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Some files (identified with
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Hearing on Rule Changes May 3, 2006 The Public Education Department (“Department”) will conduct a public hearing at 10:00 AM on Wednesday, May 3, 2006 at the Educator Quality Division Offices at 444 Galisteo, Suite A, Santa Fe, New Mexico. The purpose of the public hearing will be to obtain input on the following rules:
Interested individuals may
testify at the public hearing or submit written comments to Jo Lynn
Gallegos, Administrative Assistant, Educator Quality Division, Public
Education Department, Jerry Apodaca Education Building, 300 Don Gaspar,
Santa Fe, New Mexico 87501-2786 ( jolynn.gallegos@state.nm.us) (telefax
(505) 827-3525). Written comments must be received no later than 5 p.m. on
May 3, 2006. However, the submission of written comments as soon as possible
is encouraged. Rule on Librarian Evaluation and Competencies A new rule on Performance Evaluation of
Librarians, 6.69.5
NMAC was recently approved by Secretary of Education
Veronica Garcia. The new rule uses the term “librarian-teachers.”
The rule has been filed with New Mexico Records and Archives and is
available on the Administrative
Code site. If you want to download an adobe version of the rule click
this link:
A very dedicated group of school librarians, including
several NEA-NM members, worked throughout 2004-05 on the requirements
and competencies for evaluating librarians. You will see that there
are eleven competencies with indicators for levels one, two and three
licensure. Also please note that “no later than June 30, 2006, each school
district shall adopt policies, guidelines, and procedures for annual
librarian-teacher performance evaluation that meet the requirements of the
regulation.” New Mexico Secretary of Education Clarifies Highly Qualified Status for Social Studies Teachers Teachers with a composite social studies endorsement in New Mexico will meet federal highly qualified standards. New
guidance from US Department of Education indicates that “a composite
social studies license might not provide adequate subject-matter
preparation for each of these four subjects.” After reviewing New Mexico's
social studies teacher preparation competencies and our licensure tests in
social studies, New Mexico Full text of Secretary's memo of clarification Deadlines 1) Professional Development Plans must be in place for every teacher and librarian by the 40th day of school. PDPs must be signed by the principal/administrator and the teacher and dated. 2) Waiver requests for 05-06 are due to the Professional Licensure Bureau no later than 60 calendar days after the teacher commences his/her duties. Waivers of licensure standards are very strictly limited to only a very few situations now. See the Articles below. Most Waivers Unavailable After 2005-2006 School Year Except
as provided above in the discussion of new HOUSSE timelines and in
Special Education below, New Hires, new waivers in the core academic areas will not
be issued for 05-06 unless the teacher can reasonably be expected to
complete all coursework and/or testing by the NCLB deadlines of June 30,
2006 in urban districts, and June 30, 2007, in rural districts. The
rural districts in New Mexico are: ANIMAS ELIDA AKE ARTHUR PENASCO CAPITAN ESTANCIA LOGAN QUEMADO CARRIZOZO FLOYD LOVING QUESTA CHAMA VALLEY FORT SUMNER MAGDALENA RESERVE CIMARRON GRADY MAXWELL ROY CLAYTON HAGERMAN MELROSE SAN JON CLOUDCROFT HONDO VALLEY MESA VISTA PRINGER CORONA HOUSE MORA TATUM DES MOINES JAL MOSQUERO TEXICO DORA JEMEZ MOUNTAIN MOUNTAINAIR VAUGHN DULCE JEMEZ VALLEY PECOS WAGON MOUND Rural Flexibility Teachers who are new hires in rural school districts, whether new-to-the-profession or veteran teachers, and who are “highly qualified” in one core subject, may teach any of the core subjects for up to three years while they demonstrate that they are “highly qualified” in all of the core subjects they teach. Rural districts may request content area waivers from the PED during that three-year period for those teachers to teach those subjects. Demonstrating competency for an endorsement may be done through coursework, testing, National Board Certification in the content area(s) or HOUSSE. Special Education New Hires Fully licensed special education teachers who are new hires and new-to-the profession who are “highly qualified” in either language arts, math or science, may teach any of the core subjects in any school district for up to two years from the date of hire while they demonstrate that they are “highly qualified” in all of the core subjects they teach. The school district may request content area waivers from the PED during that two-year period for those teachers to teach those other subjects. “Highly qualified” may be demonstrated through coursework, testing, National Board Certification in the content area(s) or HOUSSE at any point during the two year period. Waiver Holders May Not Teach in Certain Schools Please
also be aware that 22-10A-14 (D) NMSA 1978 becomes effective this year: “A
teacher who holds a teaching or assignment waiver shall not be assigned to a
school that has not made adequate yearly progress for two consecutive
years.”
New Fee for Adding Endorsements On
May 1, 2005 a new fee of $25.00 began for applications for adding licensure
endorsements to existing licenses. This service has been free in the past. New HOUSSE Rule Allows Teachers this Option After Two Years of Teaching The
Public Education Department has made a change in the HOUSSE requirement
under NCLB. Previously teachers had to have five years of teaching
experience in order to be eligible for the HOUSSE pathways to demonstrate
that they are “highly qualified.” The experience requirement has been
reduced to two full years of teaching experience. This change was made
necessary due to language in the reauthorization of IDEA which contains an
option for new special education teachers to begin teaching all of the core
subjects if they are “highly qualified” in at least one. They must then
demonstrate that they are “highly qualified” in all subjects within two
years of initial employment. One of the options open to them to do this is
HOUSSE. Since our HOUSSE pathways have required five years of teaching
experience, we needed to align with IDEA and reduce the experience
requirement to two years. Doing that only for special education teachers
would be unfair to general education teachers, so we have changed the
experience requirement in HOUSSE to two full years of teaching experience
for all teachers. Since this is
a lowering of the number of years required, no teacher will be adversely
impacted by the change. TESOL Waivers Limited by New US Department of Education Ruling A recent
clarification by officials of the US Department of Education regarding
“highly qualified” TESOL teachers will have an impact on TESOL waivers
in 2005-2006 in New Mexico. Essentially, their finding is that a teacher who
is “highly qualified” in language arts or English is also “highly
qualified” for TESOL. Of course, that does not imply that we will
eliminate the TESOL endorsement, but only that beginning in 05-06 new TESOL
waivers will be issued only to teachers who are already “highly
qualified” in language arts or English. Teachers who are not highly
qualified in language arts or English must complete their TESOL program
before being issued a TESOL endorsement and before commencing duties in
TESOL. There may be, however, a few renewals of TESOL waivers in 05-06 for
those just finishing their programs this coming year. Who are the “highly
qualified” teachers of language arts or English? They are: all elementary
K-8 teachers teaching in a self-contained classroom in an elementary or
middle school, and all middle level 5-9, secondary 7-12, and K-12 specialty
area teachers endorsed in language arts. A new TESOL licensure test also
will be available in September, 2006. Level I License Now Issued for Five Year Period Governor Richardson signed HB84
and SB 662 on Friday, April 8th. While these two bills have
various provisions, the main one is the change to the effective period of
the level one teaching license. Beginning immediately, level
one teaching licenses will be issued for a five year period
rather than the three years that has been the practice for the past eighteen
years. Teachers will still be eligible to advance to level two after
completion of three full years of teaching experience under a standard
license, but if they do not advance or cannot advance, they will still have
a license to teach for two additional years. This will give teachers
time to meet the dossier and local evaluation standards if they have failed
to do so after three years, or if they simply could not complete a dossier
for advancement in the third year. This impacts teaching
licenses only. Other level one licenses will continue to be for three
years. Teachers who currently hold level
one licenses that expire on June 30, 2005, who are not now moving to level
two, either because they were not successful in the dossiers or because they
did not submit a dossier, will have their level one licenses extended for
two more years. This will be done automatically by the Professional
Licensure Bureau (PLB) between now and June 30, 2005. These
licenses will not be mailed out unless the PLB receives confirmation of the
name and address of the teacher. Teachers in this situation should not
call the PLB. In fact, they should not do anything until around May 20,
2005, to give the PLB time to make the changes required in the law. Even
then, the best way for a level one teacher whose license expires in 2005,
who is not advancing to level two at this time, to get a copy of their new
extended license, will be to send an e-mail to Bernadette Bach at bbach@ped.state.nm.us
with their licensure file number, name as it should appear on the license,
and current address. Districts could facilitate this, if you wish, by
sending a single list of teachers in this situation with file numbers and
addresses. Other level one teachers whose
licenses do not expire until 06 or 07 or 08 will also automatically be
extended for two more years from the date of expiration. They also
must provide confirmation of name and address before paper licenses will be
mailed out. Some Flexibility Under NCLB For ‘Highly Qualified’ Status For Some Middle School Teachers, Especially Special Education Teachers James Ball, Assistant Secretary of
Education for Educator Quality, has determined that the Public Education
Department is able to interpret NCLB Non-Regulatory Guidance in a way that
will allow more middle school teachers, especially special education middle
school teachers, to be considered ¨highly qualified¨ under NCLB.
Essentially, the flexibility that is available allows middle school
teachers, both in general and special education who teach language arts,
social studies, math, and science in self-contained classrooms to be
evaluated for ¨highly qualified¨ status as elementary teachers rather than
as middle school teachers. This is because their classrooms are organized on
elementary school instructional models even if the school is called a middle
school. These teachers must teach the core academic subjects to the same
students in a self-contained elementary classroom arrangement. The students
may go to other teachers for electives, but they must have a single teacher
for their core subjects on an elementary school instructional model. This
will be especially helpful for special education teachers since they often
teach special education students in self-contained classrooms in middle
schools. Evaluating these teachers as elementary teachers rather than as
middle school teachers should make it possible for many more teachers
statewide to be considered “highly qualified”. Here is the primary
example:
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Testing
Dates and Registration Information for the New Mexico Teacher
Assessments