I am writing today to announce the closure of the New Mexico Independent. After three and a half years of operation in New Mexico, the board of the American Independent News Network, has decided to shift publication of its news…
While environmental activists played their part yesterday during demonstrations at the capitol building, going so far as to dress up as solar panels and to sing the tune of “You Are My Sunshine,” their counterparts, the anti-cap-and-trade contingency who has…
Roughly one quarter of University of New Mexico students are unimpressed with the state’s flagship public school, according to a survey that questioned college students about their higher education experiences.
New Mexico received criticism and praise for its primary and secondary education system from U.S. Department of Education Secretary Arne Duncan following the Obama administration’s announcement states can submit waivers to opt out of No Child Left Behind (NCLB).
While the move to deny social promotion to third graders is viewed as a bold step by the secretary, the state’s teacher evaluation system is earning no plaudits.
From The Albuquerque Journal:
“If your students keep being allowed to leave third grade and fourth grade without being able to read, you’re not doing them any favors,” Duncan said.
Duncan was particularly critical of New Mexico’s teacher evaluation system, citing the fact that 99.9 percent of teachers are considered satisfactory under the current system.
“That’s a broken system,” Duncan said.
Under the 2002 federal legislation, students are permitted to transfer to new schools if their current schools fail to meet state proficiency two years in a row. Even more costly, 20 percent of an under-performing school’s federal dollars is redirected to fund tutoring services for low-income students after three years of missing state standards. The build up of high-stakes testing that determine whether the state is meeting proficiency benchmarks — called Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) — was established by the federal law but allowed for states to craft the specifics.
NCLB uses the Annual Yearly Progress measure to determine the success of a school. Under NCLB, by 2014, nearly every school in the country is expected to have 100 percent of its students proficient according to state-administered tests used to fulfill NCLB regulations.
However, enough positive signs point to New Mexico earning the good graces of the waiver committee that will determine whether the state can opt out of the punitive elements of NCLB.
New Mexico Secretary of Education-designate Hanna Skandera was in attendance at the East Room of the White House when the president formally announced the waiver process on Friday. Skandera has made it a priority to overhaul (PDF) the teacher evaluation system — one of the main sticking points the administration established in granting waivers.
Following the lead of successful applicants for Race To The Top — the president’s signature education program — Skandera plans to institute a value-added metric to determine the success of a teacher’s instruction.
The measure is controversial, but the federal government has implicitly mandated the system’s use in any quid pro quo arrangement with states seeking to wrangle themselves out of NCLB.
New Mexico certainly could benefit from the opt out — 87 percent of its schools failed to make (PDF) AYP in 2011.
