Massachusetts educator evaluation regulations require that evaluators incorporate evidence of an educator's impact on student learning into performance ratings. For teachers, evidence of their impact on student learning informs their performance rating for Standard II: Teaching all Students. For administrators, this evidence impacts Standard I: Instructional Leadership. Evaluators and teachers should identify the most appropriate assessments of student learning and anticipated student learning gains associated with those measures when developing the Educator Plan.
Identifying Types of Measures. Evidence from the following types of assessments may be used to inform a teacher's evaluation:
For educators who are responsible for content assessed by statewide testing, statewide student growth measures must be one of the measures used to determine impact on student learning.
Other educators should use common assessments that are used across the district or multiple classrooms. Common assessments may be measures of learning, growth, or achievement. They should be comparable within grades or subjects and aligned to the MA Curriculum Frameworks or other relevant frameworks.
For educators where no common assessments are available, they should use data from classroom assessments as evidence of impact on student learning.
For educators not responsible for direct instruction, the appropriate measures of the teacher's contribution to student learning, growth and achievement are set by the district.
Each type of assessment provides unique information that educators can use to improve practice and evaluators can use to provide educators with meaningful feedback about their impact.
Determining Anticipated Student Learning Gains. Anticipated student learning gains are expectations for student performance established during the development of the educator plan for each assessment, against which actual results will be measured. While it may be challenging to determine anticipated learning gains at the beginning of the evaluation cycle, doing so sets up a richer conversation when educators and evaluators reflect on student results during the later stages of the cycle.
The relationship between the actual and anticipated gains on a given measure is ultimately what the evaluator and educator examine when considering the educator's impact on student learning. Educators and evaluators therefore must have a shared understanding of the anticipated student learning gains associated with these measures.
DESE determines anticipated student learning gains for statewide growth measures. Evaluators must consider student growth percentiles (SGP) for educators who have 20 or more students who have taken statewide assessments. The anticipated student learning gain associated with statewide assessments is a mean SGP between 35–65. A mean SGP of 65 or above exceeds expected growth, and a mean SGP of 35 or lower does not meet expected growth.
Districts are responsible for determining anticipated student learning gains for common assessments. These anticipated student learning gains should be consistent across the district.
When classroom assessments are used as evidence of an educator's impact on students, the educator and the evaluator should agree upon the anticipated learning gains.
Last Updated: July 31, 2020
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