Unions finally get trial date in state’s maligned teacher evaluation system
Unions finally get trial date in state’s maligned teacher evaluation system
Randi Weingarten, left, the national president of the American Federation of Teachers, answers questions Monday after attending a hearing on teacher evaluations in New Mexico District Court. Weingarten said that New Mexico’s teacher evaluations are one of the worst in America. New Mexico AFT president Stephanie Ly is at right. Clyde Mueller/The New Mexican
A judge on Monday finally scheduled a trial date in a long-running lawsuit launched by a teachers’ union to stop New Mexico’s controversial system of evaluating teachers.
But the trial won’t start until a year from now, on Oct. 23, 2017, state District Judge David Thomson announced. The American Federation of Teachers New Mexico, the Albuquerque Teachers Federation and others sued the state Public Education Department over the evaluation process in 2014.
The unions argue that the system, which heavily relies on student test scores to measure a teacher’s worth, violates the state’s School Personnel Act. The Public Education Department changed some aspects of the teacher evaluation plan without legislative approval. As a result, the state can use the evaluation system to fire teachers, the unions said.
Lawyers for both sides agreed to the yearlong hiatus so they can include any new data or regulations that the Public Education Department may release.
Thomson said he will continue an injunction that prohibits the education department from using the teacher evaluations for personnel actions, such as firing teachers or putting them on a professional improvement plan.
Randi Weingarten, national president of the 1.6-million member American Federation of Teachers union, attended Monday’s hearing in Santa Fe. She said the fact that Thomson enjoined the state from using the evaluations to discipline teachers is “a pretty big red flag that there is a problem.”
Weingarten called New Mexico’s teacher evaluation system “terrible … political and ideological as opposed to educational.”
Republican Gov. Susana Martinez’s administration implemented the teacher evaluation system by rule in 2012. An earlier attempt to enact the changes by statute did not clear the state Legislature.
The annual assessments rely on a combination of student test scores, classroom observations by principals, student and teacher surveys and other measures. Teachers can be rated as “exemplary,” “highly effective,” “effective,” “minimally effective” or “ineffective.”
The education department says the system holds teachers accountable, rewarding the best and allowing those with lower scores to receive professional help. Critics, including various Democratic legislators, say the evaluation measures are too convoluted to understand and hurt good teachers. They also say that no matter how good the state’s intentions may be, the results are sometimes muddled by inaccurate or missing data.
Weingarten, who lives in New York, was in New Mexico to campaign for national and local Democratic candidates in the November election. She said the slow pace of the litigation is keeping educators and lawmakers “in suspense … kind of like Donald Trump holds us in suspense.”
She was referring to Republican presidential nominee Trump’s comment at least week’s presidential debate that he would keep the nation in suspense in terms of whether he would concede a loss to Democratic rival Hillary Clinton.
The National Education Association of New Mexico filed a separate lawsuit in 2014 to stop the evaluation system, claiming that it unlawfully takes control of teacher evaluations and supervision away from local school districts.
Todd Wertheim, attorney for that union, said by phone Monday that he is engaged in settlement negotiations with the education department regarding that case. He said if it is not resolved by the end of the year, it will likely go to trial next spring.
During the past two years, the Public Education Department has been unsuccessful in its efforts to stop either suit or combine them.
Contact Robert Nott at 505-986-3021 or rnott@sfnewmexican.com. Unions finally get trial date in state’s maligned teacher evaluation system - The Santa Fe New Mexican: Local News: