2016

November

On November 16 the SECC and ALSDE educator effectiveness project staff met via Go ToMeeting to discuss the state’s response to its review of the Student Learning Objective materialsthat SECC shared on October 26. The team also discussed state’s vision for rolling out the SLOwork to pilot districts in the spring and finalized plans for the on-site meeting on November 29-30in Birmingham.At the November 29-30 meeting the project team spent the morning of the first day reviewing thestate’s two pillars of the teacher evaluation model to help provide context and background for thethird pillar, Impact on Engagement and Learning where SLOs will be integrated. The state thenprovided an overview of its concept for how pillar three would function. From there, SECCdiscussed the SLO evaluation cycle and approaches to SLO development and scoring. On day 2,SECC shared sample decision-making manuals with the state to use as models in developing itsown guidebook for districts. Last, SECC walked the SEA through a decision-making chart,highlighting possible pathways and noting areas where the state showed interest. Next steps areto share research and literature on SLOs with the state so it can make a case for implementingthem to newly appointed executive leadership. The state will also be planning the design of aguidance and decision-making manual for supporting pilot districts during training andimplementation. SECC will share the meeting notes with the SEA.

October

SECC staff met internally on October 5 to plan and prepare for an upcoming meeting on October26 with ALSDE’s educator effectiveness project lead to discuss the implementation of studentgrowth goals (SGGs)). Two new SECC and SEA staff members joined the educator effectivenessYear 5 project team and participated in the October 26 meeting. During this meeting, the stateproject lead provided background and context for the new SECC staff members. To supportplanning for November training of ALSDE staff on SGGs, the SECC team forwarded a suite ofpotential resources for use during the training and guiding questions to the SEA probing how theresources reflect the state’s vision for SGG statewide implementation, including its overall goalsfor teachers and students, training framework, theory of action, etc. The SEA spent the dayreviewing the SLO resources and responding to the guiding questions. The meeting resumedlater that afternoon via conference call to discuss the state’s responses to the guiding questionsand next steps. The state needed more time to review the resources and have conversationsabout the direction they want to go with SGGs and teacher evaluation. The project team will meetagain via conference call on November 16 once the SEA’s new staff members have had achance to internalize the SLO process and be better positioned to make key decisions movingforward. The team will meet face-to-face on November 29 and 30 in Birmingham to plan for 2017.

September

SECC project staff met with the ALSDE educator effectiveness lead via conference call on September 1 to discuss general SEA updates, a timeline for implementing student growth goals (SGGs) as part of teacher evaluation, and the role of SECC for Year 5. A major update was that the new state superintendent of education was hired in August as well as two new staff members in the educator effectiveness office. In terms of the timeline and activities, the SEA explained it would like to provide at least 30 districts with guidance on SGGs in early spring. The SEA would like to present these districts with at least four options for adopting a SGG model. ALSDE would like SECC to provide technical assistance with codeveloping tools and resources for this work and to lead with expertise in devising a plan for implementation. The team scheduled an online work session with the SEA for October 26 and 28 to follow up in preparation for a face-to-face meeting on November 29–30. To support the SEA project lead, on September 15, SECC staff offered to reach out to the two new educator effectiveness staff to provide context and background for the current project work on SGGs prior to the November site meeting in Alabama. SECC is seeking to meet with the new staff to bring them up to speed on the SGG process while the leaders on the team focus on the bigger picture.

August

A poll sent by SECC staff via email in July yielded no available dates for scheduling Work Session #3—Planning for Student Growth Goals. As such, SECC administered a second poll in August which determined November 29–30 as dates for the meeting. ALSDE will hold a conference call with SECC on September 1 in preparation for the face-to-face meeting in late fall.

July

SECC staff sent the Alabama Educator Effectiveness team a poll on July 27 to schedule the work session #3 in mid- to late-September. In the meantime, SECC’s next steps are to set up a planning meeting via conference call to prepare for the on-site work session.

June

During the national Talent for Turnaround convening held in Houston, Texas, on June 15–17, the former director of educator effectiveness at ALSDE indicated to the SECC Alabama state liaison that the project would continue into the SECC year 5 work plan. With his new role as deputy state superintendent, he will continue to oversee the project but has given the lead to another project team member who has been instrumental in implementing the new educator effectiveness framework statewide. SECC’s next steps are to schedule a planning meeting via conference call in preparation for its next on-site work session in early fall. 

May

SECC staff met internally to work on plans for ALSDE SLO Work Session #3, tentatively scheduled for early fall. They discussed the SEA’s current activities that entail working with districts on the implementation of its other two teacher evaluation pillars. Subsequently, the SECC project team lead arranged for a conference call with the SEA’s educator effectiveness coordinator while both were attending the SECC Advisory Board meeting on May 24–25 in South Carolina. The team’s next steps are to schedule the planning call so they can gear up for work session #3.

April

SECC project staff began coordinating plans for ALSDE SLO Work Session #3, tentatively scheduled for mid-to-late Summer 2016. An internal planning meeting was scheduled for May 3 to plan and prepare for the next work session. Once all project team members from SECC and ALSDE indicate availability in the summer, SECC will disseminate a scheduling poll and confirm the date.

March

SECC staff and the ALSDE educator effectiveness team held a second work session in Birmingham on March 15 and 16 to further explore student learning objectives and how they might develop and implement them statewide as part of the teacher evaluation system. SECC staff shared sample SLOs from other states, including Ohio and Oklahoma, and they facilitated in-depth discussions related to each state’s approaches. The SECC and ALSDE team generated ideas and questions during the work session and documented them for follow-up activities. Conversations that need to take place next involve the alignment of various processes, including student growth setting with Alabama Continuous Improvement Plan goals, professional development with a professional growth system, and the professional learning plan with student growth in terms of instructional strategies. To support this work, the team will focus on developing a theory of action to conceptualize the process that will result in the state’s expected outcomes. ALSDE’s next steps include developing an implementation timeline, developing training workshops, studying ACT growth projections, leading LEAs in Alabama Quality Teaching Standards matrix development, and ensuring that the LEAD Alabama rubrics for administrators align with six domains of the teacher evaluation system. SECC’s next steps include sharing resources with ALSDE including baseline data training samples, an evidence matrix, learning modules for SLO growth targets, and samples of student goal-setting processes for English learners. SECC will also prepare content for the next work session, revise PLM growth goals, send ALSDE information on the National Education Association SLO summit, and schedule a third work session for June or July 2016.

February

SECC staff and the ALSDE educator effectiveness team scheduled a brief conference call on February 9 to discuss and confirm plans for the face-to-face meeting on March 15 and 16 in Birmingham. While the state maintains that teacher professional growth is the primary purpose for setting student learning objectives, the SECC team asked the state to consider how its equity plan might impact the design and development of SLOs and whether there are multiple purposes for establishing them. As the team moves forward in planning for the upcoming work session, SECC’s next steps are to collect resources from other states’ SLO designs to share in March, while ALSDE will obtain examples of the Alabama Continuous Improvement Plans (ACIP).

January

The educator effectiveness team from ALSDE met in Birmingham on January 12 with SECC project staff. The SEA team invited a staff member from the Alabama Reading Initiative and thedirector of the Office of Student Learning to participate and provide input. The focus of the meeting was to begin developing and implementing student learning objectives as part of the state’s teacher evaluation model. The SEA opened the meeting with an overview of its approach to teacher evaluation and provided background on its current status under the newly designed model. SECC project staff then engaged the SEA with activities to introduce them to SLOs. The team adjourned the meeting with plans for a conference call on January 26 to determine the SEA’s needs and next steps. During the January 26 meeting, the team began planning for the next work session where they could discuss possible approaches to student learning and growth as part of the state’s educatoreffectiveness model. A planning call for February 9 is scheduled and a two-day meeting is scheduled in Birmingham on March 15–16 to begin developing a theory of action.

2015

December

The SLO work session scheduled for December 15 was rescheduled for January 12, 2016, in Birmingham, Alabama. This work session will provide the ALSDE educator effectiveness team with the opportunity to explore student learning objectives more deeply and to discuss and plan next steps for how they can be aligned with Alabama’s educator effectiveness evaluation model.

November

The SECC and ALSDE educator effectiveness team scheduled a December 15 work session to learn more about student learning objectives. In November, the SECC team began planning for the work session. In addition, an ALSDE educator effectiveness team member attended the recent SECC/TXCC regional institute in Atlanta, during which she had the opportunity to network with experts and other SEA staff about promoting equity at state and local levels.

October

The ALSDE educator effectiveness team met with SECC staff in late October to discuss the SEA initiative impacting teachers and instructional leaders. The conversation focused on Alabama’s strategic education plan known as Plan 2020, which details strategies and indicators for meeting state goals. SEA staff described its current progress with implementing its strategy to develop and implement a professional growth and evaluation system for teachers and leaders that includes multiple measures of student growth and achievement. Namely, the SEA is interested in learning more from SECC/AIR experts about student learning objectives (SLOs) and would like to set up an initial on-site meeting leading to their increased capacity to guide LEAs with the development and implementation of student growth measures. The SEA expressed the need to design a meaningful evaluation system that positively impacts educator growth and student outcomes. Possible dates are on the table for scheduling a work session for either November or December 2015.

2014

July

SECC continues to assist ALSDE in its Educator Evaluation stakeholder committee meetings to support ongoing efforts to develop a new evaluation system. A stakeholder meeting was held on July 22.

June

Heidi Goertzen, SECC Alabama state liaison, attended the ALSDE Educator Evaluation stakeholder committee meeting on June 9 and 10 to support ongoing efforts to develop a new evaluation system. The next stakeholder meeting is scheduled July 22.

May

SECC Research Associate Liz Barkowski met with an ALSDE representative at the CCSSO State Consortium on Educator Effectiveness (SCEE) conference in San Antonio, Texas, to discuss the development of Alabama’s educator evaluation system. ALSDE will convene a stakeholder group in June to discuss the development of the system. SECC provided resources on the decisions and steps involved in the development of an evaluation system as well as guidance on selecting a teacher observation rubric. SECC state liaisons for the Mississippi and Alabama departments of education, Debra Meibaum and Heidi Goertzen, respectively, supported state department teams with planning and coordinating the first Alabama-Mississippi State Community of Practice (AMSCoP) work session, which took place May 21 and 22 in Montgomery, Alabama. Teams from each state shared information covering a variety of topics. As such, MDE staff provided an overview of their educator evaluation system, including their experiences implementing the model and lessons learned. Both teams were interested in exploring this topic further. 

April

SECC Program Associates, Heidi Goertzen and Debbie Meibaum continued with planning and coordination for the upcoming Alabama-Mississippi State Community of Practice to be held May 21–22 in Montgomery. Teams from each state department of education will provide an overview of their experiences implementing key state initiatives as requested by their counterpart. As such, MDE will provide a session on educator evaluation, which will help to inform ALSDE staff as they begin to develop key pieces of this initiative with their team of stakeholders in June.

March

An outcome of the SECC Advisory Board meeting held in early spring in Biloxi, Mississippi, was the formation of the Alabama-Mississippi Community of Practice (AMCoP), whereby teams from each state are interested in learning how their counterparts have implemented statewide initiatives, including those from Alabama’s strategic Plan 2020. After conducting a series of educator evaluation stakeholder meetings, staff from the Alabama State Department of Education (ALSDE) has requested educator evaluation as a priority topic from the AMCoP. As such, SECC liaisons for Alabama and Mississippi, Heidi Goertzen and Debbie Meibaum, respectively, coordinated a planning meeting on March 18 with members from each state. The planning team scheduled a half-day session for May 21 on educator evaluation where staff from the Mississippi Department of Education will share their experiences and resources with ALSDE staff in Montgomery, Alabama.

February

The Alabama State Department of Education held its first Alabama Professional Evaluation Design Stakeholder Subcommittee meeting to address Plan 2020’s educator evaluation initiative to include multiple measures of assessment. Heidi Goertzen, Alabama SECC liaison, attended the retreat in a supportive role. This subcommittee, represented by teachers, administrators, and education professionals from across the state, came to consensus on a variety of options for evaluating Alabama’s teachers and leaders. During the two-day retreat, stakeholders prepared guidelines for Plan 2020’s educator evaluation processes, which will be recommended to the Alabama Professional Evaluation Design Committee in March.

January

The SECC project team and ALSDE SIG staff discussed results from an analysis on student growth models for summative Educate/Lead Alabama. Additionally, the SECC staff provided technical assistance to ALSDE Research and Development staff using a Predictive Model Guide for analyzing student growth models. This support served as follow-up to November’s on-site meeting with ALSDE staff, whereby the SECC team presented various student growth models that would support Plan 2020. During the SECC Advisory Board Meeting in Biloxi, Mississippi, plans were made for continued on-site technical assistance with developing growth models for ALSDE staff in early March.

2013

December

The SECC project team continued working with ALSDE leadership and School Improvement Grant (SIG) staff to complete the SIG educator evaluation pilot (2012–2013). Toward that end, the ALSDE SIG and SECC staff worked to compile findings from the professional growth, professionalism, and student growth measures. Additional activities included planning for technical assistance on analyzing growth models for the staff in the state’s Office of Research and Development.

November

The SECC project team continued working with ALSDE leadership and SIG staff to complete the SIG educator evaluation pilot (2012–2013). Toward those ends, the ALSDE SIG and SECC staff co-led two regional trainings for SIG district and school administrators on professional growth and professionalism processes and rubrics. Additionally, SECC staff worked on-site at the ALSDE to develop and analyze a school-level measure of student growth for the 2012–2013 school year. This model met federal SIG requirements and complied with Alabama’s legislation restricting access to and the use of individual-level data. Results from these analyses were shared with ALSDE leadership. Outside of efforts related to SIG, SECC staff joined state and local education agency personnel in mid-November during a convening of the ALSDE Professional Evaluation Design Committee.

October

The SECC project team continued working with ALSDE leadership and School Improvement Grant (SIG) staff to complete the SIG educator evaluation pilot (2012–2013). The SECC and ALSDE also cohosted a webinar for SIG district and school administrators to preview Novembers trainings on professional growth and professionalism processes and rubrics. Work also continued on the development of materials for the November trainings. Additionally, SECC staff continued working on the development of a student growth model that meets federal SIG requirements and complies with Alabama’s legislation restricting access to and the use of individual-level data. Outside of efforts related to SIG, SECC staff accompanied ALSDE leadership during a convening for states with recently approved ESEA flexibility waivers, held in Washington, DC.

September

The SECC project team continued working with ALSDE leadership to complete the School Improvement Grant (SIG) educator evaluation pilot (2012–2013). The SECC and ALSDE continued preparations for the development and analysis of a student growth model, with these preparations focused on complying with legislation restricting access to and the use of student-level data. Additionally, SECC staff worked with the ALSDE to plan trainings for local education agency staff on professional growth and professionalism metrics, processes, and rubrics. On-site trainings will be held in Alabama (November 2013). Work continued on the development of other training materials, including videotaped scenarios demonstrating scoring processes for teacher and principal evaluations. Scenarios were recorded in September and will be made available to the ALSDE and SIG educators prior to the November trainings.

August

The SECC project team continued working with ALSDE leadership on next steps in finalizing the SIG educator evaluation pilot (2012–2013). SECC and ALSDE continued necessary preparations for the development and analysis of a student growth model. Additionally, SECC staff worked with the ALSDE to plan trainings for LEA staff on professional growth and professionalism metrics, processes, and rubrics. On-site trainings will be held in Alabama (November 2013). Work also began on the development of other training materials, including videotaped scenarios demonstrating scoring processes for teacher and principal evaluations. Scenarios will be recorded in September and made available to SIG educators prior to the November trainings.

July

The SECC project team continued working with ALSDE leadership on next steps in the SIG educator evaluation pilot (2012–2013). SECC and ALSDE continued necessary preparations for the development and analysis of a student growth model. Additionally, SECC staff worked with ALSDE to plan trainings for LEA staff on professional growth and professionalism metrics, processes, and rubrics. These trainings will be held on-site in Alabama, tentatively scheduled for September 2013.

June

The SECC project team worked with ALSDE leadership to identify next steps for the SIG educator evaluation pilot (2012–2013). To develop a student growth metric for the pilot, the ALSDE and SECC will work together in July and August to identify a modeling approach, key model specifications, and business rules for compiling and validating data elements to be used in the student growth model. After those steps are complete, SECC staff will work on-site with ALSDE staff to analyze the growth model and produce school-level student growth results. Additionally, SECC staff will support the ALSDE in trainings for LEA staff on processes and rubrics used to assess professional growth metric in the SIG pilot. These trainings will also be on-site in Alabama, with all on-site support tentatively scheduled for September 2013.

May

SECC continued to support the Alabama SIG educator evaluation pilot (2012–2013) by exploring evaluation metrics that could be developed and implemented internally by state department of education personnel. SECC staff also discussed possible areas of future SECC support for statewide implementations of educator evaluation systems with state representatives to the SECC Advisory Board on May 23–24.

April

To better provide support for states implementing or considering implementing student learning objectives (SLOs) as a student growth metric in educator evaluation systems, SECC worked with AIR on continued planning for a comprehensive training workshop on SLOs for SECC and TXCC staff. Training support will be provided by AIR and the Great Teachers and Leaders Content Center. The event will take place in Atlanta, Georgia, on May 22. SECC continued to support the Alabama School Improvement Grant (SIG) 2012–2013 educator evaluation pilot. SECC worked with ALSDE staff on developing a student growth metric and stakeholder training efforts in light of recent legislation prohibiting ALSDE from sharing data with entities outside of the state.

March

SECC continued to support the Alabama School Improvement Grant (SIG) 2012–2013 educator evaluation pilot. SECC worked with ALSDE staff on strategies for developing a student growth metric. SECC also continued working with ALSDE on stakeholder training efforts. A training webinar is scheduled for April 19 and a face-to-face training workshop is tentatively scheduled for June.

February

SECC continues to support the Alabama SIG 2012–2013 educator evaluation pilot. Alabama recently passed legislation (SB 190) that caused a delay and potential cessation of SECC’s support in this area. SECC is working with Ann Allison of ALSDE, who oversees the SIG program, to assess how the new legislation will affect this portion of SECC’s work. SECC also continues to work with ALSDE to develop materials for and plan the logistics of the stakeholder trainings. A training Webinar is scheduled for March 28 and a face-to-face training is tentatively scheduled for mid-May.

January

SECC continues to support the Alabama School Improvement Grant's 2012–2013 educator evaluation pilot with the development of the student growth models by compiling data needed to develop, analyze, and implement a student growth percentile (SGP) model as an evaluation metric. This involves working across three ALSDE offices: SIG (i.e., transformational schools), Information Systems, and Research & Development. Our partner, AIR, is also working with SECC on analyses associated with developing the SGP model. SECC also assisted with the development of stakeholder trainings. Webinars are currently being planned for Spring 2013, and a face-to-face training is tentatively scheduled for mid-May.SECC will continue to encourage ALSDE to move forward with an evaluation of the 2012–2013 pilot. 

2012

December

SECC staff continue supporting the 2012–2013 ALSDE School Improvement Grant (SIG) educator evaluation pilot and are planning to move forward on evaluating pilot implementation. SECC research and evaluation staff will continue to work with our partner, AIR, on this work in 2013.

November

SECC staff met with various staff at the Alabama Department of Education to support the implementation of the School Improvement Grant (SIG) educator evaluation pilot. Specifically, these meetings were held with personnel from the Offices of Research and Development and Information Systems. Partner staff from the American Institutes for Research (AIR) will assist with the development of a student growth model for the SIG educator evaluation pilot. Summative educator practice rubrics were also finalized during this trip, and trainings for district- and school-level staff were held on the rubrics during two-day work sessions in Montgomery and Birmingham.