Kelly Cano

Teddi Toniolli
Silvia Saenz
Introduction
As representatives of Stand4KidsNM, we would like to propose to you, Board of
Education, a plan for an alternative teacher evaluation system that is not based on scores of the
PARCC test. With this we want to create an option for you to use the investment of the
Partnership for the Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers, otherwise known as the
PARCC test, for the evaluation of teachers as well as improving public schools in New Mexico.
The purpose of this is to create more instructional time in the classroom while creating a more
efficient way to evaluate teachers, instructors and student performance. We would like to suggest
alternatives as APS educators and former students who have been through the Albuquerque
School System, so those who are affected in the New Mexico area can vote on what they believe
will be the most beneficial for the students that currently attend New Mexico Public Schools.
The main point of this proposal is to create a less stressful environment for the students
and teachers. We want teachers to be able to love what they do again and put what they got the
college education for to good use, also, to not have valuable teachers to lose or even quit their
jobs because of how the PARCC test is evaluating them. We want to be sure that the children of
New Mexico are getting the quality education that they deserve every day and for the teachers to
teach the curriculum intended, not teach to a test. We want teachers to be evaluated on how they
perform in the classroom, not how a student does on a standardized test.
Problem
The buzzing topic in regards to New Mexico public education is standardized testing.
Recently in the past year the PARCC test has been the most controversial of them all. As you
know many teachers and students have been protesting in taking this test. We talked with many
teachers across Albuquerque public schools about this issue. Teachers from all across APS would

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Teddi Toniolli
Silvia Saenz
unanimously agree that this test does not by any means accurately reflect the teaching that is
being done in the classroom. For this choir and music education teacher at Volcano Vista, she
states I am not teaching a common core subject like math or reading. I am teaching music. The
scores that determine the evaluations of those teachers affect me as well! It is simply not fair to
me and it is not fair to the teachers here at this school (Clark).
The PARCC is negatively affecting our teacher evaluation system. In the past year,
standardized test scores from the PARCC have been determining teacher pay. From the John
Oliver commentary on standardized testing, this is how the teacher rating works. For a student
that ranks in the 60th percentile tests higher at the end of the year, the teacher gets a better rating.
However if the student falls, the teachers rating falls (Oliver). This, of course, seems like a
great idea. However in practice, it is not as great as many people believe. For example, a teacher
in Florida was describing how one of his students negatively affected his evaluation. He was
describing that his student was projected to get a score of 286.34 but the highest grade that you
can possibly get on this standardized test was a 283. His student did indeed get a 283 but because
she did not get a 286.34, she counted negatively on his evaluation (Oliver). Situations like this
one show our community that evaluating teachers on their students PARCC performance is
simply unfair.
The second negative effect is that the PARCC is also negatively affecting the students
taking it. The questions in the PARCC standardized test are beyond the students grade level. A
teacher that works in the Albuquerque Public School district (who wishes to stay anonymous)
was willing to show us math question for a fifth grader that was on the PARCC test last year.
This figure is shown on the last page of this document. Fifth grade students in Albuquerque
Public Schools saw this question on their PARCC test last year. It requires the knowledge of

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Teddi Toniolli
Silvia Saenz
adding fractions. Fifth graders will not learn how to add fractions until they begin middle school.
Also, the wording of this question is very confusing, even for someone who understands how to
add fractions. The teacher interviewed even stated that none of these answers would make sense
to answer this question. Many more questions on this test are very similar to this question. They
are questions that do not match the grade level taking the test.
There are questions and passages that do not make any sense what-so-ever to the student
taking the test, and any other person who reads them. Lets take an example from a version of
this standardized test that was administered in New York. Six questions were removed for the
language arts section of this test related to a passage about a talking pineapple (Oliver). The
passage goes like this A pineapple challenges the Hare to a race. The Hare suspects that the
Pineapple has a trick up its sleeve. But the Hare wins and the animals eat the Pineapple. It ends
with the moral, Pineapples dont have sleeves (Oliver). Students have said that this passage was
bizarre and absolutely absurd. We at Stand4Kids read this story and agreed that this was just
disappointing. We were shocked that a passage like this one has been on any standardized test.
The students who read this passage must have been at a standstill and did not know how to
answer the questions. There is pressure on these students to do well on this test, but how is it
possible if they are not even confident in the passage that was in the test?
Now the question that we need to ask is how much instructional time is being lost?
Taking this standardized test is not just a one day or one class period session. Furthermore, they
had a second round of PARCC tests in May followed shortly thereafter by final exams in June.
Ultimately, these children had three out of the last four months of school dominated by tests
(WashingtonPost). Previous tests such as the Standard Based Assessment (SBA) were
administered by paper and pencil and only took away five to seven days. The PARCC test is

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Teddi Toniolli
Silvia Saenz
given out as an online test. Many schools, not just ones in Albuquerque, do not have enough
computers to give the test to everyone at one time. Groups of students have to go to take the
PARCC test in sessions. So if one high school, like Volcano Vista High School for example, has
about 3,000 students and only 200 computers to take the test on, 15 days must be taken to have
every student take the test. These are 15 days, three school weeks of instructional time lost.
Students are not going to be able to bounce back to the teachers curriculum quick enough if
collectively they are losing that much time.
Keep in mind that these tests take multiple hours to finish. Some students take a longer
time than others to finish. Also, this PARCC test has to be taken twice a year to show growth in
students learning of concepts not only for the school board, but for teacher evaluations as well.
With each round of PARCC testing throughout the school year and final exams at the end of the
school year, a freshman or sophomore student would have lost about three months of
instructional time. APS has tried to fix this problem this year with changing the schedule for the
2015-2016 school year. Under the new schedule, students will attend seven 50-minute class
periods on Mondays, Tuesdays and Fridays. Students will have four 90-minute class periods on
Wednesdays. Students will have three 90-minute class periods on Thursday and school will be
dismissed at 12:55 p.m. (KRQE). This new schedule is expected to fix this issue of lost
instructional time, however, half the school year has gone by and no progress has been made.
Due to questions like the math and language arts question mentioned above, and the new
schedules and teacher evaluations, thousands of students have opted out of taking the PARCC
test. Many more have even walked out of taking the test. Students should not be labeled as a test
score. Many have shown that through protest. Over 1,000 students from Albuquerque to Las
Cruses walked out on this test. Over 1,700 students from elementary to high school have opted

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Teddi Toniolli
Silvia Saenz
out on taking the test (KRQE). The KRQE news article stated that the students that did protest
during testing time will get a zero on that portion of the PARCC test. Does this mean that the
teachers will automatically get a lower evaluation score because of this? We can tell that there is
a problem here with the PARCC test. We at Stand4KidsNM want to propose to you, board of
education, a new way to evaluate teachers while eliminating the PARCC test.
The new plan will allow teachers believe in their profession and motivate their teaching.
Moreover, teachers will concentrate in working and completing the benchmarks in their
curriculums. Our children will go to their classrooms eager to learn and enjoy being part of the
school system again.
New Teacher Evaluation Project
We believe the school system is still far from perfect, but the PARCC test does not meet the
criteria to reflect the real standards of todays education. The Common Core PARCC test has the
purpose of evaluating teachers and students. Students have already standardized tests on top of the
PARCC test for evaluating their performance. What might be missing without the PARCC test is a
teacher evaluation. Thus, we would like to propose a new teacher evaluation starting
with the Albuquerque Public School District and to extend this proposal to other districts in New
Mexico. To begin this process, we are asking you, the Board of Education, to allow parents to have a
voice in the democratic system. The vote will cover the following areas: 1) whether parents agree or
not with the Common Core PARCC test in the State, 2) see whether parents are willing to evaluate
their childrens teachers, and 3) determine what parents suggestions are for improvement in the
school system. With the vote results, our project will allow us to cover the following objectives:

1. Eliminate the Common Core PARCC test,

2. Allow for parent involvement in the teacher-evaluation system, and

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3. Give the Board of Education with information on areas that parents are suggesting for
improvement in the school system.
Our organization does not have a budget to make big things, but our project will provide the
Board of Education and NM Legislature with a clear idea about what parents, students, teachers,
and citizens in general are looking for in an ideal education support system.
To make this new teacher evaluation possible, we will require the following steps:

Step One: PSA Poster Campaign Test What You Teach, Not Teach to a Test
Using the media along with the Parent-Teacher Association involvement, we will begin
our public service announcement (PSA) poster campaign Test what you teach, not teach to a
test. The information given on the poster will have the following information: 1) facts about
PARCC test, 2) the vote for parents through the Board of Education to eliminate the PARCC test,
3) dates for the vote.
Step Two: Parents Vote:
The vote will consist of an online survey for school parents. We will use the
SurveyMonkey software that is only $780 annually. The survey will contain information stated
on the second to last page of this document. The SurveyMonkey software should automatically
create the results. We will give you the data coming from the software itself and relevant analysis
from our organization.
The goal of this vote is to unify parents voices to eliminate the Common Core PARCC
test, get parents involvement in the new teacher-evaluation system, and present to the Board of
Education the results of critical areas needing improvement in the school system. This
information will allow the Board of Education and APS to use the money invested in the PARCC

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Teddi Toniolli
Silvia Saenz
test in areas that parents, the community, and citizens are suggesting for improvement in the
school system.
Step Three: New Teacher Evaluation
We believe that the answer from the vote addressing the PARCC test will be a unanimous
NO. We are confident that parents will be willing to evaluate teachers. If we are correct, we
suggest that the SurveyMonkey software can be used to administer an online teacher evaluation.
For high and middle schools, we are proposing that students and parents evaluate teachers. For
elementary schools, rather than students, the parents will evaluate their childrens teacher. The
teacherevaluation frequency rest on the evaluation results coming from the survey vote. The
teacher evaluation will include all the rational criteria that APS will consider necessary. In this
part of the process, we do not offer the implementation of the teacher evaluation, because our
objective is to provide the Board of Education with the results of a poll to guide APS to direct
their efforts and resources.
Once the new teacher evaluation plan is complete, the PARCC test will be eliminated and
the Albuquerque Public School system will go back to normal function. The widespread stress
that PARCC test has generated will be gone. In addition, the huge amount of money spent on the
PARCC test will save APS budget and allow them to invest in critical aspects of education to
improve in general. The implementation of the new teacher-evaluation system will allow APS to
guide teachers and promote good teachers as role models in education. Once the new teacherevaluation is implemented in Albuquerque Public School District, the other Districts in New
Mexico can become part of the change.

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Teddi Toniolli
Silvia Saenz
Management and Knowledge
#Stand4KidsNM. We are parents. We are teachers. We are administrators. We do not
support corporate reforms of our public schools and any politician who supports them
(Facebook).With many years within the Albuquerque Public School system, as former students
and parent of students, our team members offer the understanding and awareness required to
handle this difficult situation.
Silvia Saenz, has a Bachelors degree in Business Administration and now is studying
towards a Masters degree in Organization, Information & Learning Sciences at the University of
New Mexico. She is a parent of two children attending the Albuquerque Public Schools. Silvia
has several years of experience in management and customer service. Silvia plans to be a
consultant in organization and professional development. Her current research projects include
development of instructional designs for real clients.
Kelly Cano, M.A. Speech and Language Pathology, is a speech therapist for hundreds of
students across APS as well as a parent of a son who attends LBJ Middle School. Kelly works
first hand with students that are deaf, have speech disorders, or have learning disabilities in
reading in the public school setting. She helps students in and outside of the classroom on a daily
basis.
Teddi Toniolli is a secondary education major who graduated from the University of New
Mexico and is now teaching at Eldorado High School. As a former student of APS, she was able
to see first-hand how standardized testing in New Mexico affected students and has seen it
evolve as part of the community and now as a high school educator. Her primary goal is to
provide the best education possible for her students.
Experience You Can Trust

Kelly Cano
Teddi Toniolli
Silvia Saenz
Our background and experience give us the ability to help parents be involved and active
in their children's schools. We believe that teachers need the support of parents and students
more than ever. We can help the Board of Education. Our keys for success are hard work, passion
for our children, and professionalism. It is our aim to continue to be part of the Albuquerque
Public School System and make it better, but we cannot work alone, we need to be heard.
Cost and Benefits:
The PARCC test is being used as an evaluation for both students and teachers. For an
online assessment administered by each school the cost is $23.97 per student (PARCC). In the
Albuquerque Public School area there are upwards of 87,000 students (APS). This means that
each time the PARCC test is administered APS is paying more than $2,085,390. Keeping in mind
that each student takes the PARCC for multiple subjects, averaging three, means that each year
for every student to take at least three PARCC tests costs upwards of $6,256,170.
With our proposal of administering evaluations for teachers online, middle school and
high school students would only be missing a single day of class to complete the evaluations
with their teachers rather than possibly three months of missed class time with the PARCC test.
For elementary students who cannot take this survey on their own, an online survey would be
sent out to the parents of the students with an invitation to come to the school if computer access
is not available at home. With the online survey service site SurveyMonkey the Albuquerque
Public school district can purchase a subscription for $780 annually (SurveyMonkey). With this
subscription every school can create and send out unlimited surveys to the students, all which is
required is a computer and a link. If every school were to administer these types of anonymous
surveys to evaluate teachers they would save the $6,256,170 and only pay $780.

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Teddi Toniolli
Silvia Saenz

PARCC Budget: The figure above shows the current budget that APS is currently spending on
the PARCC test. The large Blue section represents the PARCC test which takes up 99.9% of the
budget. The sliver of purple represents the proposed teacher evaluations which, if implemented
would only take up .01% of that current budget.
If every student were allowed an anonymous way to evaluate their teachers, the school
district would receive outstanding feedback on their teachers and would be able to understand if
teachers are doing their jobs well by hearing from the people who are with them while they are
teaching, the students. With the implementation of our proposed solution the Albuquerque Public
School district will be giving the parents involved in APS a voice in how their children learn.

Contact Us
Thank you very much for your consideration in this project. We at Stand4Kids would
love to hear from you. To learn more about our organization, you may visit
www.Stand4KidsNM.com. You may also contact Kelly Cano at kellycano4kids@hotmail.com.

Kelly Cano
Teddi Toniolli
Silvia Saenz
Question 1) Do you agree with the PARCC test being part of the State of New
Mexico school system? Yes or no
Question 2) Will you participate in a survey for evaluating teachers? Yes or no
Question 3) If you answered no to question 2, Why?
Question 4) If you answer Yes to question 2, when do you think will you be able to
evaluate your childrens teachers: 1) At the middle and end of the school year 2) Only
at the end of the school year
1) Question 5) What areas in your childs school do you think need improvement? Mark
all that apply: 1) Technology 2) Art 3) Music 4) Safety 5) Accommodation for
children with disabilities 6) Student/Teacher evaluations 7) Standardized tests for
students 8) Other (open blank space for answer)

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Teddi Toniolli
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Kelly Cano
Teddi Toniolli
Silvia Saenz
Works Cited

APS. "About Us." Albuquerque Public Schools. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Oct. 2015.

"Facebook Logo." Stand4KidsNM. Web. 20 Oct. 2015.

McKee, Chris, and Lysee Mitri. "1,000+ NM High School Students Walk out on PARCC
Test, More Expected Tuesday." KRQE News 13. KRQE, 02 Mar. 2015. Web. 17
Oct. 2015.

PARCC. "Cost." Cost. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Oct. 2015.

PEDNM, and NMCC. "Public Education Department - State of New Mexico." Public
Education Department - State of New Mexico. Public Education
Department, n.d.
Web. 21 Oct. 2015

Springer, Mike. "APS Makes Schedule Changes for next School Year."
Http://www.koat.com/news/aps-makes-schedule-changes-for-next-schoolyear/31924482. KRQE News 7, 20 Mar. 2015. Web. 19 Oct. 2015.

"Stand4KidsNM | We Are Parents. We Are Teachers. We Are ..." Stand4KidsNM. Web.

21 Oct. 2015.

Strauss, Valerie. "D.C. Teacher: How the PARCC Common Core Test Hurt My
Students." Washington Post. The Washington Post, n.d. Web. 29 Oct.
2015.

Survey Monkey. "SurveyMonkey Plans and Pricing." SurveyMonkey Plans and Pricing.
N.p., 1995-2015. Web. 20 Oct. 2015.