Test data dropped from New Mexico teacher evaluations

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) - New Mexico education officials say results from student test scores will not be included in teacher evaluations this year.

Public Education Deputy Secretary Gwen Perea made the announcement Thursday a memo to superintendents and charter school leaders and said evaluations will be based on classroom observation, planning and surveys.

The change comes as a development team works to craft permanent changes to the state’s teacher evaluation system.

Teacher unions, who strongly back New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham last year, have been pressing officials to drop student test scores from evaluations.

Perea wrote that teachers who still use test scores to move up a licensure level can still do so by June 1.

Charles Goodmacher of the NEA-New Mexico called the changes a “step in the right direction.”