Nevada Educator Evaluation

1. Nevada Educator Evaluation Leslie James, Nevada Department of Education Kathleen Galland-Collins, Library Media Specialist, CCSD, TLC Member Theo Small,Teacher, CCSD, TLC Member

2. Outcomes for Today • Understand the PROBLEM with the previous educator evaluation system, and thus the VISION and SOLUTION for a new statewide educator evaluation system • Learn about the Nevada ACTIONS to design and implement a new educator evaluation system • Gain an overview of the Teachers and Leaders Council draft evaluation framework recommendations for a new statewide educator evaluation system • Provide your questions so the TLC can address them in future communication and continuous development work

3. Vision – National Scene Adopt a performance evaluation system that fairly, accurately and credibly identifies and documents differentiated teaching & administrative effectiveness to systematically provide data and feedback that can be used to support and improve instructional practice to promote student learning

4. The Need for New Evaluation Systems – National Scene Considering the primary role that effective teachers and administrators play in accelerating student learning, research has informed education of the need to better understand, measure, document, support, accelerate and reward great teaching and administrative leadership

5. Problem – the “Widget Effect”Research from The New Teacher Project Findings (www.widgeteffect.org): • Evaluation systems fail to differentiate the effectiveness of performance among teachers • As a result, teacher effectiveness is largely ignored • Excellence goes unrecognized and poor performance goes unaddressed • This indifference to performance disrespects teachers and gambles with students lives

6. Problem – the “Widget Effect”Research from The New Teacher Project • Providing students a quality education requires effective instruction • Instructional effectiveness - the most important factor for schools in improving student achievement - is not measured, recorded or used to inform decision-making in any meaningful way • Reveals our pervasive and longstanding national failure to recognize and respond to differences in teaching effectiveness – distinguish: - great teaching from good - good from fair - fair from poor

7. Problem – the “Widget Effect”Research from The New Teacher Project The “widget effect” is a decades old fallacy which describes the tendency to assume effectiveness is the same from teacher to teacher – teachers are seen as “interchangeable parts” vs. understood and respected as individual professionals with individual strengths and challenges

8. Problem – the “Widget Effect” • There is a need to overcome a culture of indifference to classroom effectiveness • The Widget Effect was deeply ingrained in the fundamental systems and policies that governed educators, including evaluation • Teacher evaluation systems should be improved to better serve as the primary mechanism for assessing variations in instructional effectiveness vs. reinforcing indifference in effectiveness

9. Problem – The “Widget Effect” Research Characteristic flaws in evaluation practice and implementation by failure to assess variations in instructional effectiveness… • 99% of teachers rated “satisfactory” • Don’t formally identify excellence when rate all teachers “good”/ “great” – not doing enough to identify, compensate, promote, retain the most effective teachers • Cursory evaluation practices • Disconnected from personnel decisions – e.g., not identifying specific development needs of teachers or providing useful support to improve if needs identified, low expectations characterize the tenure process, not connected to decisions re: assignment, retention, compensation/advancement, dismissal

10. Solution – Education Responds to Reverse the Widget Effect States and districts across the nation are adopting performance evaluation systems that fairly, accurately and credibly identify and document differentiated teaching and administrative effectiveness to systematically provide data and feedback that can be used to support and improve instructional practice to promote student learning

11. Simply put… Provide the right supports to the right people to the right end – student achievement Student learning is the business of the enterprise

12. Solution – Nevada Responds to the Need • Legislature passed Assembly Bill 222 in 2011 • Created Teachers and Leaders Council (TLC) to provide recommendations to the SBE to establish the new statewide teacher and site-based administrator evaluation system • The new system must: - require the determination of an educator’s overall performance be: highly effective, effective, minimally effective, or ineffective - evaluate educators using multiple, fair, timely, rigorous and valid methods, which includes evaluations based on student achievement data to account for at least 50% of the educator’s evaluation

13. Solution – Nevada Responds to the Need The new evaluation system must: • Include practices/strategies to involve and engage parents • Ensure data derived from the evaluations is used to create PD programs that enhance the effectiveness of teachers and administrators; and afford a meaningful opportunity to improve effectiveness through PD that is linked to their evaluations • Provide the means to share effective educational methods with other teachers and administrators throughout the State

14. Solution – Nevada Responds to the Need The new evaluation system must: • Be monitored at least annually for quality, reliability, fairness, consistency and objectivity

15. Teachers and Leaders Council • Linda Archambault (to be replaced) • Public School Administrator Representative • Rorie Fitzpatrick • Deputy Superintendent of Public Instruction • Barbara Surritte – Barker • Public School Teacher Representative • Sharla Hales • School District Board of Trustees Representative • Christine Cheney • Dean and Professor UNR • Robert McCord • Public Policy Representative • Kathleen Galland – Collins • Public School Teacher Representative • Theo Michael McCormick • School District Board of Trustees Representative • Theresa Crowley • Public School Teacher Representative • Heath Morrison (to be replaced) • School District Superintendent Representative • Dale Norton • Public School Administrator Representative • Mary Peterson • Public Policy Representative • Pam Salazar • Professional Development Representative • Theodore Small • Public School Teacher Representative • Kimberly Tate (to be replaced) • Nevada Parent Teachers Association Representative

16. Goals of a New System (TLC) • Foster student learning and growth • Improve educators’ effective instructional practices • Inform human capital decisions • Engage stakeholders in continuous improvement and monitoring of the system

17. What the TLC is Developing • The evaluation frameworks for teachers and administrators: • The categories of performance to be measured • The performance or evidence to be measured in each category • Categories for teachers and administrators that are aligned with each other • The weights to be assigned to each category

18. Frameworks Undergirded by Guiding Beliefs (TLC) • Educators will improve through targeted, effective professional development • An effective evaluation system must include clear expectations for professional practice and student growth • The various indicators must be measured multiple times and have multiple measures to gauge educator performance • The system must include observation of practice

19. Guiding Beliefs - Continued • Evaluations must be consistent with and supported by federal, state, district and school-level systems • Self-reflection is central to the evaluation process • Evaluation is part of a larger professional growth system that evolves and improves over time • Training of all participants is essential for successful implementation

20. Some Important Factors • TheTLC is focusing on developing a system that is fair to all teachers no matter what grade, subject or group of students they teach or how long they have been teaching • The requirements for compliance will be a blend of state and local control • Work already underway in Nevada districts to design a personnel evaluation system is anticipated to be largely uninterrupted by the work of the TLC

21. Some Important Factors • Through piloting and evaluation of the new performance evaluation system, educator feedback will be gathered to make the system better • Key to the evaluation system will be the educator’s active participation in the evaluation conversations so they are meaningful and helpful

22. Timelines • TLC recommendations: - June 1, 2012 – initial - December 14, 2012 – final • By June 1, 2013 SBE will adopt regulations • The Council is likely to recommend a phased-in implementation: - Exploration – System Development - Installation – Pilot Phase (2012-13 school year) - Initial Implementation – Pilot Phase II (2013-14 school year) - Full Implementation – 2014-2015 school year

24. 5 High Leverage Instructional Principles QUESTIONS: • What questions do you have about these instructional principles, indicators and evidence sources? • Are you comfortable with these high leverage instructional principles to measure efficacy in your classroom (the capacity to effect student learning)?

26. What questions do you have? Provide your questions so the TLC can address them in future communication and continuous development work

27. Resources 2 websites provide resources that inform and document the work of the TLC: http://nde.doe.nv.gov/Teachers_LeadersCouncil.html Note: “Resource and Information Library” “Uniform Performance Evaluation of Teachers and Administrators in Nevada: System Guidelines White Paper” (see newest edition posted) TLC.nv.gov