Professional Development: New Mexico

Retaining Effective Teachers Policy

Goal

The state should require professional development to be based on needs identified through teacher evaluations.

Nearly meets goal
Suggested Citation:
National Council on Teacher Quality. (2011). Professional Development: New Mexico results. State Teacher Policy Database. [Data set].
Retrieved from: https://www.nctq.org/yearbook/state/NM-Professional-Development-9

Analysis of New Mexico's policies

New Mexico requires that District Evaluation Plans "include guidelines for providing timely feedback to teachers on a regular basis that identifies teachers' strengths and areas that need improvement." The state also specifies that each teacher and his or her principal must establish an annual professional development plan (PDP) and that the plan can be informed by findings from teacher evaluations.

Citation

Recommendations for New Mexico

Ensure that professional development is aligned with findings from teachers' evaluations.
While New Mexico has clearly taken steps to encourage the use of teachers' evaluations for informing PDP's, the state could take its policy a step further by making the use of teacher evaluations a requirement rather than an option.

State response to our analysis

New Mexico recognized the factual accuracy of this analysis.

Research rationale

For evidence of the benefits of feedback from evaluation systems, and the potential for professional development surrounding that feedback, see T. Kane et al, "Evaluating Teacher Effectiveness." Education Next. Vol 11, No. 3 (2011); E. Taylor and J. Tyler, "The Effect of Evaluation on Performance: Evidence from Longitudinal Student Achievement Data of Mid-Career Teachers." National Bureau of Economic Research (2011).

Much professional development, particularly those that are not aligned to specific feedback from teacher evaluations, has been found to be ineffective.  For evidence see M. Garet, "Middle School Mathematics Professional Development Impact Study: Findings After the Second Year of Implementation." Institute of Education Sciences (2011).

For additional evidence regarding best practices for professional development, see "The Deliver, Financing, and Assessment of Professional Development in Education: Pre-Service Preparation and In-Service Training." The Finance Project (2003).