Massachusetts Performance Assessment for Leaders (PAL)

Update: PAL Registration Notice and Important Programmatic Updates

Please see below for information on the Performance Assessment for Leaders (PAL), including updates to registration dates, fees, and upcoming revisions to the PAL task requirements.

Registration, Submission and Scoring Information

As previously noted in the PAL Registration Notice, the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) released a BID to procure a vendor to continue the administration of the PAL. The current vendor, Evaluation Systems Group (ES) of Pearson was the successful bidder and will therefore continue to administer PAL. With this new contract, ES will post new dates for registration. Registration and submission on the ES PAL platform will resume on October 11, 2022. In order to provide ample time for candidates to submit their Tasks after the moratorium, the next submission deadline is November 17, 2022.

The following table reflects the submission and reporting dates for the 2022-2023 school year.

Notice of Fee Update

We are also providing notice of a fee update. When the PAL program began in 2015 with the original vendor, the fee for each task was $125. That cost was reduced to $106.25 in 2016 when ES became the vendor and has remained the same for the last six years. As of October 11, 2022, ES will be increasing the fees for PAL Tasks to $159 per task.

Candidates with active registrations will maintain their registrations. Candidates whose registrations expired during the registration moratorium will have their registrations extended through the 2/23/2023 submission date.

In 2021, DESE released revised Guidelines for the Preparation of Administrative Leaders with updated indicators that incorporate anti-racist leadership competencies. We are providing notice that the PAL will be undergoing updates within the existing tasks to align to these revised guidelines. The update process will take place over the course of the next several years. The task structures themselves will not change, but edits to the rubric, and expectations within artifacts will be updated. Ample notice will be posted for any revisions to submission requirements, or for any other programmatic impacts.