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DOE on proposed teach evaluations process: Districts may identifiy or procure their own evaluation instrument. There is no requirement to select one of the major 4-5 providers.

Peter Shulman, Department of Education Chief Talent officer, and the GSCS Board of Trustees engaged in an in depth and detailed conversation on teacher evaluations at the GSCS March 7 board meeting. One result of that dialogue was that districts needed clarification on the teacher evaluation instrument selection guidance. Below is a follow up statement from Peter on the process and its allowance for flexibility and local choice in district selection.  

“After participating in a series of meetings in the field last week, I have learned that a common concern exists around LEAs’ identification/procurement of a teacher evaluation instrument.  Unfortunately, this concern is often predicated on some misinformation regarding the need to select one of the most popular instruments (e.g. Danielson, Marzano, Strong, McRel, TAP).

To be clear, Districts participating in both the 2011/12 pilot and Districts preparing for the upcoming 2012/13 school year (both pilot and non-pilot) DO NOT have to select one of these aforementioned instruments.  We are working as quickly as we can to define criteria that an evaluation instrument must adhere to, as well as a process to review instruments that are submitted by LEAs.  

If possible, I ask that you please communicate this to your membership at your earliest convenience. We will also be reinforcing this in our upcoming guidance to districts.”

GSCS Thanks Peter for his time, open exchange with GSCS, and for the expedited follow up.