Level Up Reading Challenge

The New Mexico Public Education Department (NMPED) Literacy and Humanities Bureau is excited to announce the return of the Level Up Reading Challenge for the 2024–25 school year. This initiative, which targets K–5 classrooms is New Mexico’s public schools, aims to inspire a passion for reading and improve literacy rates.

The primary goal is to enhance literacy rates in K–5 students, building on the success of last year’s challenge, which saw improvements in interim and state assessment scores. The challenge also seeks to engage students in literacy development, fostering a growth mindset and confidence in reading and writing.

Superhero Teachers and Superhero Readers will work together to improve monthly scores through data-driven instruction, which includes differentiating core instruction, delivering focused interventions and small-group instruction, and differentiating workstations.
Istation will remain the required interim assessment for grades K–2, while the “Level Up” concept will apply to any interim assessments for grades 3–5.

Ralph the Reader and Ricky the Roadrunner, the mascots of literacy, will visit schools to promote the challenge. Each month, two students with the most significant growth will be named Superhero Readers of the Month, earning the privilege to display Ralph or Ricky on their desks and wear a Superhero Reader Cape.

Each K–5 classroom will receive a Level Up Reading Challenge Superhero Kit, which includes:

• A bilingual picture book, “This is New Mexico/Esto Es Nuevo México”
• Ralph the Reader and Ricky the Roadrunner figures and stands
• A classroom poster to document monthly Superhero Readers
• Class stickers
• A sheet with QR codes linking to data charts, a recorded read-aloud of the book, the Level Up Reading Challenge blog, and a video explaining the challenge.

The NMPED Literacy and Humanities Bureau looks forward to another successful year of fostering a love for reading in New Mexico’s students through the Level Up Reading Challenge.