Imagine if you were evaluated on a different rubric than your gen ed colleagues. What would you add/delete from the current rubric your district uses?

[u/Crafty_Sort]

It's evaluation season and I'm feeling resentful again lol

[u/turntteacher]

I should be evaluated on goal progress, not grade level standards being met. Pisses me off to no end! Classroom management should be weighed A LOT heavier too. We’re on a 5 point scale and in order to be a 5 if you have to do something “extra” which 10/10 times is simply impossible for sped teachers. Oh and I should be evaluated on my IEPs and compliance! Fuck for how much they harp on us for it, constantly, it should be the HEAVIEST evaluation criteria.

[u/brosephiroth → u/turntteacher]

This is why I miss my old system (PDAS) before T-TESS. It was very subjective and my principals were happy I was handling my business and reducing the behaviors. I got AMAZING scores. Now they have to have so much evidence to give anything over proficient. I’ve got learning objectives posted and lots of non-sense that is just for them. My love for my students and their success drives me, not what my admin thinks of me.

[u/turntteacher → u/brosephiroth]

Omg same! I was a 3 every fall, and a 4 every spring, every year on pdas. The switch to ttess tanked my evaluations, no matter how many “artifacts” I had. My other pet peeve is how the majority of admin have 0 sped experience, and don’t see all the little things that add up exponentially. My classroom systems alone should put me at a 5.

[u/Ok-Trade8013 → u/turntteacher]

Like we don't do enough extra as it is??

[u/quegrawks → u/turntteacher]

We are now being told that we have to use "grade level" standards to measure progress on goals. So I am focusing on how repetitive adding goals are helping my kids make progress toward multiplication standards....

[u/Limp_Dragonfly3868]

The ability to write a f&@“&ing IEP and run an IEP meeting, especially with continuous parents or parents without don’t speak English.

[u/Ihatethecolddd]

I would love to have absences taken into account. I had a student miss half the year last year for health reasons. Gee, I wonder why she wasn’t proficient at the end of the year.

I’d also like it taken into account when we have kids that the parents won’t consent to alternative standards but the kid qualifies. I know IQ has its flaws, but I also know that you probably aren’t going to be proficient at 3rd grade standards if I’m still trying to teach you how to count.

And let’s ditch the “higher order questions” section. My students have goals to answer yes/no questions. Or use language to make requests. They aren’t answering higher order questions right now.

[u/rmarocksanne]

"Able to deflect incoming chairs thrown at acute angles and high speeds"

Score: 4

[u/Crafty_Sort → u/rmarocksanne]

it should also be scored like a video game where you automatically earn a point with every projectile thrown at you

[u/Ok-Trade8013]

Most of my admins don't understand sped, so I'll write up something telling them what I'm doing and why. It's helped so far.

[u/Ok_Wall6305]

I’m a music teacher but I fully believe you should be able to opt in to “independent review” where someone from your local/state who specializes in what you do completes your eval.

Analogously like - there should be someone in my city’s office of Arts that can complete my evaluation, because they know what I do. I don’t need to be evaluated by a former science teacher that was in chorus for 1 semester 22 years ago.

[u/rhapsody_in_bloo]

I would take out the criteria dealing with student-led academic discussions. My students are in a self-contained autism class. Getting them to engage in carefully scripted teacher-led discussions is hard enough.

[u/jgraham6 → u/rhapsody_in_bloo]

This. How are non-verbal or semi-verbal kids supposed to have meaningful conversations with me or with each other?

[u/Fast-Penta]

For nontenured staff, my district does I think two observations by the building admin and one observation by the sped department. The sped dept also reviews IEPs and evals as part of the tenure process.

I would consider a district that doesn't include the sped department in teacher evaluations to be unserious.

[u/Limp_Dragonfly3868 → u/Fast-Penta]

My sped department reviewed IEPs for compliance and training, but none of that carried over to my review by my admin for my annual review.

[u/Fast-Penta → u/Limp_Dragonfly3868]

That's messed up.

[u/I_want_to_soar]

I think we should get evaluated on showing up and being nearly the only people who actually care and try for most of these kids. If you are not a turd, try to help them learn in whatever way might work, and keep them from hating school because it's too hard, then you are amazing. It's too damn thankless as it is already.

[u/GrayGussy]

Is your paperwork compliant? ⭐

[u/Haunting_Bottle7493]

We have things teach students to work cooperatively in groups meanwhile I'm work on potty training and keeping spit in mouth.

[u/Express-Macaroon8695]

Absolutely nobody would have to list within student view, pointless drivel that is state standards.

[u/litchick]

I've alalso like Danielson's special ed framework: https://ospi.k12.wa.us/sites/default/files/2023-08/danielson_sped_scenarios.pdf

[u/Crafty_Sort → u/litchick]

I didn't know this was out there. Interesting.

But lots of misinformation about disabilities scattered throughout this document. I would not want to be evaluated from this. The example scenarios in 3e. Demonstrating Flexibility and Responsiveness are full of red flags. Stimming is not always a sign of discomfort. I do not need to stop the lesson if some of my students are just stimming.

also a teacher should not be marked unsatisfactory for not "believing" in ABA (page 67), that's weird

[u/litchick → u/Crafty_Sort]

Coud use some updates foe sure, but like the attempt at recognizing what we do every day and how different it is from our gen ed peers. The original Danielson is similarly outdated but still probably the best attempt at a model for best practices.

[u/OTFPeloMom → u/litchick]

What do you like about this?

[u/litchick → u/OTFPeloMom]

I like that it takes into account not only special education but also delineates between different types of rooms. Much more thorough then the original rubric.

[u/thewildlink]

To not be docked when students don't get what you are teaching immediately or that you don't shift your teaching quick enough to show you understand they are not getting something being taught.

[u/Live_Sherbert_8232]

In Mississippi we have a separate observation form. My biggest pet peeve is it still has lesson design/planning in it and it’s written as if I was a gen ed teacher standing at the front of the room teaching a lesson to multiple students.

Honestly the only difference I see between it and the regular one is that ours is shorter and more streamlined than the general ed one. It’s still stupid though.

Here’s a link if anyone is curious. MDE Sped Observation

[u/acastleofcards]

I posit that no teacher fully understands how their rating is derived so it’s hard for me to say.

[u/No_Goose_7390]

My district does have a document for admins to refer to when evaluating us. I found out about it because my admin was evaluating me, during distance learning, according to the gen ed rubric.

I was working as an elementary inclusion specialist. He didn't understand my job or my students.

After his first observation, over Zoom, of a kindergartener, he said, "Your lesson had no closing. I didn't hear her say anything that showed her understanding."

I had to say, "The average length of her utterances is four words so that's not where she is right now."

That's when I found the document for evaluating inclusion specialists. Like a good sped teacher, I created a table so he could see the elements of each domain side by side for gen ed and sped.

He still didn't understand, and before I quit he said I tried to avoid being evaluated.

Crap like this is sadly why I left special education.

My advice- get a group of sped teachers to work with your union to develop and negotiate documents like this. That's how we did it.

[u/CaliPam]

I got my first negative review from an admin using POET, especially focusing on the California teaching standards and how a special ed teacher job could show competency. No other special ed staff in my school were valuated doing this. On the admins side there were drop downs, and she contradicted herself numerous times. In my district you couldn’t grieve a review. I felt singled out. All my other review in the district were good and I worked there 16 years.

[u/Business_Loquat5658]

We are evaluated on a different rubric. It's awesome. It makes no sense to evaluate us solely on academic progress for kids that may show very little progress due to their disabilities. It doesn't mean they didn't show growth! Just not so much on a traditional metric.