Commentary: American Federation of Teachers New Mexico President Stephanie Ly released the following statement:
“Secretary of Education Hanna Skandera released the ‘2016 Teacher Evaluation Results,’ and once again, has done a disservice to our schools and students in New Mexico.
“By releasing scores riddled with incomplete or incorrect data, she has stubbornly continued the injurious practice of basing educator scores on standardized testing like the PARCC exam.
“Data presented today to reporters on a conference call – yet still unavailable on the PED’s own website – shows decreases in highly effective and exemplary educators, and increases in minimally effective educators. These scores, however, are starkly different than observation scores from principals and other education professionals, which show higher scores for New Mexico educators across the board.
“It is astounding that Secretary Skandera willfully continues to demand 50% of an educator’s score be based on standardized testing, even after a New Mexico Court ruled such practices cause irreparable harm, and cities like Houston, Texas, have scrapped value-added systems completely; additionally, testimony from the New Mexico Public Education Department’s own experts revealed as many as 10% of educators are incorrectly scored in the process.
“Today’s scores are meaningless for educators, and provide no real feedback or useful methods for improvement, and already score discrepancies are being found by district superintendents from across the state.
“Secretary Skandera is solely responsible for the sustained destruction of New Mexico’s public schools under her watch. Her blithe indifference to the consequences of her actions is immoral and the harm she has caused will take years to repair.”