Teacher Evaluation

Teacher Evaluation

Your MoSL Committee will be formally presenting and providing some answers to questions first thing on Tuesday morning.  In the mean time, please use this blog as a reference and resource as you deepen your understanding of this new process.

As you know, last spring, New York State enacted a law that governs how all public school teachers in the state are to be evaluated.  You can learn more details form the DOE's slide show on Teacher Evaluation.  In short, there are three components of a teacher's evaluation.

  

• 20% Local Measures, assessments selected from a state approved list by a committee of teachers at the school.
  
• 20% State Measures, assessments selected from a state approved list by the principals.  To see both state and local selections, please open up the MoSL documents found in this folder to view the selections.
  
• 60% Observation Data, these are administrator observations on the teacher efficacy in 22 indicators on the Danielson rubric.
  - At UAI, we will use the Learning Cultures format rubrics to evaluate efficacy on the Danielson indicators.

The MoSL Committee

At UAI, the MoSL (Measures of Student Learning) Committee consists of 8 members.  Four were selected by the UFT chapter [Pamela, Adrienne, Damon, and Jen S.] and 4 members were selected by the principals [Tara, Wendy, Meredith, and Mike Som.]. Kelly, Nicia, and I also sat with the committee.  This summer, the committee was charged with selecting the local measures for each teacher at the school.

The HEDI labels (Highly effective; Effective; Developing; and Ineffective) replace the old Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory teacher ratings.  With the three different measures (State, Local, and Observations), there are 40 different possible combinations for final ratings.

4=Highly Effective; 3 = Effective; 2= Developing; 1= Ineffective

Observation Choices

With this new system, teachers have the choice of how their evaluative observations take shape.  The options articulate the minimum necessary.  The options described below only pertain to evaluation observations.  When you review the rubrics, you'll notice five main components in each rubric:

1. Low-inference observations.  These will be the factual, low-inference data points observed during the observation.
2. Format Indicators and Progress Feedback (e.g. Needs Immediate Improvement, Making Progress, and Proficient)
3. Strengths, Needs and Recommendations.  This are will be the immediate feedback sent to you via email, and we'll follow up on these notes with discussions and goal setting during face-to-face conferences.
4. Format Evaluation.  All classroom observations will provide you with a holistic evaluation of the format observed.  This is an informal evaluation only and designed for use as both formative and interim assessment.
5. Danielson Evaluation.  The final component of each rubric is the Danielson Evaluation.  ONLY official observations will have this portion completed.   In this new system of evaluation, you have two options for how and when this portion of the rubric gets filled out.
   

Option 1: AT LEAST 1 Formal & 3 Informal Observations

• Within the first 20 days of school, a pre-observation meeting (which can be the Initial Conference) takes place.  
• Within this same time period but after the pre-observation conference a full period observation takes place.  All Learning Cultures formats will be evaluated and rubrics completed with Danielson indicators
• By the end of the first 20 days of school, post-observation conferences with teachers are completed.
• Throughout the rest of the year, at least 3, unannounced information observations  (See Option 2 below for specifications on these visits) 

Option 2:  AT LEAST  6 Informal Observations

• Some visits will be announced and some will be unannounced
• All visits will be for at least 15 minutes
• There is no limit on the number of Informal Observations but each teacher will receive at minimum 6.
• Can be videotaped with teachers permission
• No pre/post conference required, but feedback is mandatory in some form (Email, teacher conference, rubric feedback, etc.) after each visit.
• Observation Reports (aka Rubrics completed with Danielson Indicators) provided to teachers and cc'ed to file within 90 days of visit.

Feedback and Support

Getting feedback and sharing best practices with colleagues and peers is an essential component for successful observation evaluations.  Prior to any evaluative visit, you will want to have your peers and/or our lead teachers visit your classrooms to provide insight and suggestions.  Additionally, we will be providing you with formative evaluations on key format (Social Norms, Classroom Environment, Unison Reading, and Conferences) by the end of September to help you establish benchmark goals of the year.  Together with both colleague and supervisor feedback, we will all strive to improve our practice and continue our professional growth.

Grade Teams have already begun to meet and plan around supporting one another using the Social Norms Rubric to structure feedback).  Grade teams began meeting this past week to establish team norms and to begin setting grade-based expectations around the universal ladder of consequences and grade-wide social norms.

Subject Teams also began to meet to support one another on establishing a quality Classroom Environment that will support Work Time activities.  Like the Grade Teams, Subject teams will also engage in classroom inter-visitation to provide team members with feedback and support.

Soon the Professional Development Committee will re-launch for the year and both embedded and external PD opportunities will also serve to support and nurture teacher growth and performance. 

In Short...

The State and the DOE have enacted many overwhelming changes.  However, provided that we continue to pull together and support one another we will continue to improve our school and provide our students with a high quality educational experience at UAI!