Another legislation is almost over and the Legislature has once again done nothing to improve educational performance in our state which so often trails the nation (which in turn trails the world) in educational performance.
Interestingly enough, the Obama Administration (unlike many Democrats in the Legislature) has actually been quite supportive of Gov. Martinez’s reforms. Now, we have Peter Orszag, Obama’s former Office of Management and Budget head, has written this article detailing how standardized tests can and should be used to evaluate teachers.
The use of such standardized testing to even partially evaluate New Mexico teachers has been anathema to the unions which have effectively killed any and all such reforms. Now, are standardized tests perfect? No. If we had a truly free market education system where resources were commanded by parents and children, not bureaucrats and politicians, they could choose whatever method of teacher evaluation they wanted. But that is not the reality. Standardized tests, imperfect as they are, accurately measure teacher effectiveness. Unfortunately, that accountability is not welcome in the world of education.
HT: George Richmond
Generalized tests created in DC are not successful to evaluate children in NM! Testing would work however if a test was given on the 1st day of school and then the same test given at the end of the term, to measure improvement of those specific students. To allow those tests to be compared to other districts/schools would not be a measurement of the teacher, but of the system as a whole. The teacher only gets that student 1 of 12 years. And, schools have a tendancy to group like students into one class, which could inadvertantly presume that one teacher was better than the other – depending on the students she was blessed to work with. Also, then the teachers should be free to teach in their own way, and not with boxed sets sent from DC. The students in Connecticut are different than those in NM, or AZ or TX. It needs to be controlled at a state level and the feds need to get their nose out of our business.
I agree with you 100%. Good points. I did not make them in my piece, but you are spot-on.