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Teacher ratings

New York Teacher

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Teacher ratings - Measures of student learning

Teacher ratings - Measures of student learning

If you are a teacher who is covered by the Department of Education’s teacher evaluation system known as “Advance,” you should have received your final rating for the 2017–18 school year by the start of this school year. A matrix determined your final rating as Highly Effective, Effective, Developing or Ineffective according to two measures: Measures of Student Learning (MOSL), which are the assessments that measure academic progress, and Measures of Teacher Practice (MOTP), which are observations.

Your MOSL rating is based on state guidelines and decisions made by your school’s MOSL committee at the beginning of last school year. The committee, which is composed of your school’s principal, your chapter leader, three other members selected by the principal and three other members selected by the chapter leader, determined the assessments your school used and the method by which student progress was measured.

You can figure out your final rating using the matrix by finding the square where your MOSL rating and your MOTP rating intersect [see chart].

There is a four-year moratorium in place on the use of state exams in ELA and math for grades 3–8 in MOSL ratings. This moratorium is in effect through the 2018–19 school year, which means that your school’s MOSL committee assigned a different assessment to measure student academic progress for teachers in ELA and math in grades 3–8.

Later in the fall, these teachers will also receive advisory results that will indicate how much growth their students made on those state exams.

Teachers who are rated Developing or Ineffective will receive a Teacher Improvement Plan (TIP). The Teacher Improvement Plan is limited to three areas of improvement related to the teacher’s rating. A supervisor will determine two areas of improvement. The teacher will determine the third. The teacher must provide this choice to school administrators by Oct. 1.

Teachers with an overall rating of Ineffective for 2017–18 will have three informal observations by a Peer Independent Evaluator this school year. Those observations will be based on the five components of Domains 2 and 3 of the Danielson Framework for Teaching. At the end of the school year, these component ratings will be averaged, and the result will be weighted as 10 percent of the teacher’s MOTP score.

If you receive an overall rating of Ineffective and do not believe it is merited, you should file an appeal. Contact your UFT borough office and have available your observation reports, written feedback and any logs you kept or emails you sent.

If you think you were rated Developing or Ineffective based on harassment or factors other than teacher performance, ask the UFT borough office staff to determine if you are eligible to be part of the 13 percent that can go to a special appeals panel for review.

If you have questions or concerns about your final rating — even if you were rated Highly Effective or Effective — the UFT has a review process to support you.  Fill out a Final Ratings Questions and Concerns form online.