Teachers have long been burdened by the amount of administrative paperwork they are required to fill out.
This takes time away from their ability to work with their students and be present with their families.
This is about to change due to the Public Education Department’s complete overhaul of the reporting requirements teachers and school administrators have faced.
It is a 34% reduction in administrative work for all school districts and charter schools in New Mexico and it also cuts teacher’s paperwork by 41%.
This reduction is a result of an executive order that was issued back in May by Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham, who was in Rio Rancho Monday at Ernest Stapleton Elementary and said this reduction in paperwork will help teachers better connect with their students.
“Relationship building with the students is critical. If we don’t have time to do that, to some degree it doesn’t matter what the curriculum is or isn’t and it doesn’t matter what we’re doing before or after school. That connection minimizes our ability to do the kind of teaching and education effort that we know is both required, that you want to achieve and that your students are so hungry to have available to them.”
The 34% burden reduction is made possible by four different strategies that will be implemented at schools this year.
Those include reduction in duplicative data collection, streamlining processes, improving data systems and sustained improvements through the establishment of a Data Governance Council that will oversee strategy implementation.
It was also announced that this reduction is effective immediately, meaning teachers will see lighter loads in their paperwork, caseloads and professional development paperwork.
Rio Rancho Public Schools Superintendent Sue Cleveland said this reduction in paperwork has been a long time coming.
“Our school districts and staff have been requesting a reduction in the administrative burden for a really long time and streamlining New Mexico data collection processes will help the state, it will help the district and it will help the school.”