SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) - Three-fourths of New Mexico’s teachers were rated as effective or better under a new evaluation system partly based on student achievement, according to the state Department of Education.
But educational union officials on Friday dismissed the ratings.
“We have no trust that the new system either accurately portrays teacher impact on student achievement or is legally imposed on school districts,” said Charles Bowyer, executive director of the National Education Association New Mexico.
Bowyer said the union plans a legal challenge to the evaluation system, which was implemented across the state this year by Republican Gov. Susana Martinez’s administration after a proposed evaluation overhaul failed in the Democratic-controlled Legislature in 2012.
According to the department, about 54 percent of teachers were rated effective, 20.4 percent were highly effective and 1.5 percent received the highest grade, “exemplary.”
A rating of “minimally effective” went to 20.7 percent of teachers and 3.4 percent were classified as “ineffective,” the lowest ranking.
Public Education Secretary Hanna Skandera said the new system represented “a huge step in the right direction in regards to providing relevant, good data and information for our teachers and our school leaders.”
But many educators oppose the evaluation system, saying it relies too much on student achievement on standardized tests.
Stephanie Ly, president of the American Federation of Teachers New Mexico, said the evaluation system was flawed and “thus ratings will not be accurate.”
“We believe many more teachers are effective and better than effective,” Ly said in a statement.
Besides looking at improvements in student performance, the evaluations are based on classroom observations of teachers by administrators and other factors, including teacher attendance and surveys of students and parents.
The previous system took a pass-fail approach of whether a teacher was competent or not based on what administrators observed during classroom visits. Less than 1 percent of teachers failed to meet standards under the old system, Skandera said.
She contended the new ratings validate the use of student performance to assess teachers.
About 3.5 percent of teachers - 299 across the state - were classified as exemplary based solely on student achievement in their classes.
However, classroom observations found only 88 teachers, or 0.6 percent statewide, deserved the highest rating.
“I think we have more exemplary teachers,” she said.
The results released by the department don’t cover several thousand educators. That’s because some schools missed deadlines for submitting data to the agency. The assessments also exclude school workers such as counselors who don’t directly teach students.
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