A broken education system leads to teacher shortage

Our school has not been fully staffed all year. New Mexico has a teacher shortage. Are you wondering why?

As a teacher now and a systems analyst in a prior career, I cannot help but analyze the educational system in this district and this state. This is my 13th year in education, and I have to say each year gets more frustrating as the system failures increase. As you will see, many of these topics are interrelated.

Testing

In January, I sat in on scheduling testing for the rest of the year. Testing is in abundance, with much of it adding no value to the teaching and learning process that happens in my class. Our school will give the ACCESS, NAEP, IPT, DEA, SBA Science, SBA Spanish Reading, PARCC Reading, PARCC Math and EOC’s (End of Course exams) for every course other than those tested by PARCC. Our slogan has become, “Teach in the fall and test in the spring.”

Not every student will take every test, but every test will affect the teaching that goes on in the building. For example, the ACCESS test for English language proficiency for English Language Learners will only be taken by about 40 percent of our school. However, many teachers will be needed to administer it. Those students not taking the test are in review lessons, or practice tests, marking time rather than progressing forward in their learning so as not to leave these ELLs behind. Later, those ELL students will be pulled from class to work in small groups with a proctor for the speaking part of the test. These students flat out have to miss instruction.

A number of tests add no value for teaching and learning, including the PARCC, which takes the most time to prepare for and to administer. Students have to take practice tests to learn to use the tools, like drag and drop, highlighting and math editors, etc. The test consumes hours of planning and scheduling and a minimum of three full days of administering the test. After all of that, what is the takeaway? The results come back the following school year — not helping me as a teacher of those students. The results are in the form of a parent report that gives their student’s score on a scale of 1 to 5 for a test of numerous standards. There is no indication of areas of strength or weakness within the different standards.

Last year, only six states gave the PARCC. There is a trend for states to give the ACT or SAT as the 11th-grade exit exam. That seems like a win-win. States and districts get their data, and students are provided with a district-paid college entrance exam. When the head of the Public Education Department for our state is PARCC’s board chairwoman, what are the chances of that happening here?

What then is a test that adds value to the educational process? Tests like the Discovery Educational Assessment and the Measures of Academic Progress. These are probably the only tests not required by federal or state law. The tests provide detailed information that teachers can use to inform instruction. Reports on the outcomes are available as soon as a student completes the test. They also show growth

throughout the year. MAP can point out gaps in prior learning, which helps teachers work with students to fill those gaps.

With the new Every Student Succeeds Act, ESSA, the emphasis on this testing has the option to be relaxed. Students still have to take tests, but they can be computer-based adaptive tests that adapt to student levels, like the MAP. Also, student achievement can be judged on portfolios of student work and extended learning tasks.

The ESSA also eliminates the federal mandate that test scores be part of teacher evaluation. That is a good thing. Of all the parts of a teacher evaluation, test scores, which are 50 percent of the evaluation, are the most unreliable.

Work with kids and don’t get sick?

This year, the evaluation system threw in the clause that teachers who use the personal and sick days would drop one level within the attendance piece of their evaluation for every three days they take. Wow. When I worked in industry as a salaried professional, I had my vacation days. I also had an allotment of sick days. Annual evaluations were never dropped due to the number of sick days taken within the allotment given.

Are the employees at PED docked in their evaluation when they use sick days? Here we are working in a classroom full of students. I see around 150 students per day; with pink eye, strep throat, and colds and flu. I would venture to say that teachers are more at risk of illness due to this increased exposure than most, yet are penalized for getting sick.

Speaking of absences, while teachers are penalized for their own absences, we are also penalized for our students’ absences. Student test scores count for 50 percent of the evaluation, yet students who are habitual truants are counted in our scores.

Halfway through the school year, 19 percent of my students were already at the 10 days of absences that qualify them as habitual truants. Where is the state assistance in getting these students to come to school? If we cannot teach them, we should not have them counted in our data.

Failing but moving on

In high school, when a math or English class is failed, students must retake it to earn the credits — and gain the knowledge necessary to progress to the next level. That makes sense.

In middle school, a student is allowed to fail one class per year and still move to the next grade level. Therefore, I have students who have failed math and moved to the next grade. Those students are not prepared, and I will teach them, and their scores will be included in my evaluation.

Students know this system, too. Every year I have students tell me that this is the class that will be their “F class.” Sometimes they tell me after the first semester.

In elementary school, parents can waive their failing students on to the next grade. I understand that this is for the socio-emotional good of the student. It is certainly not for the good of the teachers and their evaluations.

But, again, we are professionals and trying to do what is best for students.

Our school has not been fully staffed all year. New Mexico has a teacher shortage. Is anyone still wondering why?

Debbie Parke is an eighth-grade math and Algebra I teacher.