Q & A with Dr. Jeffrey Korostoff on the Release of Annual Professional Performance Review for New Rochelle Teachers and Principals

Written By: Robert Cox

NEW ROCHELLE, NY — Under New York Education Law §3012-c(10)(b), parents and guardians of students currently enrolled in the New Rochelle Public Schools are entitled to obtain the quality rating and composite effectiveness score for their child(ren)’s present teachers and building principal.

This information was released late last month and is now available to any parent or guardian who presents proper identification by making a request at their child(ren)’s school. The parent/guardian has the option of picking up the report the next day at the school or having the information mailed to their home.

PARENT/LEGAL GUARDIAN DISCLOSURE OF EVALUATION SCORES REQUEST FORM

APPR Parent Request Form 2014 (English)

APPR Formulario de Solicitud de Padres 2014 (Español)

We re-worked the announcement and FAQ document written by Assistant Superintendent Dr. Jeffrey Korostoff to learn more Español and put it into a more conversational Q&A tone (with his permission). We take issue with some of the assertions he had made which we believe to false but we will go into that in a subsequent article.

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Q. First, what is the Annual Professional Performance Review?

A. The Annual Professional Performance Review or “APPR” is the composite effectiveness score for the 2013-14 school year. APPR is comprised of three components — written direct observations of professional practice conducted by certified supervisors, observations of individual or group projects, and a locally-determined measure of student growth.

Q. How is the APPR scored?

A. Each teacher or principal’s composite effectiveness score is based on a 100 point scale. If an educator receives between 91 and 100 total points, they are placed in the “Highly Effective” rating category. Composite scores between 75 and 90 fall within the “Effective” rating category. Individuals with composite scores between 65 and 74 are placed in the “Developing” rating category. Finally, composite scores less than 65 indicate that the educator is categorized as “Ineffective.”

Q. What are the locally-determined measures?

A. Local school districts were required to negotiate a number of the aspects of the new Annual Professional Performance Review (APPR) for teachers and principals with their local bargaining units. Important decisions that were made by our District with the agreement of either the Federation of United School Employees (FUSE) or the New Rochelle Administrative and Supervisory Association (A&S) included the selection of the Charlotte Danielson “Enhancing Professional Practice” rubric for the direct observation of teachers, the adoption of the Multi-Dimensional Principal Performance rubric for the direct observation of principals; and the inclusion of AIMSweb and the STAR Renaissance computer-based reading and math tests as some of the growth measures for elementary and middle school students.

Q. Can anyone get access to APPR data for teachers and principals in New Rochelle?

A. No. Under the law, only parents and guardians of students currently enrolled in the New Rochelle public schools are eligible to receive APPR data and only for the teachers and principals for their child or children.

Q. OK. So how can qualifying parents and guardians get that APPR data?

A. They can come to the Main Office of their child’s school to request the composite scores and quality ratings for their child’s present teachers and principal. We would ask that they try to arrive between 9:00 AM and noon daily, although schools will not turn away individuals who present themselves at other times during regular school hours. Parents and guardians will need to show an official form of identification to the office staff in order receive the information. Printed reports with the name of the individual student and the scores and ratings of their present teachers and principal will be printed upon request. These reports can then either be picked up at the school on the second business day after the request is made or, if they prefer, mailed home.

Q. Why can’t you just print all the reports and mail them to every parent like you do with report cards?

A. We did print all the reports in advance last year but few people requested the reports. That said, it is particularly important for parents and guardians to understand that the reason why the release of this information is limited by law is because it is regarded as highly confidential. There are harsh sanctions that can be leveled against local school districts if we do not manage this process in a way that protects the confidential nature of the information being shared.

Q. Why is the APPR data viewed as “confidential”?

A. The decision by New York State to release these scores to the public was viewed as a delicate balance between the right of parents and guardians to know more about the past performance of their child’s present teachers and principal and the privacy interests of these educators. Therefore, it is particularly important to everyone involved that this information being released is viewed and held as confidential.

Q. What information about teacher and principal evaluations from the 2013-14 school year can parents and guardians request?

A. This information, by law, is limited to the composite scores and quality ratings for their child’s present teachers and school principal.

Q. Can information about your previous year’s teachers and principal be requested?

A. No. The law does not permit local districts to release this information.

Q. How is a teacher or principal’s score on the direct observation portion determined?

A. These scores are determined through the use of rubrics, which rate educators on important aspects of their practice. The teacher rubric, Charlotte Danielson’s “Enhancing Professional Practice,” examines the quality of a teacher’s work across four domains: planning and preparation, the classroom environment, instruction, and professional responsibilities. The principal rubric, the Multi-Dimensional Principal Performance Rubric, evaluates the quality of a principal’s work across six domains: shared vision of learning; school culture and instructional program; safe, efficient, effective learning environment; community; integrity, fairness, ethics; and political, social, economic, legal and cultural context. Ratings are awarded in each of these categories after a period of direct observation by a certified supervisor and a score of up to 60 points is awarded.

Q. How is a teacher’s score on the State growth measure determined?

A. For teachers of English Language Arts and Mathematics in grades 4 to 8, these scores are generated by the State Education Department based on the level of improvement in the performance of their students on the respective NYS assessments over the previous two-year period. For all other teachers, their scores are computed based on the level of improvement of their students on Student Learning Objectives, or SLOs, where pre and post-tests are designed to measure progress on the most important aspects of the courses they teach. “Adequate student progress” is defined and the percentage of their students who attain this progress translates into their score of up to 20 points. In some cases, a teacher’s State growth score is a school score rather than an individual score.

Q. How is a teacher’s score on the locally determined measure calculated?

A. For the most part, these scores reflect the extent of student progress for the teacher’s class(es) on locally negotiated standardized assessments. At the elementary and middle school levels, these included the AIMSweb test of early literacy and the STAR Renaissance reading and math adaptive on-line assessments. At the high school level, the local score for teachers was derived as a building score based on student performance on all of last year’s Regents exams. Here again, a teacher’s score is based on the extent to which students demonstrated growth on locally-selected assessments or how well high school students performed on Regents exams.

Q. How is a principal’s score on the state growth measure and locally-determined measure determined?

A. For the most part, the principal’s score on both of these measures is the average or mean score of the ratings received by the teachers in their building.

Q. How do the composite scores for teachers and principals translate into their quality rating?

A. Both teachers and principals who receive a composite or total score of between 91 and 100 are placed in the “Highly Effective” rating category. Those who receive a composite score of 75 to 90 fall within the “Effective” rating category. All of these educators are deemed to be meeting standard. Teachers and principals with composite scores of 65 to 74 are rated as “Developing” and those with composite scores of less than 65 points are categorized by the State Education Department as “Ineffective.”

Q. Why are the composite scores consolidated into quality rating bands?

A. To us, this would seem to suggest that teachers with composite scores which place them in a particular band have exhibited a level of professional performance that is similar to others in this same category.

Q. Are there any consequences for teachers and principals who are rated as either “Developing” or “Ineffective.”?

A. Yes. These educators are required to develop prescriptive improvement plans, which need to be reviewed and approved by the District. The implementation of these personal improvement plans are monitored by the District during the following year.

Q. Are there any consequences for educators who do not show improvement and receive a “Developing” or “Ineffective” rating for successive years?

A. Yes. The District may take a variety of actions including, after several years, bringing such an educator to an expedited dismissal hearing.

Q. Why isn’t the District just publishing this information on its websites?

A. The simplest answer is because the law does not allow us to do this.

Q. Can parents or guardians, especially those who have already signed up for Home Access, receive their child’s teacher and principal composite scores and rating categories electronically?

A. No. We are required by law to insure that this information is only made available for viewing by parents or guardians who we can identify and who request it. This is not possible when such requests are made electronically or over the phone.

Q. Do I need to bring my child to the Main Office when making my request?

A. No.

Q. Does the District expect long lines of parents and guardians requesting this information during the first few days?

A. This was not our experience in 2013-14, which was the first school year when this information was made available.