Educator Evaluation Beacon

student surveys

How Will Districts Use Student Feedback?

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I met with eight districts earlier this week to discuss their plans for using student feedback. A meeting summary appears below.

Student Feedback Meeting Summary

How might CES support districts in gathering and using student and staff feedback?

July 8, 2014; Attending: Easthampton, Frontier, Hatfield, Hadley, Northampton, Pioneer Valley, South Hadley, Union 28

Sense of the Meeting: participating districts (8) intend to pursue one of these approaches:

  • Use the state student survey short form (3 districts)
  • Roll out a personalized approach to gathering and using student feedback (3)
  • Wait to see what develops while concentrating on other ed eval components (2)

Student Feedback Next Steps:

  • Once districts have studied the state’s student surveys (available here), convene another inter-district meeting to discuss and assess interest in using them. (August or September)
  • Maintain communication with Panorama Education in order to:
  • book student feedback PD for teachers (Fall ‘14) and district leaders (through the county superintendent steering committees, Fall ‘14)
  • pursue cost-saving offer to serve aggregations of small districts (July)
  • Check in with districts rolling out local solutions — some districts expressed desire for analysis support (ongoing, FY15)

CES Support for Districts (proposed)

  • implement surveys via google forms or survey monkey, utilizing the state instrument or an adaptation of it
  • share effective practices for using student feedback to evaluate teachers
  • identify sample contract bargaining language about how student feedback data will be used in the evaluation process (available here)

Staff Feedback Next Step:

  • Discuss district interest in using the state’s staff survey (available here). (Fall ‘14)

 

Student Survey News: The Good and The Bad

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As an avid follower of this blog, you probably already know that districts are required to administer student surveys in the 2014-15 school year. Whether to use locally created surveys or DESE’s version will be up to each district. To read more on this topic from DESE, click here or open the Quick Reference Guide to Student Surveys.

Good News: DESE’s student survey, available at no cost to districts, will come in short (about 20 questions) and long (40 questions) forms, with one version available for grades 3-5 and another for grades 6-12. (The surveys for grades K-2 are still in development.)

Bad News: Districts that decide to use the state’s survey questions may need to pay a vendor (Panorama) if they want professionally aggregated reports of the results.

In response, we at CES we will pursue cost-saving measures for our 33 member districts:

  1. Negotiate a group rate with Panorama
  2. Build an open source method for aggregating and displaying survey data.

DESE’s Student Survey Working Sessions Available Locally

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The educator evaluation folks at DESE will offer working sessions on student and staff surveys in western Massachusetts on November 14 and 18. These surveys are to be piloted this winter and be administered statewide in the fall of 2014.

At these sessions, Ron Noble and company will seek feedback from teachers and district administrators about a broad selection of sample questions.

The training will be located close to Route 91.

ESE Postpones Student Surveys For A Year

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The state is granting districts an extra year before they must begin using student and staff feedback in teacher ratings. In his Adjustment Memo to Supts 6-26-13, Deputy Commissioner Alan Ingram includes a chart comparing the old deadlines with the new.

As reported earlier on this blog, the state allowed a six-month delay in the implementation of district-determined measures of student growth. For more information, see
Commissioner Chester’s memo here.

 

Travel Alert: New Measures Take Effect in Fall 2013

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If you’re following the roll-out of the Massachusetts Educator Evaluation System, you already know that, in its current form, the system requires two forms of evidence– data gathered through observation and educator-submitted artifacts. In 2013-14, the Evaluation System requires that districts begin gathering student survey and student growth data. (Note: the use of these data in educator evaluation will require a return to the bargaining table.)

Student Growth Data   State regulations require the use of two measures of student growth for all teachers. Those educators currently teaching an MCAS or ACCESS-measured course are required to use one of those state assessments. Meeting this expectation will be especially challenging in untested subjects like art, music, and physical education. CES will lead a region-wide approach to building measures of student growth in these untested subjects. More guidance from the state about these new expectations can be found in Part VII of the state’s model system.

Student Surveys  These surveys may be electronically administered and apply to students in grades K-12. The regulations can be viewed here. Little guidance is available about how the survey results will be incorporated in the evaluation process; Kim Marshall proposes a reasonable strategy for doing so in a recent Education Leadership article (Note: full article access requires ASCD membership).