LEADERSHIP THROUGH A VISION FOR HIGH STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT MA-PAL LEADERSHIP THROUGH A VISION FOR HIGH STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT

Assessment Fee Payment Beginning with the 2015-16 Program Year, candidates will be required to register and pay $500 to complete PAL. Registration fees must be paid using a credit card – VISA, MasterCard, American Express, and Discover are accepted. A gift card for the accepted credit card types can also be used for fee payment.

The PAL registration fee is valid for two years from the time of initial fee payment and registration. Candidates have two years from their registration date to complete and submit work for all four PAL assessment tasks. After the two-year period, candidates’ accounts will be closed.

Candidates are eligible to revise and resubmit their assessment task work products for scoring if they do NOT achieve a score of proficient or better on any of the four PAL tasks. This also applies to candidates whose task submissions were returned as incomplete and not scorable. Candidates will have two years from the time they initially register for PAL to revise and resubmit their tasks, under the resubmission option.

If a task is scored below proficiency (or had been returned as incomplete), the candidate will be able to initiate a Retake action on the task in the ShowEvidence system and pay their Resubmission fee. Candidates will be charged $125 (for filing and scoring costs) per task for each resubmission completed before the end of their two-year initial registration period.

1. The minimum threshold score (cut score) for each task of 2 1. The minimum threshold score (cut score) for each task of 2.1 (on a 4-point scale). 2. A Total passing score: for Program Year 2015-16, of 2.5 (on a 4- point scale). For the 2016-17 Program Year, the Total passing score will shift to 2.75. We will be shifting from the 2.5 passing score for program year 2015-16 to the 2.75 Total passing score beginning in 2016-17. The 2.5 total passing score is used in 2015- 16 only, in order to support the first year of full implementation for PAL and support efforts made

Tasks Threshold score per task. TOTAL 2.5 Beginning in 16-17 Total score will be 2.75 A candidate’s overall task score is based on an average of the indicator scores for that task. A candidate’s total PAL score is based on an average of the four tasks’ overall scores.

Provided clarification about completing the tasks, in which candidates should: clarify their role in describing and analyzing the work completed for each assessment task. Blind the submission to remove identifying information Adhere to the length requirements for the work products Use feedback evidence, not just state a summary conclusion Stressed basic guidelines for preparing artifacts and required documents, and writing a commentary about their leadership skills in performing the tasks

Taking the Lead: Assessing Leaders; Improving Schools Establish criteria on conditions under which candidates’ work is automatically returned: TASKS: 1 2 3 4 Work is not blinded x Does not address an academic priority area Does not include all supporting documents Videos are not of the appropriate length and quality   Does not describe a working group and does not include family or community input A strategy was not implemented Taking the Lead: Assessing Leaders; Improving Schools

Taking the Lead: Assessing Leaders; Improving Schools Contact information http://www.doe.mass.edu/pal/resources.html http://ma-pal.com/pathways/resources/ PAL@doe.mass.edu Patrice.dardenne@aic.edu Amanda.charter@aic.edu Taking the Lead: Assessing Leaders; Improving Schools