SENATE JOINT MEMORIAL 34

51st legislature - STATE OF NEW MEXICO - first session, 2013

INTRODUCED BY

Howie C. Morales

A JOINT MEMORIAL

REQUESTING THE LEGISLATIVE EDUCATION STUDY COMMITTEE TO CONVENE A WORK GROUP TO STUDY THE A-F SCHOOL GRADING SYSTEM.

     WHEREAS, the A-F school grading system appears to be extremely complex, and many school districts, legislators, educators and parents have stated publicly that they do not understand the system; and

     WHEREAS, the system is so convoluted that some schools received bonus points for activities, such as sports, that they do not provide and other schools received better grades than schools that had outperformed them in mathematics and language arts; and

     WHEREAS, the public education department has not released to the public all the methodology and formulas used to determine grades, so school districts, and even several high-level mathematicians, have not been able to replicate the results; and

     WHEREAS, a common complaint about the system is that it is too volatile, as demonstrated by the initial and final grades provided in 2012, and this volatility leads to confusion and low morale in many schools; and

     WHEREAS, the A-F school grading system relies on a value-added model for predicting student achievement that has not been proven to be reliable; and

     WHEREAS, the school grading system does not appear to account for several factors that affect student achievement, such as poverty, family educational background, access to education resources, rural versus urban locations and other factors beyond the school and classroom; and

     WHEREAS, the school grade relies almost entirely on student performance on the state's standards-based assessment, a single test given in early spring each year; and

     WHEREAS, schools that have received a grade of "D" or "F" are required to participate in state-mandated interventions without an evaluation of the impact of those interventions; and

     WHEREAS, the A-F school grade includes performance in multiple categories but does not help schools understand what they can do to improve their grade;

     NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO that the legislative education study committee be requested to convene a work group to study the New Mexico A-F grading system, including answering questions such as:

          A. how the value-added model is used to predict students' scores;

          B. how stable the confidence intervals are for making the predictions;

          C. how decisions are made on what constitutes each grade;

          D. what interventions for "D" and "F" schools are provided and how well they are working;

          E. how the grading system accounts for poverty and other demographic differences in student populations;

          F. to what extent standardized test scores are good measures of a school's effectiveness; and

          G. how the A-F grading system helps schools improve their performance; and

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the legislative education study committee include in the work group representatives of teachers, local school superintendents, charter schools, the Native American and Hispanic communities, school assessment administrators, statistical experts and other experts and interested persons; and

      BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the work group report its findings and recommendations to the legislative education study committee by October 1, 2013; and

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that a copy of this memorial be transmitted to the director of the legislative education study committee.

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