2064 a - Educator Evaluation

DEFINITIONS—
For purposes of this policy, the following definitions apply:

1. "Administrator" means an individual who:
   1. serves in a position that requires:
   2. an educator license with an administrative area of concentration; or
   3. a letter of authorization; and
   4. supervises school administrators or teachers.
2. "Certified rater" means an educator who has been trained in evaluating educator performance and has demonstrated competency in using an educator evaluation tool to rate educator effectiveness according to established standards.
3. “Career educator” means a licensed employee who has a reasonable expectation of continued employment under the policies of the Board.
4. “Committee” means the District’s Educator Evaluation Program Committee.
5. “Educator” means an individual employed by the District who is required to hold a professional license issued by the State Board of Education for the employee’s current assignment, except:
   1. a superintendent and the business administrator, or
      1. an individual who works fewer than three hours per day;
      2. or is hired for less than half of the school year.
6. “PCSD Board of Education” or “Board” means the Piute County School District.
7. “Probationary educator” means an educator employed by the District who, under Board policy, has been advised by the District that the educator’s performance is inadequate.
8. “Provisional educator” means an educator employed by the District who has not achieved status as a career educator within the District.
9. "Summative evaluation" means the annual evaluation that summarizes an educator's performance during a school year and that is used to make decisions related to the educator's employment.
   Utah Code Ann. § 53A-8a-402 (2012)

EDUCATOR EVALUATION PROGRAM COMMITTEE—

1. To develop, support, monitor and maintain an educator evaluation program, the Board shall establish a committee composed of an equal number of educator representatives, parents, and administrators.
2. Nominees for educator representatives shall be voted upon by the District’s educators and a list of those individuals nominated by the educators shall be given to the Board.
3. Nominees for parent representatives shall be submitted by community councils within the District.
4. The Board shall appoint committee members, consistent with the law, from the nomination lists.
5. The Board shall adopt an educator evaluation program in consultation with the Educator Evaluation Program Committee.
6. The committee may:
   1. adopt or adapt an evaluation program for teachers based on a model developed by the State Board of Education; or
   2. create its own evaluation program for teachers.
7. The evaluation program developed by the Committee must comply with the requirements of the Public Education Human Resource Management Act (Utah Code Ann. § 53A-8a-101 et seq.) and rules adopted by the State Board of Education.
   Utah Code Ann. § 53A-8a-403 (2012)

PERIODIC WRITTEN EVALUATIONS—

1. The District shall have an evaluation system that provides systematic and fair written evaluations of educators of the District.
2. Evaluations of provisional and probationary educators shall be conducted at least once each school year and administrative discretion to determine additional evaluations.
3. Evaluations of career educators shall occur annually.
4. Such evaluations may be considered by the Board prior to any Board action concerning an educator’s employment.

Utah Code Ann. § 53A-8a-406 (2017)

EVALUATION PROGRAM COMPONENTS—

1. The District’s evaluation program for educators adopted by the Board in consultation with the Educator Evaluation Program Committee shall include the following components:
   A reliable and valid evaluation program that evaluates educators based on educator professional standards established by the State Board of Education and includes:
   1. The evaluation of provisional and probationary educators at least once each school year. Administrative discretion will be used in the amount of evaluations a provisional teacher or teacher on probation may receive annually.
   2. The systematic evaluation of Career educators at least annually;
   3. a systematic annual evaluation of all provisional, probationary, and career educators;
   4. Systematic evaluation procedures for both provisional and career educators;
   5. The use of multiple lines of evidence for Educators including:
      1. Self-evaluation evidence of (Professional Growth)
      2. Student and parent input: (How teachers are using survey data to show improvement)(Stakeholder Survey) 10%
      3. For an administrator, employee input;
      4. Supervisor observations: 80%
         1. Formative assessments regularly quarterly for all teachers;
         2. Summative conference and evaluation for teachers every five years; and
         3. Administrators evaluation annually.
         4. a reasonable number of supervisor observations to ensure adequate reliability;
         5. evidence of professional growth and other indicators of instructional improvement based on educator professional standards established by the State Board of Education;
            1. Student academic growth (Evidence of student growth based on student learning objectives (SLOs)) 5% Teachers involved in the SLO process 5%
            2. for an administrator, the effectiveness of evaluating employee performance in a school or school district for which the administrator has responsibility;
            3. Other indicators of instructional improvement;
2. An educator evaluation program may include a reasonable number of peer observations; and
3. An educator evaluation program may not use end-of-level assessment scores in educator evaluation; and

Administration of an educator’s evaluation by;

the principal

the principal’s designee;

the educator’s immediate supervisor; or

another person specified in the evaluation program;

Utah Code Ann. § 53A-8a-405 (2017)

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Utah Code Ann. § 53A-8a-506 (2012)

MENTOR FOR PROVISIONAL EDUCATOR

1. The principal or immediate supervisor of a provisional educator shall assign a mentor to a provisional educator annually consistent with the law.
2. Where possible, the mentor shall be a career educator who performs substantially the same duties as the provisional educator, has at least three years of educational experience in the District, and has received or will receive training in mentoring educators.
3. The mentor shall assist the provisional educator to become effective and competent in the teaching profession and school system.
   Utah Code Ann. § 53A-8a-408 (2012)

SUMMATIVE EVALUATION—

1. The person responsible for administering an educator’s summative evaluation shall:
   1. at least fifteen (15) days before an educator’s first summative evaluation:
      1. notify the educator of the evaluation process;
      2. give the educator a copy of the evaluation instrument, if an instrument is used. (This is the pre-conference.)
      3. allow the educator to respond to any part of the evaluation within and attach the educator’s responses to the evaluation if the educator’s response is provided in writing;
      4. discuss the written evaluation with the educator;
      5. following any revision of the written summative evaluation made after the discussion, file the evaluation and any related reports or documents in the educator’s personnel file; and
         Give a copy of the written evaluation and attachments to the educator. (This is the post-conference.)
      6. based upon the educator's performance, assign to the educator one of the four levels of performance described in Section 53A-8a-405.

Utah Code Ann. § 53A-8a-405 (2017)

Utah Code Ann. § 53A-8a-408 (2017)

EDUCATOR REVIEW PROCESS—

An educator who is not satisfied with a summative evaluation may request a review of a summative evaluation consistent with R277-533-8 within 15 days of receiving the written summative evaluation.

1. Step One:
   1. Principal or immediate supervisor will first meet with an employee to discuss the employee’s dissatisfaction with the employee’s summative evaluation.
   2. As part of the discussion, it is the employee’s responsibility to provide information to review and assess the evaluation results.
   3. A principal or immediate supervisor will make every effort to mitigate areas of concern, while applying objectivity and consistency.
   4. The evaluation rating of a teacher may be modified according to the outcome of step one.
   5. If the employee is not satisfied with the outcome of Step One, the employee may make a written request to the Superintendent within 10 days following the Step One meeting for a Step TWO review.
2. Step Two:
   1. The Superintendent or the Superintendent’s designee shall appoint a person, not an employee of the District, who has expertise in teacher or personnel evaluation (“Certified Rater”) to review the summative evaluation procedures and make recommendations to the Superintendent regarding the educator’s summative evaluation.
   2. The Superintendent shall maintain a list of at least three Certified Raters who meet the requirements of the law and are qualified to review educator evaluations.
   3. Within 5 days, the Superintendent shall appoint a Certified Rater from the list or another individual that meets the definition of the law.
   4. Within 15 calendar days, the Certified Rater shall:
      1. review the District’s educator evaluation policies and procedures;
      2. review the evaluation process conducted for the educator; and
      3. conduct the review without bias or oversight by District personnel or Board members, and consistent with principles of law including due process; and
      4. have sole discretion in determining methods of review; and
      5. may receive or request additional information from the educator who sought the review of the summative evaluation or from the District.
   5. Following the review, the Certified Rater shall either:
      1. uphold the original summative evaluation;
      2. revise the original summative evaluation and provide suggested changes to the original evaluation; or
      3. recommend to the Superintendent that another evaluation, if possible, should take place as a substitute for the contested evaluation.
3. Step Three:
   1. The Superintendent shall consider the Certified Rater’s recommendation and accept the recommendation if the Superintendent finds the recommendation is in accordance with:
      1. The District’s educator evaluation policies if it is the conclusion of the Certified Rater;
      2. The requirements of the performance standards found in R277-531;
         Title 53A, Chapter 8a, Public Education Human Resource Management Act;
         Rule R277-531; and Rule 277-533;
   2. The Superintendent shall finalize the educator’s evaluation process, including a written explanation of the acceptance or rejection of the Certified Rater’s recommendation within 10 calendar days of receipt of the Certified Rater’s recommendation. This is the final administrative decision regarding the contested evaluation.

RECOGNITION OF EXEMPLARY EDUCATIONAL EFFECTIVENESS—

Annually educators and administrators demonstrating exemplary educational effectiveness will be recognized as determined by the Superintendent or the Board on a year-by-year basis.
Utah Code Ann. § 53A-8a-406 (2017)

Utah Code Ann. § 53A-8a-406 (2012)

CONFIDENTIALITY OF EMPLOYEE EVALUATIONS—

Personal data gathered in educator evaluations shall be designated protected consistent with the direction of §53A-8a-410(4)

EDUCATOR PERFORMANCE COMPENSATION—

1. A career educator as defined above may not advance on the District’s adopted salary schedule if the educator’s rating on the most recent summative evaluation is at the lowest or second lowest level of an evaluation instrument, as described in Utah Code §53A-8a-405.
2. This provision does not apply to a provisional educator, or an educator who is in the first year of an assignment, including a new subject, grade level, or school, as found in Utah Code §53A-8a-602.
3. Notice of this provision will be provided in the orientation outlined in the School Orientation section above.
4. This provision is effective following orientation and notice.
5. PCSD Board of Education reserves the right to allow teachers to request summative evaluations annually to improve rating if a teacher’s evaluation rating is at the lowest or second lowest level rating on the five year summative evaluation that may be effected by an advancement on the district salary schedule.