REPORTS TO THE BOARD

Teaching and Learning Report

To: Michael Green

From: Asha Riley

Date: November 12, 2020

Re: Teaching and Learning

2020-2021 Modified Evaluation:

The Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) provided guidance to school districts and local associations about teacher and principal evaluation for the 2020-21 school year. In anticipation of a variety of schooling contexts (virtual, hybrid, in person) for 2020–21, OSPI outlined guiding principles that should be considered in light of the pandemic.

OSPI urged district, school, and association leaders to use common sense regarding evaluation. This includes:

•  Understanding that during a year when the mode of teaching and leading may change quickly and multiple times.
• Recognizing that the opportunities for providing/substantiating evidence in the usual ways may be restricted, and that with this, the absence of evidence for an indicator or component should not be cause for lowering a score. 
•  Acknowledging teachers’ and school leaders’ specific contexts (issues with internet access, health concerns, children at home) when working remotely, and the impacts these contexts have on their work. 
• Honoring the importance of setting up (reasonable) expectations for teachers and school leaders at the outset, and then ensuring robust supports are provided for them to meet these expectations.
• Procedures for the logistics of completing the evaluation process and forms may need to change for the 2020–21 school year. Tools such as phone or Zoom evaluation conferences, remote and/or video observations, electronic and/or email signatures, and forms being used for this year only (2020–21) may be necessary. 

In light of the flexibility offered by this guidance, we worked with the Woodland Education Association on a letter of agreement to articulate changes in this year’s evaluation procedures. Please see attached LOA. 

We also hosted a training for teachers to highlight effective instructional practices in our current context (remote learning) and update them on how these practices connect to our evaluation model. The content from this training is posted below. 

Presentation 

Powerpoint

Substitute Training: 

Having spent a significant amount of time preparing our teachers to effectively use all the features of google classroom, we are now turning our attention to training our substitute teachers. 

We surveyed staff for the names of our top substitute teachers and then invited them to a paid training session on November 16th. 

The goal of this training is to ensure we have our top subs prepared to carry on remote instruction in the virtual setting when we have the need. Danielle Flanagan will ensure they can post assignments, host instructional meetings including small group breakout sessions, as well as how to record all sessions.