Hanna Skandera was appointed state commissioner in New Mexico three years ago by Republican Governor Susannah Martinez but has never been confirmed by Democratic legislators. She has never been a teacher, but has worked in policy positions for Governor Jeb Bush and Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. (I knew her slightly when she worked at the conservative Hoover Institution as a research assistant.) Skandera is a member of Jeb Bush’s Chiefs for Change, a small group of state superintendents who support Bush’s policies.
Skandera is insistent on imposing a teacher evaluation plan that has no research evidence behind it. In fact, leading researchers like Stanford’s Edward Haertel oppose the model proposed by Skandera. Haertel, one of the nation’s most distinguished psychometricians recently spelled out the limitations of using test scores to evaluate teachers, such as proposed by Skandera. She wants test scores to count for 50% of teachers’ evaluations.
But Haertel says:
“…..there should be no fixed weight attached to the scores in reaching any consequential decisions. Princi- pals and teachers must have the latitude to set aside an individual’s score entirely — to ignore it completely — if they have specific information about the local context that could plausibly render that score invalid.”
Skandera seems determined to press for a formula that has worked mainly to demoralize teachers, not to improve education.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
A person with no educational background making major decisions about education….par for the course. If I’m sick do I need to call a plumber? That is the level of absurdity that is taking place in the name of “educational reform”!
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Someone needs to tell Governor Corbett that this is not good policy. Starting next year in Pennsylvania, up to 50% of our “Educator Effectiveness” will be based on student data. Some of it we get to choose, but the rest is school data. So I could be assessed based on students I don’t even know. Which actually might be better, considering I teach beginning level ELLs, who will not be posting big numbers. I just spent an hour or 2 putting together my required data binder. It just tells me that my students have not had enough time to learn the English necessary to read the test, but we are expected to keep track and have conversations about our data.
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Here’s a sample of a valid assessemnet of teachers and students The system is broken AND society is broken. We must abandon the either or mentality that drives this countries politics.
A system that does not adjust to societies ills is non functional for that society. We must attack both with a vengeance.
Even with a total elimination of poverty, students will still range in abilities from the severe cognitively disabled to the good testing book learned kids. That’s a fact.
A realty check here, kids are different, and always will be. Don’t pretend that with the elimination of poverty, all will be the same. And don’t pretend that poverty will be fixed in the near future. Don’t use excuses, adapt the system to today’s society, here and now, not make believe. http://savingstudents-caplee.blogspot.com/2013/12/accountability-with-honor-and-yes-we.html
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I teach in a high poverty level where kids wonder where they are sleeping tonight or where their next meal is coming from. When you are worried about those things you are not thinking about math or reading.
We must be allowed to teach to our students needs not to some test that has no bearing on reality.
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Here’s a sample of a valid teacher and student eval http://savingstudents-caplee.blogspot.com/2013/12/accountability-with-honor-and-yes-we.html
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6,550 New Mexicans declare NO CONFIDENCE in Hanna Skandera and PED: http://www.change.org/petitions/stop-the-corporate-education-reforms-in-new-mexico
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Susana Martinez, Hanna Skandera’s boss ran on the promise that she would import the Florida model of “educational reform” to New Mexico. She certainly kept her campaign promise and even imported Skandera to implement all of the punitive educational policies.
Interestingly enough, numerous educators voted for Martinez in 2010. They are now seeing that elections indeed DO have consequences and their vote harmed public education as well as their careers. Many chose to ignore the information that AFT-NM and NEA-NM exhaustively and extensively put out via door to door, phone calls, and mailings; many have said that they had no idea that it would be this horrible.
Early voting in New Mexico begins in 5 1/2 months for the primary (May 6, 2014). Hopefully, teachers will all vote for a governor who supports public education and their careers. It is time to do what the Albuquerque Teachers Federation’s popular T-shirt says, “Fire Susana before she fires you.”
If educators and parents show up to vote, New Mexico can begin to reclaim public education.
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Howie Morales is the man to win the governor race. He is very pro kids and pro education. Plus he is kind and intelligent…what a combination!!!
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MUST I SCREAM? PROFESSIONAL PORTFOLIOS are the only “fair” evaluation of performance. If a practitioner cannot construct such… they are likely incompetent; (OR) cowering in the wake of “common core” mandates!
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I don’t agree with professional portfolio as the only fair way. My principal looks at my lesson plans, knows how I handle my class, how I get along with my parents and what I contribute to the school. He also knows the hundreds of hours of PD I do every year to keep up with my field.
If I cant handle the classroom day to day discipline and routine I am not getting any teaching done.
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I am a dinosaur. Does anyone else remember the days where you wrote a resume and had an interview? Recommendations were checked out. Maybe as time went on, you did a writing sample or possibly taught a demo class. Now we carry a portfolio around? To prove what? Is it really that hard to identify competent teachers? Has presenting a portfolio cut the rate of early burnout? Just think about how much more time a teacher would have to teach if they didn’t have to spend so much time proving that they could teach!
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2old2tch–I spent at least an hour yesterday getting my “data binder” together. I teach a group of entering and beginning ELLs. There are 10 that I am “tracking.” Several of them only arrived in the US this year. A pair of sisters lived in a Somali refugee camp until they came to us last year. The others have only been in the county for 2 or 3 years at the most. The data told me what I already knew, that my students haven’t had enough time to be able to read the tests. My time would have been better spent planning lessons to improve their English knowledge, but the Powers That Be declare we must have data binders.
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Yeah, that was one thing a new supervisor used against me. I didn’t look at the computer generated data enough. Gee, all those years I had managed to know my students without computer generated suggestions based on limited multiple choice questions.
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I know I don’t go to the politicians and tell the how to do their jobs when the legislature is not in session. So why should a politician come to my office and tell me how to do my job?
I went to school for An AA, BS, Ma, EdS and I am considered an expert in learning so a person with a degree in public policy that was asked to leave her post in Fla is going to tell me how to teach kids.
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