Where did all of NM’s students go in the new teacher evals?

If nothing else, the New Mexico Public Education Department is being surprisingly honest that its new teacher evaluation system has nothing to do with students — not their improvement and not consistency in their classrooms.

In fact, the department’s one-page rundown on changes under Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham begins with: 1. Student growth scores will not be included. 2. Teacher attendance will not be included. In the previous system, student growth (did they improve — not are they proficient) accounted for no more than 35% and teacher absences beyond six days accounted for no more than 10% of a teacher’s evaluation. Under the new system, neither will be included. Instead, much of each evaluation will be taken from “a minimum of one observation during the school year.”

And that’s a pendulum swing that removes data on all of New Mexico’s K-12 students from the equation — the students represented in the landmark Yazzie/Martinez ruling that promised to ensure all students get quality instruction — instruction that state taxpayers will spend more than $3 billion on this fiscal year alone.

Now, the teachers’ evaluations will be a subjective assessment skewed by whether the evaluator visited on a good day and if they click with the teacher — or not.

Our students (and their parents and taxpayers) deserve to know that whether they and their peers get at least a year of learning will be a part of their teacher’s evaluation. They deserve to have their teacher at the front of the classroom as many days as possible rather than a sub who walks in cold and babysits. And their teachers deserve an honest assessment of how they are doing, which has to include how much their students learn.

While the evaluations introduced in the Gov. Susana Martinez administration were revised more than once and no doubt would have benefited from additional fine tuning, this 180-degree turn promises to take New Mexico right back to having 99% of all teachers rated as satisfactory (“applying” in the new jargon). There is no requirement that struggling teachers receive mentoring and no reward for exceptional teachers who bring students up multiple grade levels, because there is simply no longer a mechanism in the process to account for how much students learn under their teacher.

And so, while state law requires evaluations, this incarnation looks like a drop-in rubber stamp for job security that once again focuses on adults, not students, and ignores the fact that professionals in every other field are evaluated on their output as well as their input.

NMPED says in its rundown this is a work in progress and it “will build out a more comprehensive system for School Year 2020-21 and beyond.” That means 2019-20 will be another year lost in the honesty gap for N.M. students and teachers.

Next year “comprehensive” needs to include students and their academic growth.