In New York 20% of a teacher’s performance evaluation is based on student test scores. In New Mexico it is more than double that 50%. Some educators say student performance on standardized tests is beyond teacher control and should not be such a big factor in teacher evaluations.
The effectiveness of New Mexico’s public education overhaul is in wide and impassioned dispute.
Supporters of the new system like Las Cruces public schools superintendent Stan Rounds say the changes are raising the quality of teaching and student achievement
“The things that have been brought forth in New Mexico recently I think are actually pretty significantly good.” he says
Critics of the system like National Education Association Las Cruces President Patrick Sanchez say the excessive rigor and frequency of high stakes testing is crowding out meaningful learning, leaving students disengaged and driving talented teachers out of the profession.
“The new system is really stupid and that is the technical term we are using.” he says
In New Mexico 50% of a teacher’s performance evaluation is based on student test scores. Rounds says it should be closer to 35 percent.
“Is 50% too much? and I personally believe it probably is.” he says.
That’s a sentiment echoed by the American Statistical Association in an executive summary released in April of this year they cautioned against overuse of test scores in measuring teachers stating
“The majority of the variation in test scores is attributable to factors outside of the teacher’s control such as student and family background, poverty, curriculum and unmeasured influences”.'
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5IlGt73FtY&feature=youtu.be
Superintendent Rounds says the evaluation system is not producing accurate results in Las Cruces but he says that may be due to a variety of factors.
“In my heart of hearts, I don’t believe that we have 153 minimally effective teachers, so that is what we are trying to sort out with the state and understand why that dynamic is what it is. Stay tuned I don’t have all the answers to that yet.” he says
Public Education Department Secretary designate Hanna Skandera says even though the new system hasn’t been perfect it is still a drastic improvement.
“Our old system said that 99.9% of our teachers are meeting competency that doesn’t tell us anything” she says.
But NEA Las Cruces President Patrick Sanchez says the 99.9 percent figure has been taken out of context and misrepresented by the Public Education Department. Sanchez says Skandera does not mention that districts deal with underperforming teachers outside of the evaluation process.
“You’ll also find teachers in there that have been guided out of the system and we spared the districts and the state the expense of going through an expensive hearing, we work with the district. There is a far more than 1% of teachers leaving the profession because they weren’t good teachers.” he says
Sanchez also questions the validity of the claim that the old teacher evaluation system found 99.9% of teachers to be effective.
And the NEA has filed a lawsuit against the Public Education Department for its failure to fulfill three consecutive public information requests to share the data quantifying the assertion.
Sanchez says 99.9 percent may have been pulled out of thin air to justify rigorous teacher performance and accountability measures. KRWG News asked the Public Education Department where the figure came from but we have not heard back.
Using the statistic Sanchez says the Public Education Department has been able to blame teachers for poor education outcomes.
“It masks the true issues that cost money like lowering class size, that improves students achievement. To attract and retain the best professionals that takes money." he says
The NEA isn’t the only teacher organization to have filed cases against Hanna Skandera and the Public Education department. But Sanchez says with backing from the NEA national body it may be the first to win one.