The Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE) invites all school districts, charter schools, intermediate units and career and technical centers to join them in the development of a new teacher evaluation system to be introduced in the 2012-13 school year.

PDE will be conducting a Phase II pilot program during the 2011-12 school year. The major elements of the pilot include:

• A detailed teaching practice rubric based on the work completed under the Gates-funded initial pilot project and other frameworks;
• Continuing study of “multiple measures of student achievement” and their correlation with the teaching practice rubric;
• Detailed guidance on the evaluation process, its components and the evidence to be considered for evaluation;
• The development of a formula for determining the summative evaluation rating;
• The development of an ongoing training network through the intermediate units that will be launched with a two-and-a-half-day Training of Trainers to be held Oct. 26-28, 2011;
• A practitioners oversight group as defined in the Pennsylvania School Code (24 P.S.  § 11-1123);
• External evaluators to analyze the second phase of the pilot project; and
• An online evaluator training system to address inter-rater reliability.

Pilot sites will have the opportunity to provide recommendations, based upon their experience, into the final design of the new teacher evaluation form and rubric. In addition, pilots will be able to offer recommendations for the evaluation guidelines that will include local flexibility, practice components and evidence recommendations.

Pilots will also have the opportunity for ongoing online training at no cost, as well as priority registration for the PDE SAS Institute in Hershey to be held Dec. 4-7, 2011.

Please join us in this very important endeavor. We need a broad representation of the education community across Pennsylvania to develop a strong system. You may select individual buildings for the pilot rather than the entire LEA. There are limited positions for the pilot.

PDE will be holding a webinar from 10:30 a.m. to noon on August 24, 2011, to answer further questions and discuss the pilot with interested parties.   Please reply to Carolyn Dumaresq at cdumaresq@pa.gov by August 19 and provide the following information:

Name of Entity:______________________________

Contact Information for Pilot:__________________________________

_____     We are ready to commit to participating in the pilot.

_____     We would like to participate in the webinar before requesting consideration to participate in the pilot. Please send directions for participation.