State releases teacher evaluation reports

• Statewide, teachers rated as highly effective increased from 24.2 percent in 2014-2015 to 24.8 percent in 2015-2016.
• In the Farmington Municipal School District, 78.5 percent of teachers were rated effective or higher. In the Aztec Municipal School District, it was 78.8 percent.
• The Bloomfield School District had 71.3 percent of its teacher rated effective, highly effective or exemplary.
• About 55 percent of the teachers in the Central Consolidated School District were rated effective or higher.

FARMINGTON — Teacher evaluations statewide for the 2015-2016 school year showed minimal changes compared to the previous year, according to figures released by the New Mexico Public Education Department.

The department released the third year of results of the NMTEACH Educator Effectiveness system today.

Each teacher was rated on a five-point scale. Educators were evaluated based on student achievement on assessments, observations in the classroom, parent and student surveys and teacher attendance. Teachers were rated as ineffective, minimally effective, effective, highly effective and exemplary.

During a conference call with reporters this afternoon, state education Secretary Hanna Skandera said New Mexico had more teachers rated highly effective and exemplary than ever before.

Statewide, the number of teachers rated highly effective increased from 24.2 percent in 2014-2015 to 24.8 percent in 2015-2016, and the number of teachers rated exemplary increased from 2.5 percent to 3.8 percent.

The biggest change statewide was a drop in teachers who were rated effective, which fell from 47.1 percent in 2014-2015 to 42.7 percent in 2015-2016.

Data provided by the state education department showed the majority of San Juan County teachers were rated as effective, highly effective and exemplary.

The Central Consolidated School District had about 55 percent of its teachers rated effective or higher, and the Bloomfield School District had 71.3 percent.

Farmington and Aztec schools had nearly identical scores. About 78.5 percent of Farmington Municipal School District teachers and 78.8 percent of Aztec Municipal School District teachers were rated effective or higher.

Bloomfield Superintendent Kim Mizell said she was pleased to see nearly 100 teachers in her district were rated as effective and that there was an increase in teachers rated as highly effective and exemplary.

"We definitely want to see more (teachers) moving in that direction," Mizell said.

Both Mizell and Aztec Superintendent Kirk Carpenter said they have questions for the state education department about anomalies in the teacher evaluation reports they’ve received.

Carpenter said Aztec administrators were concerned about accurate data after they had to resubmit enrollment information to the state in August after initially submitting it in June.

Mizell also expressed concerns about teachers having the incorrect number of students assigned to them and about student achievement scores for special education teachers.

Farmington Superintendent Gene Schmidt said he was optimistic about his district's teacher evaluation scores but offered little comment, saying administrators were still looking over the data and would have a better idea of the district's overall performance later on.

CCSD spokesman James Preminger said the district was still reviewing the teacher evaluation data and did not have a comment on the recently released numbers.

Joshua Kellogg covers education for The Daily Times. He can be reached at 505-564-4627.