The New Mexico AFT blasted the Public Education Department for delaying the trial of the state’s controversial teacher evaluation system. Secretary of Education Hanna Skandera previously worked for Jeb Bush and Arnold Schwarzenegger. She is a member of “Chiefs for Change,” the ultraconservative superintendents originally assembled by Jeb to promote corporate reform.
American Federation of Teachers New Mexico and
Albuquerque Teachers Federation
React to Delay by PED on Court Hearing
New Rules Expected from PED March 15;
will Double Down on VAM
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 7, 2016
Contact: John Dyrcz
505-554-8679
Albuquerque – American Federation of Teachers New Mexico President Stephanie Ly and Albuquerque Teachers Federation President Ellen Bernstein released the following statement:
“The Public Education Department and Secretary Skandera have once again willfully delayed the AFT NM/ATF lawsuit against the current value added model evaluation system due to their purposeful refusal to reveal the data being used to evaluate our educators in New Mexico.
“In addition to this stall tactic, and during a status hearing this morning in the First District Court, lawyers for the PED revealed that new rules and regulations were to be unveiled on March 15 by the PED, and would ‘rely heavily’ on VAM as a method of evaluation for educators.
“New Mexico educators will not cease in our fight against the abusive policies of this administration. Allowing PED or districts to terminate employees based on VAM and student test scores is completely unacceptable, it is unacceptable to allow PED or districts to refuse licensure advancement based upon VAM scores, and it is unacceptable for PED or districts to place New Mexico educators on growth plans based on faulty data.
“High-performing education systems have policies in place which respect and support their educators and use evaluations not as punitive measures but as opportunities for improvement. Educators, unions, and administrators should oversee the evaluation process to ensure it is thorough and of high quality, as well as fair and reliable. Educators, unions, and administrators should be involved in developing, implementing and monitoring the system to ensure it reflects good teaching well, that it operates effectively, that it is tied to useful learning opportunities for teachers, and that it produces valid results.
“It is well known the PED is in a current state of crisis with several high-level staff members abandoning the Department, an on-going whistle-blower lawsuit, and the failure to produce meaningful changes to education in New Mexico during her six years as Secretary, and Skandera’s constant changes to the rules is a desperate attempt to right a sinking ship,” said Ly and Bernstein.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
David C. Hespe Commissioner New Jersey Department of Education 100 River View Plaza P.O. Box 500 Trenton, NJ 08625
Dear Commissioner Hespe,
Out of concern for my son’s education and the education of all his classmates in Englewood Cliffs Public Schools, I have requested the next PARCC test be administered via pencil and paper. I have requested this for the following reasons:
1.Article after article both in professional journals and the press clearly show students perform better across the board with the pencil and paper version of PARCC. 2. In order to prepare students for a computer administered PARCC, emphasis on computer operation and keyboarding in the lowest grades have pushed aside teaching handwriting and other important “analog” skills so important for child’s development. 3. The inordinate amount of tax dollars used to purchase technology to make administering a test via computer possible – especially in the lowest grade levels.
On the local level, it has been unclear if districts are free to choose how to administer the test, so I contacted your offices at the DOE. After speaking with several officials, a conference call was organized between me and Don Mitchell, your deputy commissioner and his legal council, on Thursday, March 6, 2016 at 3:30 p.m. They cited the following regulation as your authority dictating to districts how the PARCC test can be administered:
*6A:8-4.1 Statewide assessment system(a) The Commissioner, in accordance with N.J.S.A. 18A:7A-10, may implement assessment of student achievement in the State’s public schools in any grade(s) and by such assessments as he or she deems appropriate. The Commissioner shall report to the State Board the results of such assessments.*
Since the regulation is vague, I have asked Mr. Don Mitchell and his legal council for clarification in writing whether you, Mr. David Hespe, require all districts to administer the PARCC test by computer. I would also like to know what the consequences would be, if any, were a district to administer the pencil and paper test as they saw fit.
Should you insist on the computerized version, students would not perform as well as they might have, and this would be a poor reflection on themselves, their school, and the entire state. As a parent, I would be very upset knowing my child could have performed better.
I ask that you clarify this to all districts, including my own in Englewood Cliffs in the coming days. Thank you in advance for your attention regarding this important matter.
Sincerely,
David Di Gregorio, Parent Englewood Cliffs, NJ CC: Superintendents Press
On Mon, Mar 7, 2016 at 8:15 PM, Diane Ravitchs blog wrote:
> dianeravitch posted: “The New Mexico AFT blasted the Public Education > Department for delaying the trial of the state’s controversial teacher > evaluation system. Secretary of Education Hanna Skandera previously worked > for Jeb Bush and Arnold Schwarzenegger. She is a member of “C” >
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Your letter misses the point. PARCC tests, in any format, are FRAUDULENT exams that should not be administered at all.
They assess “college and career readiness” or “higher order thinking skills” with about the same accuracy as the tea leaves at the bottom of your tea cup.
Under the new ESSA political pressure must be directed toward stopping the testing madness and the the Common Core snake oil that spawned it, not just tweaking the format.
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How telling is your point: PARCC testing (and ALL standardized testing of diverse student populations in my opinion) is nothing more than reading tea leaves at the bottom of the tea cup!
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NYS parent as a NJ taxpayer I’m happy to see this effort. Paper and pencil is an additional angle of attack on the NJ Ed-reformsters. Hold their feet to the fire! The hardware & software industry moguls pouring lobbying & campaign cash into NJ most definitely want to see big bucks spent on their products.
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Let’s imagine a crazy world in which your local school district actually heard your requests and complied. No more computer based testing!
That’s the good news.
Now the bad news:
Your child is still going to waste their time taking a worthless and fraudulent test based on worthless and fraudulent common core standards.
So what did you accomplish?
A slightly higher score that quantifies nothing worth measuring.
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David,
Tough crowd in here, eh. Tough but most have a fidelity to truth attitude so listen and take into consideration what the posters above me have written.
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Thank you everyone for your comments. I am not pro PARCC and my stomach turns as my son comes home with Pearson math sheets pulled out of a book for homework. Yesterday’s sheet asked him to solve with a calculator – IN SECOND GRADE!! Give me a break. Worse, we have a commissioner making decisions that result in shoving technology in front of our youngest students to prepare them for this computer test.
Look at authentic Montessori – these are classrooms that respect our youngest students and encourage real “work” without computers or “Smart” boards – these students are better off.
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I taught first, 2nd and 3rd grades for a period of 10 years before going into the curriculum and administration office. I hear you and i agree with you. I know my own niece put her child into a Montesorri school; one of my nieces did home school in Maine. For the older students my friends are hiring tutors to help get their children through the high school math. One of my friends is the retired assistant superintendent of schools and he pays a home tutor for two of his grandchildren. The teachers who are my age (and retired principals) are appalled at what is going on. We had an election in the city this past week and I made sure that I spoke out to the man running for school committee and I have emails that I send to the mayor. School committees are also being pushed to decisions by state department personnel. The Commissioner in MA has been out to meet locally with the school committees in any area where they disagreed with the decisions on PARCC testing. The NJ governor is famous up and down the east coast for his power moves; what is going on in Newark is sickening. Stay in touch with people here and keep up active listening and be very vocal locally and speak out at every opportunity. Get some parents together for a “coffee hour” at your home etc. It will take many of us and parents working together to voice these issues.
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Thanks and I will follow on your advice Jean Haverhill.
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this article has Pearson/test prep/charters … all of the things we have been saying rolled up in Higher Eduction — privatization…. It’s not just about Indiana and Mitch Daniels…. https://www.jacobinmag.com/2013/08/whats-the-matter-with-indiana/
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I totally agree with this writer as both a parent and tech/art teacher. What the online test designers constantly fail to realize that that the younger students often have to take the test on a full sized keyboard. Like playing the guitar and piano too early, on full sized, instruments, the skills just aren’t there. The child might be a gifted guitarist, or a piano virtuoso, but you’d never know it…their hands are TOO SMALL.
I work with students K thru 8th on keyboard /computer skills. I can barely get students to use a mouse before they are in 1st grade. They all have iPad skills when they come to school, now (I really had a marked decline in computer skills this past fall). That aside, the test designers, also, don’t think about trying to get an 8 year old to type (not something that comes naturally), read text in one area, answer questions in another (both very SMALL areas on the screen) and scroll up and down all at the same time.
With paper/pencil students can just scoot the paper around to see everything at once, it is all right there, all the time. It’s how we prefer to work, why wouldn’t we think it’s how they prefer to work (and do better at)?
And don’t even get me started on the waste of tax dollars on technology (and yes I’m a tech teacher/tech director)….ahhhhh the waste.
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Sorry I meant this writer, ddigregorio2014 , I should have replied under their comments…opps.
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How about instead of saying a “trail” is delayed, which makes it sound like a test is being delayed, you state that a “lawsuit” is being delayed?
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