Click on the link below to read the report from the Governor’s Council for Educator Effectiveness. I plan to review it this weekend.

Interim Progress Report

A secretary committee was formed earlier this year to study issues surrounding clerical positions. Members on the committee include secretaries, administrators, and central office personnel. The committee is nearly finished with specific recommendations. There has been 6 meetings during the year plus additional work in between. The committee will stay in tact following the presentation of specific recommendations which will soon be released. Some of the areas that the committee has studied includes the following:

1. Revisions to all building clerical job descriptions.

2. Recommending a formula for staffing in each building.

3. Assessing professional development needs for clerical staff.

4. Evaluating the current testing procedures and standards for clerical staff.

5.  Studying the potential for a mentor program.

Dr.  Shenkman,  Mrs. Maconochie and I attended Danielson observation training at WCRESA on April 3rd and 4th.  Dr. Pam Rosa was the instructor for the training and it is in alignment with the Danielson Framework which is the basis for our evaluation model in Dearborn. Some of the training ideas will be brought back to Dearborn to provide training for administrators at the next General Administrators’ meeting in May.  I have attended multiple trainings since the inception of the new teacher evaluation process in Michigan (2 by Dr. Danielson in person) and have brought back many ideas to our district via a train the trainers model.  We still have a lot of work to do but will move forward in a positive and collaborative manner.

The teacher evaluation committee discussed the following at the March 28th committee meeting relative to student growth data.

We advocate for multiple measures. This will include MEAP, MME, and either common assessments that are valid and reliable or a norm referenced assessment like Terra nova.  The MEAP was not designed to measure growth as it is a criterion referenced assessment. We also want to see some sort of product or performance assessments.

Individual teachers would be measured on student performance in their class along with the overall building score and/or district score as a suggestion.

The state is providing very little direction at this point. We believe that it will be several years before effective and fair valid and reliable measures are put into place. Glenn Maleyko, Chris Sipperley, Kathy Klee, and Gail Shenkman have attended training by the state on Growth.  Glenn has been attending many trainings and using that information for training with administrators. However, where we go with student growth data is still unknown based on attendance at the trainings.

Although not related to student growth, It was also pointed out that administrators will be evaluated on how well they perform their teacher evaluations per the new state legislation.

The Governor’s committee on Growth and Educator Effectiveness believes that the April 30th deadline is not realistic.  Please click on this link for a Detroit News Article.  https://www.freep.com/article/20120318/NEWS06/203180503/Governor-s-Council-on-Educator-Effectiveness-balks-at-deadline-for-teacher-rating-system

Dearborn Administrators have been receiving training by Dr. Maleyko every month since August at the General Administrators meeting. He has been attending state level training sessions and using the training ideas and tools to provide pd support to Dearborn Administrators.  You can view all training presentations on this blog on the PD site. https://blog.dearbornschools.org/humanresources/wp-admin/post-new.php  Examples and samples were also provided byJulie Maconochie at one of the training sessions.

The teacher evaluation committee met on March 28th to discuss progress with the evaluation tool in Dearborn. Some of the areas of discussion included the following:

1.  A mid year progress report for 1st year probationary teachers and teachers rated ineffective in their year-end evaluation.

2. Timeline for the end of the year evaluation submission. State law allows district to layoff employees for economic reasons at anytime and there does not have to be a 60 day notice. Since evaluations will be a big part of the process of layoff and recall within 2 years, the submission of evaluations must be timely.

3.  The potential use of software to assist with evaluations.  We might consider piloting Stages software in a few buildings to allow for greater efficiency and accountability with evaluations.

4.  Concerns were brought up with the fairness of the process and training for administrators.

We will soon use this site to post training and other information related to Human Resources and Evaluations.

This is a test post