings 2014) culminated in the First Judicial District Court ruling that New Mexico is failing to provide a sufficient education to ELs, Native American students, and students with disabilities. The ruling has driven multi-year remedial-plan oversight that continues to shape NM's bilingual/TESOL teacher pipeline policy. Plaintiffs filed objections to the State's November 2025 Comprehensive Remedial Action Plan in February 2026.

    web.ped.nm.gov (opens in a new tab)

  4. EPAA 29(100) document analysis (Leider, Colombo & Nerlino, 2021)

    Leider, Colombo & Nerlino published in Education Policy Analysis Archives 29(100) a comprehensive document analysis of every state and DC's bilingual, ELD/ESL, and SEI teacher-credentialing requirements, professional teaching standards mentions, and EL-percentage figures, based on primary SEA sources collected October–December 2019. The 2019 coding of New Mexico's EL-credentialing landscape is preserved as a temporally-anchored research baseline against which the catalog's later verifications are framed.

    doi.org (opens in a new tab)

  5. 6.64.11 NMAC repealed and replaced (TESOL endorsement)

    The Public Education Department repealed and replaced 6.64.11 NMAC, restructuring the TESOL endorsement competencies and adding a non-English-language coursework distribution requirement for the endorsement.

    srca.nm.gov (opens in a new tab)

Sources

  1. [1] New Mexico Public Education Department (cited domain webnew.ped.state.nm.us superseded; current domain is web.ped.nm.gov) (opens in a new tab) — retrieved 2019-11-15 (via Leider et al. 2021)
  2. [2] Leider, Colombo & Nerlino (2021), EPAA 29(100). Tables 2-5 + Appendix A. (opens in a new tab) — retrieved 2019-11-15 (via Leider et al. 2021)
  3. [3] NMPED Educator Licensure Bureau (current homepage; supersedes webnew.ped.state.nm.us) (opens in a new tab) — retrieved 2026-05-07
  4. [4] NMPED — Bilingual Education endorsement (how to add to a license) (opens in a new tab) — retrieved 2026-05-07
  5. [5] NMPED — TESOL endorsement (how to add to a license) (opens in a new tab) — retrieved 2026-05-07
  6. [6] NMPED — Endorsements (full index of 21 endorsement areas) (opens in a new tab) — retrieved 2026-05-07
  7. [7] 6.64.10 NMAC — Bilingual Education endorsement (coursework, licensure exam, native-language proficiency) (opens in a new tab) — retrieved 2026-05-07
  8. [8] 6.64.11 NMAC — TESOL endorsement (coursework, PRAXIS 5362, ELP exam for international applicants) (opens in a new tab) — retrieved 2026-05-07
  9. [9] 6.69.4 NMAC — Competencies for Entry-Level Teachers (Levels 1, 2, 3-A); the general professional teaching standards (opens in a new tab) — retrieved 2026-05-07
  10. [10] 6.63.14 NMAC — Certification in Native American Language and Culture, Pre K-12 (NALC certificate; tribal verification) (opens in a new tab) — retrieved 2026-05-07
  11. [11] NMPED — Native American Language and Culture certification page (520 NALC) (opens in a new tab) — retrieved 2026-05-07
  12. [12] NMPED — Bilingual Multicultural Education Programs (BMEPs) FAQs (opens in a new tab) — retrieved 2026-05-07
  13. [13] NMPED — Seal of Bilingualism-Biliteracy (NM Laws 2014, ch. 46; first awarded class of 2016) (opens in a new tab) — retrieved 2026-05-07
  14. [14] NCES Digest of Education Statistics 2023, Table 204.20 — English Learners enrolled in public schools by state, fall 2021 (opens in a new tab) — retrieved 2026-05-07

Cite this page

Site content is published under CC BY 4.0. When citing a fact from this page, please cite both projectcert and the original Leider et al. (2021) paper the dataset extends.

APA
projectcert. (2026, May 7). New Mexico EL teacher certification. https://projectcert.org/states/nm/
Leider, C. M., Colombo, M. W., & Nerlino, E. (2021). Decentralization, teacher quality, and the education of English learners: Do state education agencies effectively prepare teachers of ELs? Education Policy Analysis Archives, 29(100). https://doi.org/10.14507/epaa.29.5279
BibTeX
@misc{projectcert_nm_2026,
  author  = {{projectcert}},
  title   = {{New Mexico EL teacher certification}},
  year    = {2026},
  url     = {https://projectcert.org/states/nm/},
  urldate = {2026-05-07},
  note    = {Last verified 2026-05-07}
}
@article{leider2021decentralization,
  author  = {Leider, Christine M. and Colombo, Michaela W. and Nerlino, Erika},
  title   = {{Decentralization, teacher quality, and the education of English learners: Do state education agencies effectively prepare teachers of ELs?}},
  journal = {Education Policy Analysis Archives},
  volume  = {29},
  number  = {100},
  year    = {2021},
  doi     = {10.14507/epaa.29.5279}
}

See the methodology for how these data were collected, or the glossary for term definitions.