Professional personnel evaluation procedures are negotiated annually by the Howard County Education Association. These evaluation procedures appear in the Master Agreement Between the Board of Education of Howard County and the Howard County Education Association.
Teacher Evaluation Model
Our primary mission as a school system is to prepare every child for success after graduation. To fulfill this mission, effective teachers must be at the helm of every classroom, fostering each child's academic growth throughout the school year. As of the 2013-14 school year, HCPSS is using an evaluation model based off the Danielson model.
The Howard County evaluation model is customized to satisfy the Maryland State Department of Education (MSDE) requirements. It was developed by a team of 120 educators, school administrators, central office leaders, and union representatives, and was piloted by teachers and administrators at ten schools during the 2012-13 school year. This evaluation model is designed to be a career development tool that provides meaningful feedback to help teachers grow as professionals. Its goals are to ensure that all teachers are effective and to help high-performing teachers excel even further. The evaluation is evidence-based and uses a common set of observation standards to provide fairness and equity for teachers.
The evaluation model assesses teacher effectiveness through a comprehensive range of indicators that balance the teacher's skill in professional practice with measures of student academic progress. Depending on the subject area, grade level and other factors, academic progress may be indicated by achievement and/or improvement on state-mandated assessments (MSA, HSA, etc.), attendance rates and other objective factors.
A comprehensive multi-year professional learning program was launched during 2013 to acclimate teachers and principals to the new evaluation and the expectations for professional practice and student growth. Full details of all procedures and components included in the teacher evaluation process are provided in the Teacher Evaluation Course in Canvas .
Evaluation Components
The teacher evaluation score is divided between measures of professional practice and student progress in academic achievement.
Professional Practice accounts for 80% of the total evaluation score. Professional practice is measured in four "domains," defined by the Charlotte Danielson Framework for Teacher Evaluation
Each domain accounts for 20% of the total evaluation score. All library media specialists will be evaluated using the same criteria and framework as classroom teachers.
Domain 1 - Planning and Preparation:
Describes how teachers organize instruction for student learning and involves understanding the curriculum and knowing the students in order to adapt to meet their needs.
Domain 2 - Learning Environments:
Describes conditions and qualities of environments that are conducive to learning and support student success; establishing a safe and respectful classroom environment and requires explicit attention and responsiveness to the individual identities of students, such as race and culture, and the values of the broader community.
Domain 3 - Learning Experiences:
Describes the engagement of students in learning experiences and enhancing student learning and growth.
Domain 4 - Principled Teaching:
Captures and reflects the practices of educators that extend beyond their classrooms and the learning experiences they facilitiate.
Student Growth (Domain 5) accounts for the other 20% of the teacher evaluation of elementary library media specialists only. Student growth is measured through a Student Learning Objective (SLO) that is jointly selected by teachers and their principals. Teachers develop one specific SLO selected among four areas:
Literacy - Reading, writing, speaking and listening, differentiation.
Mathematical Practice - Overarching habits, reasoning and explaining, modeling and using tool, seeing structure and generalizing, differentiating.
Creative Problem Solving - Understanding challenges, generating ideas, preparing for action, applying technology, and differentiating, in support of the Maryland STEM Standards of Practice.
Content - Assessments, performance-based tasks; differentiation.
Student Learning Objectives (SLOs)
SLOs promote instructional rigor and quality by:
Representing ambitious targets.
Supporting teachers and principals in using student performance data to drive instruction and school improvement.
Collecting information about how educators impact student growth and achievement.
Providing immediate feedback to educators on professional progress and practice.
Students benefit, because SLOs:
Encourage teachers to focus on content mastery, challenging content and closing the achievement gap.
Stimulate innovative and engaging instructional strategies.
Teachers benefit, because SLOs:
Empower teachers to examine data to make meaningful instructional decisions.
Encourage collaboration among teachers.
Encourage use of proven best instructional practices.
Provide objective data for use in teacher evaluations.
Review Process for School Library Media Programs in Maryland
The Maryland State Board of Education has authorized the Maryland State Department of Education to implement a procedure for conducting periodic reviews of local education agency school library media programs. The Standards for School Library Media Programs in Maryland, on which the reviews are based, can be found in the appendix.