WESTFIELD - In addition to a new group of students and the new Common Core State Standards, teachers will also have to deal with new performance reviews.
Westfield Academy and Central School Superintendent David Davison gave the board an overview of the new Annual Professional Performance Reviews, or APPR, at the Board of Education meeting.
APPR, which was adopted by WACS on May 16, 2011, was one of four mandatory steps New York schools needed to implement in order to get Race to the Top funding. The breakdown of how the review is scored gives 20 percent for student growth on state assessments, 20 percent for locally selected measures of student achievement and 60 percent for other measures of a teacher or principal effectiveness. This last category breaks down even further into classroom observations, other local measurements such as portfolios and self or peer assessments or surveys.
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OBSERVER?Photo by Jenna Loughlin
Westfield Academy and Central School Superintendent Dave Davison, left, gives the Board of Education a brief overview of the new Annual Professional Performance Reviews which take effect this year. Also pictured, from left to right, are: Board President Jeff Greabell; Board Vice President Steve Cockram; board member Roger Jopek; and board member Ed LeBarron.
Students will be given a baseline assessment at the beginning of the school year and then another one every 10 weeks with a formative test at the end of the school year. This will help schools and teachers see where the students are over the course of the year.
Any teacher or a principal receiving a score of ineffective or developing will have a Teacher or Principal Improvement Plan formulated and implemented. These plans must include the areas of improvement, a timeline, how the improvement will be assessed and activities to support the improvement.
Some of the decisions left up to individual school districts include an appeal procedure, the TIP process, classroom observation tools, determining a local scale for the 60 percent of the review, assessing all seven New York State Teaching Standards and providing feedback to teachers.
So far Davidson and Secondary Principal Ivana Hite are both qualified as lead evaluators for the district and were approved as such in a resolution later in the meeting.
Also in his superintendent report, Davison reported the state's Dignity Act 2013 is going to have cyberbullying added to it as the responsibility of schools to investigate and handle. Additionally, he said he expects the consolidation study results.
In other news, Primary Principal and Director of Special Education Paula Troutman has accepted the job of middle school principal at Silver Creek Central Schools. The board accepted her resignation, effective on or about Sept. 7, at its meeting on Monday, Aug. 13 and on Aug. 27 accepted the appointment of elementary teacher Heath Forester as interim elementary school principal at the per diem rate of $343 per day and Ashley Raynor as chair of special education meetings at a compensated lump sum of $312.
Board member Marie Edwards said she was sorry to see Troutman go.
"We will miss you," board Vice President Steve Cockram said.
"We wish you well in your new position," board President Jeff Greabell said. "All the best to you."
Board member Roger Jopek asked Davison how quickly he thought the new elementary principal could be qualified as an evaluator for APPR once hired. Davison responded it depended on the availability of workshops and trainers, but he estimated around 15 to 20 days total. He added evaluations will not start until October or November.
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