The Think New Mexico report stresses the importance of: • Optimizing Time for Teaching and Learning. It recommends increasing minimum instruction time for students and adopting a balanced calendar to shorten summer vacation. Shockingly, the State Legislative Finance Committee estimated that students lose approximately 32% of instructional time each year to non-instructional activities such as parent-teacher conferences, home visits, early release, and teacher professional development. • Improving Teacher Training. The research is clear that the single most important factor in a student’s success is the effectiveness of the student’s teacher. As noted in the report: “If American teachers – unlike athletes or manufacturing workers – haven’t got much better over the past three decades, it’s largely because their training hasn’t, either. … [T]eacher training in most of the United States has usually been an afterthought. Most new teachers enter the classroom with a limited set of pedagogical skills, since they get little experience beforehand, and most education courses don’t say much about how you run a class. Then teachers get little ongoing, sustained training to help them improve.” • Revamping the Colleges of Education. Why are potential teachers pursuing alternative rather than traditional pathways into education careers? One reason is that the curriculum at the state’s colleges of education too often emphasizes abstract theory over the practical, skillsbased learning that is most valuable to future teachers. There are eight colleges of education in the state. The curricula at the different colleges are not aligned, and they have not generally evolved to keep up with new research about best practices. • Enhancing Principal Pay and Training. After teacher quality, principal quality is the second most impactful factor in student success, and the two are closely connected: principals are the key to recruiting and keeping excellent teachers. The state’s high teacher attrition is likely linked to our high rate of principal attrition. A 2018 report identified New Mexico as one of the 10 worst states for principal retention, with principals staying an average of well under four years in a position. The cost of replacing a principal is estimated at $75,000. As to why principals leave their jobs, the top reasons were inadequate preparation, insufficient professional development, and low salaries. • Upgrading the Quality of School Boards. New Mexico should increase the annual training requirements for all school board members from five hours to 24 hours and focus on how school board governance can improve student outcomes. • Smaller School Districts, Schools, and Class Sizes. New Mexico should revise the public school capital outlay funding formula to incentivize school districts to build smaller schools: 900 or fewer students for high schools and 400 or fewer for elementary and middle schools. Smaller schools tend to have higher graduation rates, higher student achievement, and a higher level of satisfaction among students and parents. Smaller schools also tend to be safer. • Maximizing the Benefits of Charter Schools. There are 98 charter schools in New Mexico, with an enrollment of 29,219 students. The report encourages the Legislature and Governor to provide greater oversight of failing charter schools and enhance the mission of academically successful charter schools. • Providing a Relevant, Rigorous High School Curriculum. New Mexico must make the student curriculum more relevant. The state should make the high school curriculum more engaging by adding a semester course in finance (financial literacy) to the graduation requirement. We should also maintain a course in government and require a course in civics. The state should require two credits of foreign language for high school graduation. • Depoliticizing Student Assessments. School testing has become a hot-button political issue over the years. In some cases, student test results can be used to reward or punish teachers. The Think New Mexico report noted: “Achievement tests were not designed for the purposes of promoting or grading students, evaluating teachers, or evaluating schools. In fact, connecting these social functions to achievement test data corrupts what the tests are measuring. When a score has been connected to a teacher’s pay or job status, educators will inevitably be drawn toward teaching to the test, and schools toward hiring to the test and paying to the test, rather than making sure students get the well-rounded education they deserve.” I would personally encourage you to purchase a copy of this report. It is an important document providing a roadmap to rethinking public education in New Mexico. You can reach out to Think New Mexico at their address, 1227 Paseo de Peralta, Santa Fe, NM, 87501 or by telephone at 505-992-1315. n It should be pointed out that, in all fairness, the state has already begun to take positive steps, such as substantially raising teachers’ salaries to the highest among our surrounding states and increasing access to early childhood education. 10
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