Teacher Evaluations – New State Mandate

You may have noticed a budget line item of $271,000 in Hopkinton’s 2013-14 budget for Educator Supervision and Evaluation. This is due to the new state regulations requiring more frequent and more detailed teacher evaluations. Although the new system is expected to produce better results, it is also very time-consuming for principals, assistant principals and department heads. BaselineEdge has estimated that for a principal to evaluate 30 teachers under the new guidelines, it will take 315 hours per year, or 15-20% of their total school year time. In Hopkinton this will mean additional staff to be hired next year and new software to be purchased to help with this time-consuming task. Here is the breakdown in the budget:

• +$83,500 (approx.) for an Additional 1.0 FTE Assistant Principal at the Elementary Level. Currently Elmwood and Hopkins SHARE an Assistant Principal and Center has NO Assistant Principal. With this addition there would be a total of 2.0 Assistant Principals shared between our three Elementary Schools.
• +$83,500 (approx.) for an Additional 1.0 FTE Assistant Principal at the Middle School. The Middle School currently has one Assistant Principal, they would now have two.
• +$84,000 (approx.) to reduce the course loads of High School curricular leaders and department heads. This would give them more time to do the new teacher evaluations and observations.
• $20,000 (approx.) Teacher Evaluation Software Package. Several packages are being considered, the exact software package has not been selected yet. 
• Read more in the Supervision/Evaluation Budget Summary on the School Committee website.

About the New State-Mandated Teacher Evaluation Regulations

On June 28, 2011, the Massachusetts Board of Elementary and Secondary Education adopted new regulations for the evaluation of all Massachusetts educators. The regulations, which apply to both administrators and teachers throughout the state, are designed to:

• Promote growth and development amongst leaders and teachers,
• Place student learning at the center, using multiple measures of student learning, growth, and achievement,
• Recognize excellence in teaching and leading,
• Set a high bar for professional teaching status, and
• Shorten timelines for improvement.

   2-Page Overview of Key features of the regulations

Support for Effective Implementation

The Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (ESE) is committed to supporting effective Educator Evaluation implementation. ESE developed the Model System for evaluating administrators and teachers that districts can choose to adopt or adapt, or they may revise their existing local evaluation system to align with the new regulations. ESE has released the first seven parts of Model System and is using federal Race to the Top grant funds to develop training materials and resources designed to support districts in implementing the new regulations.

Read more…