26 Relating SLOs to Professional Practice The Wicomico County teacher evaluation model is a comprehensive and coherent system, designed to balance the importance of student outcomes with the value of understanding professional practice. While the SLO component produces student performance data for the evaluation system, the process of reviewing data and collaborating with colleagues to develop, implement, and monitor progress for SLOs demonstrates practitioner efficacy for many of the indicators in the professional practice component rubric. Teachers must review, analyze, and synthesize student data before they develop their SLOs and continue to do so throughout the instructional interval to monitor student progress. They must have a solid knowledge of content, pedagogy, student learning, child development, differentiation, developing and using assessments, and instructional strategies to create appropriate SLOs. Ideally, they are collaborating with their colleagues to review data, develop their SLOs, plan and adjust instruction, and reflect on their own practice. At a minimum, teachers collaborate with their evaluators (e.g., principals) to approve and monitor their SLOs, and plan for future professional development. By using SLOs, teachers have the opportunity to improve their professional practice, and their evaluators are provided with additional data to help identify specific strengths or areas in which the teacher may need assistance. Determination of Final Evaluation Rating At the end of the 2013-14 school year, the Teacher Evaluation Committee reviewed the results of the final evaluation scores for all teachers who were evaluated under the new system during the year to set cut scores for the designations of Highly Effective and Effective. The Committee shared its recommendations for cut scores with the Superintendent of Schools who made the final determination. On a 100 point scale, the Highly Effective cut score was set at 93.75 points and the Effective cut score was set at 68.75 points. Cut scores will be reviewed by the Teacher Evaluation Committee to accommodate changes as needed. Calculation of Scores for Teacher Evaluations Professional Practice Professional Practice accounts for 50 percentage points in the evaluation for teachers. Teachers will be rated on four Domains, equally weighted at 12.5 percentage points each. The possible scores for each Domain are 1-4. To yield the percentage points, the formulas to be used are: For each Domain: (Percentage Contribution x Earned Score)/Highest Possible Score = Earned Points For Professional Practice: Sum of the Earned Points for the four Domains = Points for Professional Practice Student Growth: Student Learning Objectives (SLOs) Student Growth accounts for 50 percentage points in the evaluation for teachers.
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