JAY — Regional School Unit 73 board of directors on Thursday evening, Nov. 14, approved new evaluation systems for specialists and education technicians.

“We couldn’t use the same program for specialized staff because that plan did not incorporate rubrics that dealt with nursing or with social workers, any type of specialized position,” Julie Bolduc, Title 1 reading specialist at Spruce Mountain Elementary School said. “So we had to go with a different one.”

The book “Teacher Evaluation to Enhance Professional Practice” written by Charlotte Danielson and Thomas L McGreal was purchased. “In that book there are many rubrics that are set up for every specialized position,” Bolduc said. “Those are the rubrics that we are using.”

Bolduc noted specialized staff have an electronic tool kit to work on their evaluations. “Specialized staff go in and they do a self evaluation so they rate themselves on standards that are specific to their position,” she said. “Our district typically chooses a district goal that everyone is working on. Unfortunately, under Danielson, those goals don’t always line up word for word with what the teachers’ goals are. So they choose something as closely related as they can to be their district goal, and they meet with the administrator to make sure that that’s as aligned as it can be. After they finish doing their self evaluation and rate themselves, they will choose the personal goal that they need to work on. When they have that personal goal chosen in this toolkit, they will then enter what their steps are and how they will work toward achieving getting better in that particular area.”

Because of confidentiality issues, observation of specialists may not always be possible in evaluating performance so evidence is collected and shared with the administrator, Bolduc stated. “They use that evidence to prove that they’re meeting whatever goal they set for themselves,” she said.

The scoring process is the same for teachers, specialists and education technicians, Julie Taylor, a math teacher at Spruce Mountain Middle School said. Scores for obtaining personal goals, district and often building goals are averaged and used to determine professional growth, she noted. Administrators also look at other areas outside of goals to determine professional practice scores, she stated. Wherever those two meet shows if the person is highly effective, effective, needs improvement or ineffective, she said.

“We created this rubric several years ago,” Taylor said. The state had one but it only had four numbers across the top and four numbers down the side and needed to be extended to tenth place, she noted.

The specialized rubric has really helped, Bolduc said. The feedback is more specific to their area, she stated.

This system works for all specialized staff, Taylor added.

Director Tina Riley of Jay asked if the system was just being put into practice.

“We have been using this now for two years, piloting it,” Bolduc said.

Riley asked if the changes made are making it work.

“Absolutely, we’re getting feedback,” Bolduc replied. A lot of the staff have said this is much better, it is actually more specific feedback to their field, and it allows them to use evidence to support what they’re working on, she noted.

The new system for education technicians includes a three-year rotation, with ed techs randomly assigned to one of those years, Bolduc noted. They use a paper system as they do not always have access to technology at the same availability as staff, she stated. “We asked them what do you want, and they said, we want it on paper, we feel much more comfortable filling out and using the paper system,” she said.

The technicians do a self evaluation on the standards they chose to work on, give it to their direct administrator, then list three to five stakeholders who have the ability to work with that technician, Bolduc noted. One has to be the supervising teacher, others could be another ed tech or teacher working in that room, she said. “It could be the bus driver that they ride with because they have to be part of transportation support for a particular student,” she stated.

The stakeholders provide feedback to the administrator, who uses it while rating the standards chosen by the ed tech, Bolduc said. The administrator will rate other standards, she added.

Like specialized staff, the scores will be used to determine an ed tech’s professional growth and practice, Taylor said.

The systems have been piloted with some adjustments already made, Bolduc said. Some new ed techs had their year changed to allow time to familiarize themselves with other staff, she noted.

“I really appreciate that you’re doing this with such unified language we can all understand, everybody’s using the same terms,” Director Elaine Fitzgerald of Jay said. “Everybody is treated the same and has the same opportunities, and can actually grow from these. This is not evaluative and negative. This is how we enhance the positives. They are very clear and I appreciate that and I’m sure the staff does as well.”