Swickard: Good teaching is rare in our schools

© 2014 Michael Swickard, Ph.D. The most important question in education: what is good teaching? Perhaps defining good teaching is impossible, but we know good teaching when we see it. On the other hand many celebrated teachers may not know how to teach but are great at educational politics.
       Example: what many “Good” teachers are good at is playing political games in their school. They know how to play the games and therefore their students get good scores on tests regardless of how the students get their scores or even if the scores reflect their student’s abilities.
     These “Good” teachers are high achievers who make their schools look good. They are given awards while other teachers go about the teaching with no hoopla at all. One of my former students went through the cumulative folders for her incoming class and found they were on grade level.
     But when the kids came into her class they had forgotten everything. She struggled all year. In March of that year the mystery was solved. She told me, “When I gave them the end of year tests they said, ‘Miss, aren't you going to give us the answers like the teacher did last year?’”
     The best way to get at great teaching is to say what it is not. First, it is not mean. There is a notion that rigor is good so the harder the teachers are on the students, the more the students will thank them in their prayers. Not so. It seems to me that some of the mean teachers are mentally unbalanced and prey upon students.
     A former student wrote that one of her kids came to school very sad. Her grandfather had died suddenly the day before. The class was scheduled for an accountability test that day. My former student contacted the office and said that this student could not take the test.
     The principal came fluttering into the classroom at the notion of a student not taking the test and said, “We need you to take this test.” The girl, with tears running down her face said, “My grandpa died yesterday.” The principal looked mad and said, “You have to take this test” and stomped off.
     My former student’s coworkers said she must sit the student with a test. Instead my former student took her student to the library and let her sit with the librarian and hold a stuffed toy. She did get in trouble.
     At the end of the year this former student quit education, saying she would not hurt children regardless of politics and pressures. It is best she left public education since there is no room in the field for someone who realizes a child who lost a loved one the day before is not in proper condition to do accountability tests.Read full column

Swickard: Good teaching is rare in our schools

More school districts raise concerns over new teacher evaluations

From KOB-TV.com - By: Kai Porter, KOB Eyewitness News 4 - More school districts are coming forward with concerns about the state's new teacher evaluation system, saying the results may not be entirely accurate.
     The Pojoaque, Los Alamos and Moriarty-Edgewood school districts testified before a legislative committee yesterday. The districts said they found dozens of data errors that resulted in some teachers getting lower scores than they deserved.
     We asked the superintendent of the Moriarty-Edgewood School District, Tom Sullivan, to grade the state's new teacher evaluation system. "I think it has potential,” he said. “As far as the kinks that need to be ironed out I wouldn't give it more than a C at this point."
     Sullivan said his district found data errors on 40 teacher evaluations the state released last month. That's 26 percent of his teachers. Initially, 86 percent of his teachers were rated “effective” or above, but after the data is corrected he thinks it’ll be more than 90 percent.
     “I think there were some hurt feelings and some professional harm done,” he said. So where did the data errors come from?
     “I think with the number of errors it's certainly fair to assume there were some at each end,” he said. “I don't know if trying to affix blame on whose end is very productive. I would just like an acknowledgement that it was premature to release data that hadn't been reviewed more thoroughly."
     The state wasn’t quick to point the finger either. "I don't think it's appropriate to say who's at fault,” said Hanna Skandera, Secretary of Education. “I will say the data comes from the districts and we look to them to get accurate data and the evaluations are dependent on accurate data from our districts."  More

More school districts raise concerns over new teacher evaluations

Twitter chatter ranks ABQ as meth capital

From KRQE-TV.com - LBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) - There are plenty of bad jokes about Albuquerque’s meth problem, and Breaking Bad likely didn't help. Now, a new study is calling Albuquerque the meth capital of the country based on what people around the country are tweeting about.
     When it comes to sin cities, a new social media study places Albuquerque on the map. According to an analysis posted on the Daily Dot’s website, the Duke City is the capital for meth based on Twitter chatter. “No I don’t think so, I strongly disagree with that,” said Krista Salt. “It’s probably just all about the whole TV show Breaking Bad.”
     Some locals speculate the reason the combination of “meth” and “Albuquerque” is mentioned so often on Twitter, is because of the show’s popularity. The study claims it looked at nearly half-a-million tweets about sex, drugs and alcohol to determine the country’s “vice capitals.”
     According to their data, Denver is pot city, Pittsburgh is known for booze and New Orleans and sex go together. While everyone knows meth is a problem in Albuquerque, is it really the meth capital?
     Albuquerque’s film office said fans of the show know the storyline doesn't glorify meth, but instead highlights the problems associated with the drug. One thing is certain, the show and the topic have spread beyond city limits.
     Albuquerque’s film office insists Breaking Bad has garnered lots of positive response from fans. They fly to Albuquerque from around the world, not to buy meth, but to visit the show’s local locations, like Walter White’s house. More

Twitter chatter ranks ABQ as meth capital

Can the U.S. fill the gap of potential oil losses from Iraq?

Commentary on RedState by Marita Noon - While we weren't paying attention, post-war Iraq grew into a major force in the global oil market. Reaching a 30-year high, its production and exports have climbed steadily since 2011—making Iraq the second largest producer in OPEC, the seventh globally. The International Energy Agency (EIA) has forecast that Iraq has the fifth-largest proven oil reserves.
     Just one year ago, Iraq was celebrating its increased production. At a ceremony in Baghdad, Thamir Gladhban, Chairman of the Prime Minister’s Advisory Commission on Energy, touted expected production of 4.5 million barrels per day by the end of 2014. Earlier this year it was announced that “thanks to a small group of international oil companies developing oil fields and infrastructure,” Iraqi oil exports “shot up.” Iraq’s deputy Prime Minister for energy, Hussain Al-Shahristani, reported that average production, including exports, exceeded 3.5 million barrels per day—which he called “unprecedented.”
     Iraq’s newfound ability came just in time. Last week, the EIA predicted that global oil demand will rise from 91.4 million barrels per day in 2014’s first quarter to 94 million during the last 3 quarters. Iraq has been able fill in the production gaps caused by violence in Libya and sanctions in Iran. Crude oil prices have been stable. Rebecca Patterson, chief investment officer at Bessemer Trust in New York, said: Iraq “is more important for the oil market than it has been for some time.”
     The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) states: “crude volatility recently had ground down to multi-year lows.”
     But that low volatility level was before rapid gains by extremist insurgents in northern Iraq put all that progress in jeopardy, raised gasoline prices, and sent “shudders through financial markets.” A barrel of oil is now trading at its highest level since September. WSJ calls the increase “an unwelcome development for the U.S. and other major economies struggling with tepid growth.” Read full column

Can the U.S. fill the gap of potential oil losses from Iraq?

Medical pot program overhaul draws criticism

From the Santa Fe New Mexican - By Phaedra Haywood - As the state Department of Health prepares to hold a public hearing Monday on proposed new rules for New Mexico’s Medical Cannabis Program, feedback already is pouring in from a variety of sources — much of it criticism.
     The Legislative Health and Human Services Committee this week sent a letter to Health Secretary Retta Ward, asking the department to hold off on adopting the proposed rules until the department has gathered more input from stakeholders and consulted its Medical Advisory Board.
     The legislative panel also wants the department to wait until the committee has had a chance to hold its own public meeting on the topic in July. “Our constituents have raised many concerns about these rules,” says the letter, signed by the Legislative Health and Human Services Committee chairman, Rep. James Roger Madelena, D-Jemez Pueblo, and Vice Chairman Gerald Ortiz Y Pino, D-Albuquerque. After hearing the concerns, the letter says, committee members voted unanimously to register written comments opposing the adoption of the proposed rule changes “until the DOH has engaged in further consultation with stakeholders and experts.”
     The proposed overhaul of the Medical Cannabis Program’s rules includes changes to almost every aspect of the program, from the numbers of plants a patient can grow — six instead of 12 — to what kind of testing nonprofit producers would be required to perform. more

Medical pot program overhaul draws criticism

Swickard: Only administrators left in public education

© 2014 Michael Swickard, Ph.D. “Every good teacher is just one bad administrator away from quitting teaching forever.” Jim Smith
     In 2002 the Las Cruces School Board members looked surprised when New Mexico Teacher of the Year Jim Smith made the above statement. It never occurred to them that the central problem in public education was administrators. In the years since Smith’s statement administrators have gotten worse, not better.
     I do know some good administrators who fight to let teachers teach but it seems the system works to throw those administrators out and replace them with administrators who “Play the game” the way their superiors demand. Today, it is never ever about the students, it is always about adults.
     This year the New Mexico teacher evaluations make no sense and are not uniformly applied. More so, it is obvious no one in a position of leadership in the schools has the faintest idea or interest in good teaching. They think great teachers excel at filling out accountability forms and administering tests.
     Many teachers this last year said they were no longer teachers; instead, all they did was administrator tests. All administration, no teachers. They spent the entire year on something to which the students have absolutely no interest whatsoever: taking tests. The good teachers are beaten down for suggesting that students do something other than prepare for tests, take tests, review tests and prepare for more tests. Read full column

Swickard: Only administrators left in public education

Educators questioning governor's teacher prep reforms

From the Las Cruces Sun-News - By Lindsey Anderson - LAS CRUCES >> Local educators are already raising concerns about new programs for teachers and principals that Gov. Susana Martinez announced Tuesday.
     The programs include a new ranking system for the state's six education schools that bases ratings on how much alumni's student test scores improve, among other measures. Graduates who increase their students' achievement will increase their alma maters' rankings.
     The ratings will also include classroom observation; how many alumni teach science, technology, engineering or math; how they progress in their careers; how long they stay teachers; and how many pass the state licensure exam, Education Secretary Hanna Skandera said. The state has not yet finalized the calculation, she said. "The first few years for teachers in the classroom are linked to how well they're prepared," she said.
      But educators are questioning the fairness of judging teachers and their colleges on how well graduates' K-12 students perform. "On its face, it appears that the metrics they're using are too narrow," local teachers union president Patrick Sanchez said. "There are so many factors involved in what we call success."
     The announcement is the latest effort to use students' standardized test scores to evaluate teachers, schools, colleges and more, Arrowhead Park Early College High School teacher Amy Simpson said.
     Much of a public school's A-F grades and the new teacher evaluation are based on growth in students' standardized test scores.
     "The reason there's so much emphasis on this (student test scores) is it's easy, it's a simple measure," Simpson said. "That's a lot easier than measuring life-long learning. Single numbers are an easy thing to cling on to, but they are just that; they are just a number." More

Educators questioning governor's teacher prep reforms

Judge orders city pay $6M officer-involved shooting

Christopher Torres

From KOAT-TV.com - ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. —A district court judge has ordered the city of Albuquerque to pay more than $6 million for the wrongful death of Christopher Torres.Tort claims would cap the case at $400,000, so the city would not have to pay the full amount of the ruling. However, the family could receive more than the $6 million because of a pending federal court case.
     Torres was shot and killed by Albuquerque police in 2011. He was the son of a county official, and his death was a focal point in the U.S. Department of Justice's investigation into Albuquerque police.
     Officers claimed that when they went to the home to serve a warrant, Torres, who suffered from schizophrenia, became agitated. Officers said Torres grabbed one of their guns and pointed it at them, forcing an officer to shoot and kill him.
     His family filed a wrongful death lawsuit, and has been waiting three years to hear a ruling. The trial started in May, and that ruling was handed down Tuesday. The family was seeking $4 million in damages.
     The ruling also said the city did not breach any duties in hiring, training or supervising the officers involved in the shooting. Family members said this disappointed them. The district attorney found no basis for criminal charges against the Albuquerque police officers.
     The family still has a civil case against the city, claiming the officers used excessive force. That is set to be heard in federal court this September. The family said it doesn't know if the civil case will settle between now and then, and that it depends whether the city changes its policies regarding officers' use of deadly force. More

Judge orders city pay $6M officer-involved shooting

Executive power: overreaching, overzealous, dream-dashing

From Conservative Action Alerts - by Marita Noon - President Obama is in trouble with his usual allies, not to mention his ever-ready opponents, over two recent acts of excessive executive power: the Bergdahl prisoner swapand the new CO2 regulations announced on Monday, June 2.
     Senator Diane Feinstein (D-CA), Senate Intelligence Committee chairman, has been publicly critical of the administration’s decision not to adhere to a law requiring 30 days’ notice to Congress before releasing detainees from the Guantanamo Bay facility in Cuba. Bloomberg reports: “she’s not convinced there was a ‘credible threat’ against the life of freed Army Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl that motivated the White House to keep its plans secret.”
     Regarding the CO2 regulations, Senator Mary Landrieu (D-LA), Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee chairman, has come out against the president’s approach, saying: “This should not be achieved by EPA regulations. Congress should set the terms, goals and timeframe.”

      Representative Nick Rahall (D-WV), who, like Landrieu is in a tough reelection fight, has come out with even stronger opposition to the president’s plan calling it: “Overreaching, overzealous, beyond the legal limit.” Rahall says the actions of the EPA “have truly run amok.”
     Both stories have dominated the news cycle for the past week. Yet, just a couple of weeks earlier, another story of executive overreach got little coverage and the affected allies stood by the President’s side as he signed an order creating, what the Washington Post called: “the largest national monument of the Obama presidency so far.”
     After years of heated local debate and despite polling that shows the people are not behind the president, on May 21, Obama declared the Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks region of New Mexico, nearly 500,000 acres, a national monument—his eleventh such designation “so far.” Senators Tom Udall and Martin Heinrich, and Representative Ben Ray Lujan, (all D-NM) were present at the signing ceremony. The official Department of the Interior photo shows each of them with big smiles as they look on.
     They should be happy. Udall and Heinrich had previously proposed similar federal legislation. Praising the president’s effort, Udall said: “The president’s decision finally puts into motion a plan that began with the people of southern New Mexico, who wanted to ensure these special places would continue to be available for local families and visitors to hike, hunt and learn from the hundreds of significant historic sites throughout the area for generations to come.”
     But not everyone is smiling. The Las Cruces Sun-News (LCSN) reports: “Republican Rep. Steve Pearce, whose congressional district covers the region, issued a statement taking issue with Obama’s use of the 1906 U.S. Antiquities Act, saying monuments created under it are supposed to cover only the ‘smallest area compatible’ with the designation. He contended the approval ‘flies in the face of the democratic process.’” Pearce’s statement says: “This single action has erased six years of work undertaken by Doña Ana County ranchers, business owners, conservationists, sportsmen officials and myself to develop a collaborative plan for the Organ Mountains that would have preserved the natural resource and still provided future economic opportunities.” More

Executive power: overreaching, overzealous, dream-dashing

Rep. Lujan Grisham holds town hall for veterans

From KOB-TV.com - By: Erica Zucco, KOB Eyewitness News 4 The ongoing scandal concerning the Department of Veterans Affairs has dominated headlines for weeks. Investigators are looking into allegations that employees falsified records and had secret lists to cover up wait times. Many New Mexico politicians have weighed in on the issue but Saturday Congresswoman Michelle Lujan Grisham held a town hall to put veterans’ opinions front and center.

   More than 100 veterans packed the auditorium to speak up about problems with the VA hospital, with benefits and with their health care options. “We're producing so many veterans with so many wars that the VA can't keep up,” Charles Powell of Veterans for Peace said. “So much post traumatic stress, traumatic brain injuries, this is a burden on an inadequately funded VA.”
     There were horror stories of waiting months for a simple doctor’s appointment and of endless red tape at the benefits office. But there were also those who pointed out bright spots. “We have been one of the lucky ones that has gotten really good health care and gotten good doctors, we're seen on a fairly timely basis,” Odetha Hill said.
     Hill, a veteran and caregiver, says she feels for veterans who say they've been burned by the system. She says if one wants quality care, it takes time and work. More

Rep. Lujan Grisham holds town hall for veterans