Unpacking the rubric
- Develop a consistent, shared understanding of what proficient performance looks like in practice;
- Develop a common terminology and structure to organize evidence; and
- Make informed professional judgments about formative and summative performance ratings on each Standard and an overall rating. As a result, rubrics play a part in all five components of the cycle.
Self-Assessment
Educators study the rubric alone and with colleagues during the self-assessment component of the cycle to examine their own practice against the Standards and Indicators and to identify areas of strength as well as areas requiring further development.
Analysis, Goal Setting, and Plan Development
Educators and evaluators together carefully review the rubric and agree on elements and/or Indicators that will be the focus of their attention during the evaluation cycle and those that may receive only cursory attention for now. In addition, educators and their evaluators develop goals for improving professional practice and student learning.
Implementation of the Educator Plan and Data Collection
The rubric is a tool for organizing data. Evaluators use the rubric to ensure that they are gathering evidence from multiple sources that will enable them to assess the educator’s practice on each Standard. Educators and teams collect and present evidence. Evaluators collect evidence by observing practice, examining work products and student work, conferencing with the educator, and other means. Evaluators should align this evidence with the rubric and share it with the educator as part of their constructive feedback. The rubrics are written to support educators and evaluators in making judgments about patterns of evidence gathered across multiple points in time. The rubric has not been designed to be a classroom observation tool and should not be used for that purpose.
Formative Assessment/Evaluation and Summative Evaluation
The rubric serves as the organizing framework for these discussions and feedback, as evaluators assess the educator’s performance on the continuum of practice described by the rubric.
Requirements
Districts are required to use a rubric when issuing performance ratings for the formative assessment/evaluation and the summative evaluation; they “may use either the rubric provided by the Department in its model system or a comparably rigorous and comprehensive rubric developed by the district and reviewed by the Department” (603 CMR 35.08(2)).
The regulations identify four performance ratings to describe the educators’ performance: Unsatisfactory, Needs Improvement, Proficient, and Exemplary.
The regulations permit school committees to “supplement the Standards and Indicators with additional measurable performance Standards and Indicators consistent with state law and collective bargaining agreements where applicable” (603 CMR 35.03 and 35.04).
The regulations anticipate the need to adapt the Indicators in some cases: the district “shall adapt the Indicators based on the role of the (educator) to reflect and to allow for significant differences in assignments and responsibilities.” In the case of administrators serving under individual employment contracts, districts may ‘adapt’ the Standards, as well as the Indicators “as applicable to their role and contract.”
best Practices
Unpacking the Rubric Activity
Elements |
Unsatisfactory |
Needs Improvement |
Proficient |
Exemplary |
I-A-4. Well-Structured Lessons |
Develops lessons with inappropriate student engagement strategies, pacing, sequence, activities, materials, resources, and/or grouping for the intended outcome or for the students in the class. |
Develops lessons with only some elements of appropriate student engagement strategies, pacing, sequence, activities, materials, resources, and grouping. |
Develops well-structured lessons with challenging, measurable objectives and appropriate student engagement strategies, pacing, sequence, activities, materials, resources, technologies, and grouping. |
Develops well-structured and highly engaging lessons with challenging, measurable objectives and appropriate student engagement strategies, pacing, sequence, activities, materials, resources, technologies, and grouping to attend to every student’s needs. Is able to model this element. |
Unpack the language:
What are the observable behaviors for teachers?
What are the observable behaviors for students? |
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guide_3_-_unpacking_the_rubric.doc | |
File Size: | 87 kb |
File Type: | doc |
Example Prioritization & Unpacking
edison_priority_elements_with_evidence.pdf | |
File Size: | 80 kb |
File Type: |