This will be the seventh year of the Washington State Teacher/Principal Evaluation project or TPEP.  Every public school teacher in the state of Washington is evaluated against eight criteria and graded on a scale from 1-4.  A rating of four means distinguished, a rating of one means you are in trouble.

I had been teaching middle school for 30+ years and figured I was starting to get the hang of it. Until seven years ago, the evaluation process consisted of establishing some professional growth goals at the beginning of the year and then meeting with an administrator at the end of the year to discuss the achievement of the self-established goals.  It was a piece of cake.  Formal evaluations were for new teachers in their first three years of the profession.  And then TPEP came along…

At first I was really nervous, lots of us were.  I know teachers who left the profession because of fear of the process and the possible ramifications.  I decided seven years ago that I wanted a four, or a rating of distinguished, and I was going to study the criteria and the rubrics for evaluation.  So I did, and I know the rubrics better than most administrators.

I still get nervous, over plan, and can’t sleep the night before my formal evaluations each year, but I did score a four and realized the eight criteria are just good teaching.

I have been sharing my learning on TPEP for many years but I am continually changing and updating the workshop.  I will be doing a free presentation Wednesday, August 14th at the University of Washington so I will be posting a series of blog posts to support the presentation.

Although everyone is evaluated on the same eight criteria, there are three different frameworks districts can choose from as an evaluation instrument.  They are the Marzano Teacher Evaluation Model, the CEL5D+ Teacher Evaluation Rubric (commonly referred to as the UW model), and Danielson’s Framework for Teaching.  I am focusing on the areas in which the three frameworks overlap.

Criterion #1 Centering instruction on high expectations for student achievement.  

The overlap of the three frameworks for criterion number one is communicating learning targets to students and celebrating success.  

I have been posting learning goals for some time, but the shift for me is constantly physically going back to the posted goals and checking in on where we are during and at the end of each class period.

I also explicitly teach the students about the path to proficiency and how to level up.  Here is an example about Seafair, a hydroplane race extravaganza held the first weekend in August each year in Seattle.  I explain Seafair to my students using the different proficiency levels.

Novice Low- Boats, airplanes, swimming, sun, fun, bathing suits, Lake Washington, food, music, drinks (At least two target language words related to the prompt, no cognates or brand names)

Novice Mid- Seafair wild  many boats  airplanes Blue Angels  Swimming in lake, food, fun, music, drinks (At least one connection to a verb related to the prompt)

Novice High- I like Seafair.  fun Lake Washington  food  races   airplanes  there is boats.  People swim in the water.   (At least two complete clauses with two different verbs related to the prompt)

Intermediate Low- Seafair is in Seattle each year.  people boats.  They watch races.  There are airplanes. water fights  I like Seafair and it is fun.  Do you like Seafair? (3-4 simple sentences related to the prompt with at least 3 details)

Intermediate Mid- Seafair is in Seattle each year.  There are lots of people in boats on lake Washington.  They watch the boat races.  There are also airplanes that fly, the Blue Angels.  I like Seafair because it is fun to have water fights with other boats.  Although it is really crowded and rough on the lake sometime, Seafair is a lot of fun. (At least two complex components with groupings of sentences)

Intermediate High- Ever since I was a little girl, my family has gone to the hydroplane races at Seafair which happens the first weekend of August in Seattle each year.  First, we load up the boat with food, drinks, water balloons, and squirt guns.  Then we put up our pirate flag, which means we are willing to participate in water fights. Then we look for other boats that want to have a water fight, and launch water balloons at them. I like Seafair because it is fun to have water fights with other boats.  Even though it is really crowded and rough on the lake sometimes, Seafair is a lot of fun. (Evidence of at least 3-4 complex components and connectedness)

Then I have the students do a matching activity where there are descriptions of a circus by proficiency level and labels for the different proficiency levels and they have to race to match them up.  Lastly, I have them describe school in groups according to the different proficiency levels and write their descriptions on butcher paper and we try to guess the proficiency level of each description.

I like to show my students how to level up with the resources at the Shelby County Schools World Language Website.

And then we celebrate success!  Here is a link to a former post.

Tpep Criterion #1: Centering instruction on high expectations for student achievement.