{"id":288311,"date":"2017-02-12T14:23:48","date_gmt":"2017-02-12T21:23:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=288311"},"modified":"2017-02-12T14:23:48","modified_gmt":"2017-02-12T21:23:48","slug":"committee-deadlocks-on-bill-to-put-teacher-evals-into-law","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2017\/02\/committee-deadlocks-on-bill-to-put-teacher-evals-into-law\/","title":{"rendered":"Committee deadlocks on bill to put teacher evals into law"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_56542\"  class=\"wp-caption module image alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 771px;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-56542\" src=\"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Kids-at-Roundhouse-771x504.jpg\" alt=\"A statue outside the Roundhouse in Santa Fe.\" width=\"771\" height=\"504\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Kids-at-Roundhouse-771x504.jpg 771w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Kids-at-Roundhouse-336x220.jpg 336w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Kids-at-Roundhouse-768x502.jpg 768w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Kids-at-Roundhouse-1170x764.jpg 1170w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Kids-at-Roundhouse.jpg 1500w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 771px) 100vw, 771px\" \/><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Heath Haussamen \/ NMPolitics.net<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">A statue outside the Roundhouse in Santa Fe.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>A bill backed by Gov. Susana Martinez that would give slightly less weight to students&#8217; standardized test scores in grading teachers sputtered in a legislative committee Saturday as Democrats sought a broader overhaul or outright scrapping of the controversial evaluation system.<\/p>\n<p>The House Education Committee deadlocked along party lines on the bill, which would have turned the teacher evaluation system from a rule imposed by Martinez&#8217;s administration into a law.<\/p>\n<p>The impasse on <a href=\"https:\/\/nmlegis.gov\/Legislation\/Legislation?Chamber=H&amp;LegType=B&amp;LegNo=350&amp;year=17\" target=\"_blank\">House Bill 350<\/a> casts doubt on the future of the evaluation program because it would be easier for a future governor or the Public Education Department to change or replace it.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"module align-left half type-aside\">\n<h3>About this article<\/h3>\n<p>This article comes from <a href=\"http:\/\/www.santafenewmexican.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">The Santa Fe New Mexican<\/a>. NMPolitics.net is paying for the rights to publish articles about the 2017\u00a0legislative session from the newspaper. Help us cover the cost by\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/donate\/\" target=\"_blank\">making a donation to NMPolitics.net<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/aside>\n<p>Frustrations with the state&#8217;s evaluation system for teachers were obvious during more than three hours of sometimes tearful testimony. Teachers and administrators said the program relies too heavily on students&#8217; standardized tests, fails to consider much of the work they do and unfairly draws comparisons between very different classrooms.<\/p>\n<p>Jennifer Settle, a special education teacher from Clovis, described the program as virtually stacked against her as it measures her work with children with disabilities.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I work myself to death to see a year&#8217;s growth in students that have traumatic brain injuries,&#8221; she said.<\/p>\n<p>Under the evaluation system, Settle said, she can only expect to receive an average rating even in an outstanding year.<\/p>\n<p>Other teachers said the emphasis on testing is driving their colleagues from the profession.<\/p>\n<p>Still others cautioned against throwing educators into uncertainty by creating a completely new program, saying the current system could work if better if it were refined to give less weight to testing.<\/p>\n<p>Several school administrators argued against placing any system into law and urged legislators to give them greater leeway in choosing what to measure and how to measure it.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This needs to be flexible,&#8221; said Kirk Carpenter, superintendent of the Aztec Municipal School District.<\/p>\n<p>The Republican sponsors of House Bill 350, Reps. Monica Youngblood and David Gallegos, said it represented a reasonable compromise by reducing the importance of standardized testing in teachers&#8217; evaluations. Public Education Secretary Hanna Skandera said last month she supported the bill, under which testing would account for about 40 percent of evaluations rather than 50 percent.<\/p>\n<p>Democrats and several teachers said that would still place too great an emphasis on annual exams. And it would have changed little else about the current, controversial system.<\/p>\n<p>Democrats and teacher unions have assailed the Public Education Department&#8217;s evaluation program since it was first implemented by rule in 2012 after similar proposals did not clear the Legislature.<\/p>\n<p>Unions sued in 2014, arguing the system puts teachers at risk of being punished or fired based on a flawed methodology. State District Judge David Thomson of Santa Fe granted an injunction in 2015, barring Martinez&#8217;s administration from making any consequential decisions about teachers based on the annual evaluations. A trial is scheduled for later this year.<\/p>\n<p>Legislators will take up several other bills this session to change the state&#8217;s teacher evaluation system.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/nmlegis.gov\/Legislation\/Legislation?Chamber=H&amp;LegType=B&amp;LegNo=248&amp;year=17\" target=\"_blank\">House Bill 248<\/a> by Rep. Christine Trujillo, D-Albuquerque, would end the use of test scores and certain teacher absences in teacher evaluations.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/nmlegis.gov\/Legislation\/Legislation?Chamber=H&amp;LegType=B&amp;LegNo=158&amp;year=17\" target=\"_blank\">House Bill 158<\/a> by Democratic Rep. Stephanie Garcia Richard, a teacher from Los Alamos and chairwoman of the House Education Committee, would allow a select group of school districts to design what the legislation describes as fair and equitable evaluation systems.<\/p>\n<p>And the Education Committee voted 9-2 to advance a bill that would ensure teachers are not penalized on their evaluations for taking certain amounts of personal and sick leave. Sponsored by Rep. Jason Harper, R-Rio Rancho, and known as the Teachers are Human Too Act, <a href=\"https:\/\/nmlegis.gov\/Legislation\/Legislation?Chamber=H&amp;LegType=B&amp;LegNo=241&amp;year=17\" target=\"_blank\">House Bill 241<\/a> would address concerns raised by teachers fearful of losing points for falling ill or caring for a family member. That bill goes next to a vote by the full House of Representatives.<\/p>\n<p>Republicans said Martinez might reject too broad an overhaul.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I look at this bill as a compromise,&#8221; Gallegos told the committee, referring to <a href=\"https:\/\/nmlegis.gov\/Legislation\/Legislation?Chamber=H&amp;LegType=B&amp;LegNo=350&amp;year=17\" target=\"_blank\">House Bill 350<\/a>, which is backed by the public education secretary.<\/p>\n<p>But Democrats replied that, because the current system is not enshrined in law, the governor can change it without the Legislature&#8217;s approval. If the Martinez administration wants to give less weight to standardized tests, it can change the rules on its own.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The Public Education Department has always had that authority,&#8221; said Rep. Linda Trujillo, D-Santa Fe.<\/p>\n<p><em>Contact Andrew Oxford at (505) 986-3093 or <a href=\"mailto:aoxford@sfnewmexican.com\">aoxford@sfnewmexican.com<\/a>. Follow him on Twitter <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/@andrewboxford\" target=\"_blank\">@andrewboxford<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The bill would have turned the teacher evaluation system from a rule imposed by Gov. Susana Martinez&#8217;s administration into a law.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":56542,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[3329,234,125,107],"class_list":["post-288311","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-2017-legislative-session","tag-children","tag-education","tag-roundhouse"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/288311","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=288311"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/288311\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56542"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=288311"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=288311"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=288311"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}