Governor directs education department to ease administrative burdens in schools

May 23—Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham wants to clean up reporting requirements for New Mexico school districts through an executive order designed to trim "administrative burdens" in the classroom. Advocates are hopeful it will translate to more time for teachers to plan lessons and instruct students.

The order, effective immediately, likely will result in the hiring of an outside contractor to evaluate efficiency at the state Public Education Department and make decisions on what kind of cuts can be made before the coming school year.

It directs the agency to get feedback from teachers and school administrators on streamlining data and program reporting in order to cut them by 25 percent by the start of next school year.

"This effort ... provides the one thing you can't get any other way. And that's time," said National Education Association New Mexico executive director Charles Bowyer at Monday's news conference.

Steinhaus said outdated teacher training requirements could be scrapped, and reporting of teacher credentials could be streamlined to ease pressures on individual educators and districts.

The education department, charged with overseeing teacher licensure, in early May announced it will be waiving costly testing requirements for college graduates seeking teaching credentials — except for one statutory reading exam — by spring 2024.

Lujan Grisham and Steinhaus also suggested the order could trickle down to students in terms of standardized testing requirements. The 2021-2022 school year marks the first time the state is requiring schools to measure student reading and math proficiency at the end of the year since the 2018-2019 school year, thanks to federal waivers during the pandemic.

"They need accountability," Steinhaus said, referring to the Legislature's and federal government's desire for testing results, which help determine funding levels. "They don't need a 12-hour test. A three-hour test could do it."

He added pre-populating demographic data for students taking required tests could save teachers more time in the future, so they don't have to enter it themselves — an idea Santa Fe Public Schools Superintendent Hilario "Larry" Chavez supported in an interview following the announcement.

"A lot of these tests are required," Chavez said, citing as an example a four-hour exam required for bilingual funding for the district. "I don't know [that] a timeframe is going to change. But some of the workload on our teachers and staff could. And that way it really does expedite the testing process."

Chavez added the district was asked to submit a plan to the education department this year that including data on its at-risk funding levels — numbers that actually originate at a state level. Fewer financial reporting demands on districts could free up time for administrators, he noted.

"Superintendents statewide have seen some of the reports that are asked of districts could be pulled internally," he said.

The executive order comes days after First Judicial District Judge Matthew Wilson ordered the state to provide more data to the plaintiffs in the landmark Yazzie/Martinez lawsuit to demonstrate progress in providing a fair education to Native American, low-income, English- language learner and disabled students in the state.

The court order, published May 11, requests updated data on staffing gaps in schools, scholarship funding and teacher preparation programs.

The state previously attempted to dismiss the requests for more data, arguing in December 2021 it had already submitted more than 60,000 pages from state agencies since the plaintiffs first made a request.

While much of the data requests center on information tracked by the Public Education Department, other requests call for information the state's Early Childhood, Higher Education or Children Youth and Families departments may have.

The governor said those requests have brought out questions over what kind of data might be valuable for demonstrating progress.

"They are wanting us to be able to report progress," she said.

But she acknowledged the state's demands on the education department and districts don't always clarify progress.

"What we ask for," she said, "doesn't necessarily translate to that."

Steinhaus said the governor's executive order wouldn't necessarily cut down on the data points the PED could use to show progress, but would eliminate redundancy.

"It's not so much fewer data points, it's making sure that what we collect is exactly what's needed and it's not collected multiple times a year."

this is liveGov. Michelle Lujan Grisham signed an executive order Monday directing the state Public Education Department to evaluate and trim "administrative burdens" for a variety of internal systems, including teacher licensure.

The order will center on program reports and data collection.

During a news conference in the Aspen Community School library, Public Education Secretary Kurt Steinhaus said the Public Education Department likely will hire an outside contractor to evaluate what kind of cuts might be made to ultimately give teachers more time in the classroom.

Lujan Grisham's order asks burdens to be reduced by at least 25 percent, and Steinhaus said outdated teacher training requirements and long hours spent on student standardized testing as examples of burdens the state might consider reducing.

"This effort ... provides the one thing you can't get any other way. And that's time," said National Education Association New Mexico executive director Charles Bowyer (cq)at Monday's press conference.

This is a developing story and will be updated.