Educator Evaluation

Five step-cycle

The Massachusetts educator evaluation system, adopted in 2011 by the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, establishes standards and requirements for teachers and administrators. In 2017, the board made a major change to the evaluation system — eliminating a separate Student Impact Rating based on District-Determined Measures and instead requiring that student learning measures be included in the Summative Evaluation.

The core of the evaluation system is a five-step cycle.

The Five-Step Cycle

The educator evaluation system establishes standards for teachers and administrators and requires the following steps.

Self-Assessment

Step One: Self-Assessment

The entry point of the evaluation cycle is the self-assessment using the standards and indicators of effective professional practice from the appropriate rubric.

Classroom

The focus of the self-assessment should include:

  • Assessing the educator’s practice against performance standards;
  • Analyzing previous evidence of learning, growth, and achievement of students under the educator’s responsibility;
  • Determining the academic, social, behavioral and/or emotional needs of students under the educator’s responsibility;
  • Proposing at least two goals:
    • The Professional Practice Goal to improve or enhance professional practice.
    • The Student Learning Goal to improve or enhance student learning, growth and achievement.

    The educator uses the appropriate rubric to assess his/her performance against the four standards and indicators to determine areas of strength and areas needing improvement and/or enhancement.

    Worksheet Guidance, Templates and DESE Self-Assessment Form

     
    Rubrics
    Types

    Types of rubrics include: Teacher, Specialized Instructional Support Personnel/Caseload Educator and Administrator.

    Standards

    The educator considers evidence related to four standards and assesses his or her practice using the appropriate professional practice rubric.

    Teacher, Specialized Instructional Support Personnel/Caseload Educator Administrator
    Curriculum, Planning and Assessment Instructional Leadership
    Teaching All Students Management & Operations
    Family & Community Engagement Family & Community Engagement
    Professional Culture Professional Culture

    Elements of Professional Practice Rubrics

    • Standards: Performance standards encompass the broadly defined knowledge, skill and behavioral expectations for educators described in the four standards of professional practice for teachers and administrators.
    • Indicators: Indicators articulate the knowledge, skills, and behaviors by which the educator will be judged to inform a performance rating on each standard. Each standard has at least one indicator; the number of indicators depends on the complexity of the standard.
    • Descriptors: Descriptors define the individual elements of each of the indicators.
    • Benchmarks: Benchmarks describe the acceptable demonstration of knowledge, skill or behavior necessary to achieve a performance rating. For each indicator, there are four benchmarks – one describing performance at each performance rating – EXEMPLARY, PROFICIENT, NEEDS IMPROVEMENT, UNSATISFACTORY.

Goal Setting and Plan Development

Plan Implementation

Formative Assessment

Summative Evaluation