Licensure Advancement: New Mexico
Retaining Effective Teachers Policy
Analysis of New Mexico's policies
Evidence of Effectiveness: New Mexico's requirements for licensure advancement are based on evidence of teacher effectiveness. However, it is not clear whether the state's policy for license renewal ensures consideration of objective measures of student growth.
Advancing to a Professional License: New Mexico has a three-tiered licensure system. To advance from a Level I Teaching license to a Level II Teaching license, teachers are required to complete three years' teaching experience, fulfill the mentoring requirement, and submit either a Professional Development Dossier (PDD) or National Board of Professional Teaching Standards certification. The PDD includes evidence divided into five strands, which include "evidence of teacher effectiveness" and "evidence of student learning." Specific examples of acceptable evidence are included for each strand. Advancement is possible based on NMTEACH overall scores, with teachers scoring effective overall and earning at least 50 percent of the possible points in the improved student achievement domain of their effectiveness report.
New Mexico also offers a Level III-A license, which requires an advanced degree. Teachers, however, are not required to advance past the Level II certification.
Renewing a Professional License: New Mexico requires teachers to demonstrate effectiveness as a factor in the renewal of a same-level license. Each year, all teachers must demonstrate how they meet the competencies and indicators for their licensure level through an individual Professional Development Plan and Annual Evaluation.
Recommendations for New Mexico
Require evidence of effectiveness for licensure decisions.
Although New Mexico requires some evidence of teacher effectiveness and evidence of student learning for licensure advancement and renewal, the state should ensure that this evidence is in the form of objective measures of student growth.
End requirement tying teacher advancement to master's degrees.
New Mexico should remove its mandate that teachers obtain a master's degree for optional license advancement. Research is clear that master's degrees generally do not have any significant correlation with classroom performance. Rather, advancement should be based on evidence of teacher effectiveness.
State response to our analysis
New Mexico recognized the factual accuracy of this analysis.
Updated: December 2017
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How we graded
9A: Licensure Advancement
- Evidence of Effectiveness for Advancement: The state should:
- Require evidence of effectiveness to be considered as a factor for advancement from a probationary to a nonprobationary license.
- Not require teachers to earn an advanced degree as a condition of professional licensure.
- Evidence of Effectiveness for Renewal: The state should ensure that any coursework requirements tied to advancing from a probationary to a nonprobrationary license address the specific needs of an individual teacher, rather than a need that is generic and unspecified.
One-half of the total goal score is earned based on the following:
- One-half credit: The state will earn one-half of a point if it bases licensure advancement exclusively on evidence of effectiveness.
- One-quarter credit: The state will earn one-quarter of a point if it bases licensure advancement on evidence of effectiveness in addition to other requirements not linked to effectiveness (e.g., teachers obtain an advanced degree).
One-half of the total goal score is earned based on the following:
- One-half credit: The state will earn one-half of a point if it exclusively bases licensure renewal on evidence of effectiveness.
- One-quarter credit: The state will earn one-quarter of a point if it partially bases licensure renewal on evidence of effectiveness.
Research rationale
The reason for probationary licensure should be to determine teacher effectiveness. Most states grant new teachers a probationary license that must later be converted to an advanced or professional license. A probationary period is sound policy as it provides an opportunity to determine whether individuals merit professional licensure. However, very few states require any determination of teacher performance or effectiveness in deciding whether a teacher will advance from the probationary license. Instead, states generally require probationary teachers to fulfill a set of requirements to receive advanced certification. Therefore, ending the probationary period is based on whether a checklist has been completed rather than on teacher performance and effectiveness.
Most state requirements for achieving professional certification have not been shown to affect teacher effectiveness.[1] Unfortunately, not only do most states fail to connect advanced certification to actual evidence of teacher effectiveness, but also the requirements teachers must most often meet are not even related to teacher effectiveness. The most common requirement for professional licensure is completion of additional coursework, often resulting in a master's degree. Requiring teachers to obtain additional training in their teaching area would be meaningful; however, the requirements are usually vague, allowing the teacher to fulfill coursework requirements from long menus that include areas having no connection or use to the teacher in the classroom.[2] The research evidence on requiring a master's degree is quite conclusive: with rare exceptions, these degrees have not been shown to make teachers more effective.[3] This is likely due in no small part to the fact that teachers may not attain master's degrees in their subject areas.
In addition to their dubious value, these requirements may also serve as a disincentive to teacher retention. Talented probationary teachers may be unwilling to invest time and resources in more education coursework. Further, they may well pursue advanced degrees that facilitate leaving teaching.
[1] For studies observing various trends in student achievement and licensure requirements, see: Clotfelter, C. T., Ladd, H. F., & Vigdor, J. L. (2004). Teacher sorting, teacher shopping, and the assessment of teacher effectiveness. Duke University manuscript., which is the previous draft of the current paper entitled: Clotfelter, C. T., Ladd, H. F., & Vigdor, J. L. (2006). Teacher-student matching and the assessment of teacher effectiveness. Journal of human Resources, 41(4), 778-820. Retrieved from http://www.nber.org/papers/w11936; Ladd, H. F., Clotfelter, C. T., & Vigdor, J. L. (2007). How and why do teacher credentials matter for student achievement? (NBER Working Paper 142786). Retrieved from http://www.nber.org/papers/w12828; Ehrenberg, R. G., & Brewer, D. J. (1994). Do school and teacher characteristics matter? Evidence from high school and beyond. Economics of Education Review, 13(1), 1-17.; Goldhaber, D., & Anthony, E. (2007). Can teacher quality be effectively assessed? National Board Certification as a signal of effective teaching. The Review of Economics and Statistics, 89(1), 134-150.; Goldhaber, D. D., & Brewer, D. J. (1997). Why don't schools and teachers seem to matter? Assessing the impact of unobservables on educational productivity. Journal of Human Resources, 505-523. Retrieved from http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED400237.pdf; Goldhaber, D. D., & Brewer, D. J. (2000). Does teacher certification matter? High school teacher certification status and student achievement. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 22(2), 129-145.; Hanushek, E. A., & Rivkin, S. G. (2006). Teacher quality. Handbook of the Economics of Education, 2, 1051-1078. Retrieved from http://www.nber.org/papers/w11154.pdf; Rivkin, S. G., Hanushek, E. A., & Kain, J. F. (2005). Teachers, schools, and academic achievement. Econometrica, 73(2), 417-458. Retrieved from http://www.nber.org/papers/w6691.pdf; Harris, D., & Sass, T. R. (2006). Value-added models and the measurement of teacher quality (Unpublished manuscript). Retrieved from http://www.urban.org/UploadedPDF/1001431-what-makes-for-a-good-teacher.pdf; Harris, D. N., & Sass, T. R. (2011). Teacher training, teacher quality and student achievement. Journal of Public Economics, 95(7), 798-812. Retrieved from
http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED509656.pdf; Harris, D. N., & Sass, T. R. (2009). The effects of NBPTS‐certified teachers on student achievement. Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, 28(1), 55-80. Retrieved from http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED509659.pdf; Jepsen, C. (2005). Teacher characteristics and student achievement: Evidence from teacher surveys. Journal of Urban Economics, 57(2), 302-319.; Monk, D. H. (1994). Subject area preparation of secondary mathematics and science teachers and student achievement. Economics of Education Review, 13(2), 125-145.; Riordan, J. (2006, April). Is there a relationship between No Child Left Behind indicators of teacher quality and the cognitive and social development of early elementary students? In annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, San Francisco, CA. Retrieved from http://www.cpre.org/sites/default/files/meetingpaper/1001_aera2006nclbandstudentsdevelopment.pdf; Schneider,B. (1985). Further evidence of school effects. Journal of Educational Research, 78(6), p. 351-356.
[2] For evidence on the lack of correlation between education coursework and teacher effectiveness, see: Allen, M. B. (2003). Eight questions on teacher preparation: What does the research say? Education Commission of the States. Retrieved from http://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED479051
[3] For a meta-analysis of the research on the relationship between advanced degrees and teacher effectiveness, see: Doherty, K., Walsh, K., Jacobs, S., & Neuman-Sheldon, B. (2010). Arizona's race to the top: What will it take to compete? Washington, DC: National Council on Teacher Quality. Retrieved from http://www.nctq.org/dmsView/Arizona_Race_to_the_Top_NCTQ_Report; For secondary math teachers however, a relevant master's degree is associated with greater teacher effectiveness, see: Walsh, K., Lubell, S., & Ross, E. (2017, August). Backing the wrong horse: The story of one state's ambitious but disheartening foray into performance pay. Washington, DC: National Council on Teacher Quality. Retrieved from https://www.nctq.org/dmsView/NCTQ_Backing_the_Wrong_Horse_2017