Joint Educator Evaluation Committee (JEEC)

Yesterday afternoon was the JEEC meeting.  Paul Noble, Vicki Olsen, Debbie Atwood, and Christy Baker were in attendance.  The UETS-based JPAS pilot was successful and deemed valid and reliable, so those changes will go into effect for all teachers next year.  Changes were made on JPLS with the Educator Effectiveness on the Utah Effective Teaching Standards (UETS) being moved to the Interim.  The Interim was also changed based on feedback from teachers.  Teachers are allowed to keep paper evidence, uploading items on JPLS, or a combination of both.  The UEA Evaluation Toolkit is a great resource for keeping your documentation organized.  Watch for more JEA Evaluation trainings this fall.  My notes from the meeting are below.








Stakeholder input portion will be Utah Education Policy Center version. This is the group the state of Utah has been using.  Decided not to pilot this year. This online survey will be piloted around Spring PTC so parents can use computers at the school if needed. After reviewing survey results, principal meets with teacher to find out what the teacher has done to address concerns.

Student growth for tested subjects and grades will be from SAGE. Non-tested subjects and grades will use Student Learning Objectives (SLO). Jordan decided to make a proposal to the state to do their own SLO model. Jordan pulls in groups of subject matter teachers to write district wide SLOs. Professional development at the beginning utilizes information from the State Office of Education. More PD on how to write a quality assessment. Each group went through this process over two days. Teachers writing were to take the SLO back to their teams to get input, then met with writing team again for another day.  This process has not been easy.

The state expectation is two SLOs per teacher. Second SLO can be shared attribution. Some writing groups completed two, others only completed one. What has been written is excellent!  Modifications are still being made as the teachers see fit. This is two SLOs per teacher, not per subject.

The philosophical question is, do we want to track growth of all students, and if so, that would bring in one SLO per prep. By using Mastery Connect to gather data, it is very easy to compile a report that shows student growth. Teachers are already tracking student performance. An SLO just formalizes what teachers should be doing. We must consider the best interest of students.

JPAS scores have been very consistent for the past 20 years.  Continue to monitor evaluators. Shift next year in Domains IV and V and the Total score based on changes that were found valid and reliable through the pilot in 2013-14.

Pilot had 31 schools total, including schools in other districts that have been using JPAS. 900 teachers were part of the pilot. 86 of those teachers had a second evaluator participate in the interview portion to establish validity and reliability. Scores on Domains IV and V are comparable or slightly better on the pilot than on the original JPAS. Two different statisticians looked at the results and stated the same thing. Past cut scores between levels (highly effective 38.5%, effective 53.9%, minimally effective 5.6%, and not effective 2%) are the same on the pilot as on as the original JPAS, so those will be the cut percentages for the new UETS-based JPAS.

Because the pilot this year was successful and found to be reliable, for 2014-15, all teachers will be using the new UETS-based JPAS. If the school was not a pilot school in 2013-14, that school will be trained at the beginning of school.

The interim is changing. Self-evaluation portion will be done on the interim years, not on full UETS-based JPAS years. PD plan will be two goals, one based on Domain IV or V and one based on one of the UETS. End of year meeting will eventually be to review the student growth and stakeholder input portions, which will be added to JPAS rating from last full JPAS. The reflection portion is for the teacher, but can be discussed with the principal at the final meeting. Principal will decide on a due date.

Domains IV and V allows teachers to choose to document online or on the paper folder.  Both formats are laid out in the same way.