The Massachusetts Board of Elementary and Secondary Education

Educator Evaluation Data: Student Growth Percentiles, Race/Ethnicity, and Gender

In November 2013, the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education released statewide data on the distribution of educator evaluation ratings among the 37,940 educators 1 who were evaluated under the new evaluation system in school year 2012-13. The 2012-13 school year was the first year of large-scale implementation of the new Massachusetts educator evaluation framework.

The 234 Race to the Top districts were required to implement the new regulations and evaluate at least half of their educators in 2012-13. During the 2012-13 school year, 37,940 educators in 213 Race to the Top districts were evaluated - or 61.8 percent of educators in those districts, which was above the required 50 percent for 2012-2013.

The data reported in November 2013 showed that 85.2 percent of educators evaluated in the 2012-2013 school year were rated Proficient and 7.4 percent Exemplary, while 6.8 percent were rated Needs Improvement and 0.7 percent Unsatisfactory.

At the Board meeting on April 29, 2014, I will present to the Board a new report and additional data on the 2012-13 educator evaluations. The new report and accompanying data will expand upon the November analysis in two ways: by showing how the summative performance rating relates to one measure of impact on student learning, the median student growth percentile; and by disaggregating the overall performance ratings by race/ethnicity and gender.

A primary purpose for conducting this analysis is to promote continuous learning and improvement, a goal of the educator evaluation system itself. By better understanding the early evaluation patterns, we can provide information to help districts improve their implementation.

1 In this memo we use the term "educators" to mean all educators who must be evaluated according to state statute and the Board's regulations, including classroom teachers, specialized instructional support personnel, principals, and others.