New Mexico Educator Equity Plan

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42

Public Education; Equal Education; Teacher Effectiveness; Preservice Teacher Education; Teacher Recruitment; Teacher Persistence; Teacher Competencies; Faculty Development; Stakeholders; Participation; Minority Group Students; Low Income Students; Academic Achievement; Low Achievement; Beginning Teachers; Experienced Teachers; Teacher Qualifications; Cultural Awareness; State Programs; Glossaries

Both the U.S. Department of Education and the New Mexico Public Education Department (PED) believe that equal opportunity is a core American value. Equal access to excellent education provides meaningful opportunities for students to achieve their goals. Recognizing that family income and race often predicts a student's ability to access excellent education in our country, the U.S. Department of Education asked state education agencies, including PED, to submit a State Educator Equity Plan in accordance of Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. These reports must express how the state will take steps to ensure that poor and minority children are not taught at higher rates than other children by inexperienced, unqualified, or out-of-field teachers. The public K-12 education system in New Mexico serves over 330,000 students through 89 school districts and 96 charter schools. New Mexico's student population is 60% Hispanic and 75% minority. Over two-thirds of the state's students qualify for free or reduced price lunch. The state's demographics add urgency to this plan, as any unequal access minority or economically disadvantaged students impacts a majority of the state. This report is PED's response to this call to ensure equal access to all students to an excellent education. The report features the following 7 sections: (1) Stakeholder Engagement--delivers a summary of our engagement process, including those invited; (2) Effectiveness: The Foundation for Equity--provides a rationale for why our Educator Equity Plan focuses on teacher effectiveness; (3) Glossary of Terms--interprets selected terms used in New Mexico's Educator Equity Plan; (4) Equity Gap Analysis--examines student gaps in equal access to effective teachers; (5) Root Cause Analysis--investigates the root causes for our identified equity gaps; (6) Current Strategies for Eliminating Equity Gaps--explains current efforts for eliminating equity gaps; and (7) Ongoing Monitoring and Support and Future Analysis--provides a plan of how PED will share progress in eliminating equity gaps and next steps the Department plans on taking. Educator Equity Profile is appended.

ERIC

2017

ED572846