Developing PDP Goals for #NCADMIN: 8/20/14 Chat Archive

Educator Effectiveness Changes

On Thursday, May 2, 2013, the State Board of Education passed policy changes to the Educator Effectiveness policy. Here are the changes that are in effect for the 2012-2013 school year:

Standard VI (Teachers):
For the 2012-13 school year, Standard Six will only be based on a teacher's individual value-added score. There will no longer be a 70% teacher-level and 30% school-level value-added mix. Through the administration of End-of-Grade, End-of-Course, Career and Technical Education Post-Assessments, and Common Exams, about 65 – 70% of North Carolina's teachers will have an individual value-added score. For the remaining teachers (for example, K-3, the Arts), the school-wide growth value-added score will determine their Standard Six ratings; however, the data will not count as "year one" of the three-year average for them. Their first year of data will be when they have data on the growth of their own students in their content area.

Standard XIII (Principal/Assistant Principals):
In the 2011-12 school year, principals and assistant principals received Standard Eight ratings based on school-wide growth scores that included the results from End-of-Grade and End-of-Course exams. For the 2012-13 school year, Standard Eight ratings will be based on school-wide growth scores that include the End-of-Grade, End-of-Course, Career and Technical Education Post-Assessments, and Common Exams. This change makes the Standard Eight rating more reflective of the growth across the entire school.

Thanks for reading,

CS

The opinions shared in this blog belong to Craig Smith and do not represent the school or district in which he works.

EVAAS-The difference between projections and predictions

The implementation of Standard VI (and Standard VIII for administrators) through the use of EVAAS Data has created some confusion between student projections and student predictions:

1) Student projections on the EVAAS website project a student’s likelihood (as a percent probability) of achieving a performance level on a test. Those projections are calculated basically by looking at the testing history of the most recent set of completers of a given test and comparing those histories to those of students who have not yet taken the test. Projections are made assuming the students who have not yet taken the test will receive the average schooling experience for the projected subject/year, and all of the students’ prior testing history is considered.

2) Student predictions on the EVAAS website, which are not available until a student has tested in a given subject/year, predict a scale score for a student which can then be compared to the student’s actual scale score. The predicted scores of a class of students are compared to their actual scores such that if the mean actual score is higher than the mean predicted score, the class of students will have shown a higher than average level of growth. Also, the scores are predicted assuming that your students receive the average schooling experience with the average teacher in NC.

Thanks for reading,

CS

Reproduced with permission from Jessica Garner

Jessica Garner

Regional Professional Development Lead
jessica.garner@dpi.nc.gov

http://region6pd.ncdpi.wikispaces.net/EVAAS

Instructional Blog: My Initiative for '12-13

This year, I implemented an initiative in my Academy called the "Ashbrook Instructional Blog" to encourage teachers to informally observe their peers and post short reflections on the blog.  

The blog itself is very basic, since my instructional focus was to establish comfort posting observations and reflections for group view.  My primary objective was to allow our teachers to spend time in each other's classrooms, providing opportunities for learning.  

Observations and comments were categorized: Technology, Instructional Strategies, Classroom Environment, & Assessment.

Teachers were asked to spend at least 20 minutes in the classroom and to make contact with the teacher before observing.  Teachers were also asked not to "force" the posting, since the activity was for professional growth, not as a "check-list" item.

In addition, we were able to connect this activity to the PDP's (Professional Development Plans for non-NC educators) of teachers in my Academy.  We were able to create a SMART Goal directly aligned with the North Carolina Educator Evaluation System (NCEES): 

Common Exam Changes for Spring

The North Carolina Department of Public Instruction recently provided a memorandum of changes with Common Exam (MSL) administration and format for this semester.

Gaston County Schools was one of approximately 40 LEA's that did not apply for a waiver from Common Exam's to be administered in the Fall Semester, as principals and assistant principals provided their own input to Central Office administration.  As a result, these 40 LEA's were able to become familiar with the Common Exam format, procedures, and scoring components, myself included.

These are some of the key changes to the Common Exam administration, as provided by Rebecca B. Garland (Chief Academic Officer) and Angela H. Quick (Deputy CAO):

• The number of multiple-choice items will be decreased to address the issues of many students not having enough time to complete the exams.  This change will be made in the English I, English III, English IV, Physics, Geometry, Algebra II, Advanced Functions and Models, and Pre-calculus assessments.  I believe this is a crucial change, as it will hopefully address the biggest issue we had in the first-round of administering the Common Exam.

• The scoring rubrics are being revised to provide exam scorers (certified teachers in the core area-not necessarily the subject area) more information.  NCDPI is going to be providing training via webinars to prepare teachers on Common Exam grading over the next month.  This will assist our teachers who were required to grade Common Exams for a subject different than what they have taught.  For example, a World History teacher serving as a grader for the Civics and Economics exam.

• Advanced Placement courses (and IB courses) will be exempt from this upcoming administration.  In regards to Standard VI of the North Carolina Educator Evaluation System, fall scores in AP/IB courses will not count in determining the teacher's "rating" in this standard.  If a teacher has all Advanced Placement courses, their Standard VI "rating" will be 100% school-based.  The complexity of AP classes will be that some courses (ex. AP Chemistry), the students will already have an opportunity to take the Common Exam (Chemistry I), where other AP classes (ex. AP English III) serve as the required course.

I am pleased to see DPI making these adjustments, and I'm sure more adjustments will continue after the upcoming testing in May-June.

CS

The opinions shared in this blog belong to Craig Smith     and do not represent the school or district in which he works.

Summary of NC Teacher Evaluation #NCADMIN Chats

The final three #ncadmin chats involved the North Carolina Teacher Evaluation System, which continues to be a learning process for all those involved.  Through the engagement of these three chats, principals, assistant principals, teachers, and other educators were able to collaborate and discuss the standards and various elements.

All three chats have been archived in my Storify account.  It is my hope that other administrators and teachers across North Carolina use the collaborative efforts of the #ncadmin PLN as a resource when discussing the NCEES tool.

Part I (Standards I & II)

Part II (Standards III & IV)

Part III (Standards IV cont. & V)


Thanks for reading and follow me @CSmithGoBlue.

CS

The opinions shared in this blog belong to Craig Smith     and do not represent the school or district in which he works.

NCEES Orientation: Standard VI

Simply sharing the Prezi from my NCEES Orientation for teachers:

http://prezi.com/cpmtgmqleeyu/teacher-evaluation-orientation-2012-2013/

CS



The opinions shared in this blog belong to Craig Smith     and do not represent the school or district in which he works.