By NEIL ZOLOT
WAKEFIELD — The School Department will be using the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) Educator Evaluation tool instead of a self-designed one. “There is an option to adopt their system or adapt it to a similar one we structures ourselves,” Superintendent Doug Lyons said at the School Committee meeting Tuesday, August 26. “For years we decided not to adopt, but adapt, but we’ve come to realize keeping rubrics updated is a tremendous amount of work. DESE has the personnel to do that. We were feeling at a disadvantaged because we don’t have the rubrics to evaluate all employees and were filling gaps in the DESE rubrics.”
DESE’s Model System for Educator Evaluation dates to 2019. It includes four Standards: Curriculum, Planning and Assessment; Teaching All Students, which includes subsections on Instruction, the Learning Environment and Expectations; Family and Community Engagement and the Professional Culture, which includes subsections on Collaboration and Professional Growth.
“The Educator Evaluation framework applies to every educator,” their website reads. “School Committees evaluate Superintendents using the framework and Superintendents apply the same framework when they evaluate Assistant Superintendents, Principals and other district administrators. Principals apply the framework when they evaluate teachers, specialized instructional support personnel (SISP) and other school-level administrators.
“The Standards and Indicators for both teachers and administrators establish a statewide understanding about what effective teaching and administrative practice look like.”
Results are scored at four levels: Unsatisfactory, Needs Improvement, Proficient and Exemplary, not unlike the scoring levels of the state Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) test of Failing or Warning, Needs Improvement, Proficient and Advanced.
Each rating has a specific meaning. DESE explains, “Exemplary performance represents a level of performance that exceeds the already high standard of Proficient. Exemplary is reserved for performance that is of such a high level that it could serve as a model. Proficient is understood to be fully satisfactory. This is the rigorous expected level of performance; demanding, but attainable. Needs Improvement indicates performance below the requirements of a Standard but is not considered to be Unsatisfactory at the time. Improvement is necessary and expected. For new educators, Needs Improvement can be understood as developing in cases where the educator is on track to Proficiency within three years. Unsatisfactory is merited when performance has not significantly improved following a rating of Needs Improvement, or performance is consistently below the requirements of a Standard and is considered inadequate, or both.”
The regulations also call for a higher bar for tenure. “Professional teacher status should be granted only to educators who have achieved ratings of Proficient or Exemplary on each Standard and overall,” DESE instructs. “A Principal considering making an employment decision that would lead to professional teacher status for any educator who has not been rated Proficient or Exemplary on each Standard and overall on the most recent evaluation shall confer with the Superintendent by May 1. The Principal’s decision is subject to review and approval by the Superintendent.”
The framework also includes a Five-Step Evaluation Cycle, in which “every educator participates in a cycle of continuous improvement designed to have all educators play an active, engaged role in their professional growth and development. For every educator, evaluation begins with a self-assessment and concludes with a summative evaluation. It also is a continuous improvement process in which evidence from the summative evaluation becomes important information for the educator’s next self-assessment and subsequent goal setting.”
“It’s about how we can work out what’s working that will improve outcomes for students,” Lyons feels.
He also reported efforts to minimize absenteeism, particuicarly chronic absenteeism, will start early in the school year, with chronic absenteeism defined as a student missing 10% of a school year or 18 days. “We’re not going to wait until January,” he said. “Principals will reach out to families in September and October.”
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In other matters, the members approved a Middle School World Language Department student trip to Quebec City in February. “It’s a fantastic trip,” Doyle School Interim Principal and former World Languages Curriculum Coordinator Erin Manzi told them. “It’s educational and expands students’ cultural awareness.”
It’ll be a short trip from February 6-8, but will coincide with the Quebec Winter Carnival or Carnival de Quebec, the largest winter carnival in the world.
Costs will depend on the number of students going. Manzi estimates if 22 or more go the cost will be $1,135; if 18-21 go the cost will be $1,259 and if 14-17 go the cost will be $1,464.
The trip has been run for decades and was for 8th graders. This year, however, it will be open to 7th graders as well under a long term plan to run it every two years instead of yearly. “It will expand the amount of students having access to the trip and having more students being able to participate will keep the price doable for families,” Manzi said.