Making Sense of SLOs Overview Welcome to Making Sense of SLOs. This series of short recordings is designed to provide additional technical assistance as you navigate the development of an SLO. They are not designed as a replacement, but rather a supplement to professional development.

Making Sense of SLOs Overview This video is the first in a series of five videos created to support the understanding of SLOs. The Overview video will outline the following: An overview of the changes to educator evaluations as mandated by Act 82 of 2012 Where SLOs fit into the new evaluation process for various groups of educators A definition of Student Learning Objectives A preview of the SLO template that is to be used The documents that support this video are located on the WPAIUCC SLO Moodle. We will open the series with a video that provides an overview of Student Learning Objectives. This video is the first in a series of five videos created to support the understanding of SLOs. In this Overview video, we will review the following:   An overview of the changes to the educator evaluation system as mandated by Act 82 of 2012 Where Student Learning Objectives fit into the new evaluation process for various groups of educators A definition of Student Learning Objectives A quick preview of the SLO template that is to be used In order to get the most from this short presentation introducing you to the Student Learning Objectives, we would recommend that you secure a copy of the Educator Effectiveness Administration Manual. This can be found on the SLO Moodle (http://bit.ly/slopa) or by going to the PDE website, then clicking on the Educator Effectiveness Project under the PDE Quick Links (found on the lower right-hand side of the home page). When you are on the Educator Effectiveness Project page, you will find the Administration Manual near the bottom of the page. We will be looking at pages 31 through 35. If you have not already accessed the manual, pause the recording now, locate the Educator Effectiveness manual. For your convenience we have provided the specific pages that we will be referring to. The full manual can be access under Additional Resources. Please resume the video when you are ready.

Act 82 Act 82 went into effect on July 1, 2013 for teachers, and will go into effect on July 1, 2014 for non-teaching professionals and principals. Mandates the use of multiple measures as part of the evaluation process - the first time that student achievement in being linked to teachers' evaluations In Act 82 of 2012, among other items, there is a requirement to change the way that three groups of educators are evaluated – teachers, a group called “non-teaching professionals”, and principals. The law notes that for the first time, part of an educator’s evaluation is based on student achievement measures. We will be discussing these measures shortly. Act 82 went into effect for teachers on July 1, 2013. The Administration Manual that you downloaded clarifies the measures that are to be used for teachers, and how their final evaluations are to be calculated. For non-teaching professionals and principals, the law will go into effect on July 1, 2014; and we are anticipating similar administration manuals being developed and posted to address these two groups.

You may be familiar with these charts already, but we will quickly review them. As you can see, this chart is specific to teachers who are eligible to receive teacher-specific PVAAS reports – those teachers who are teaching PSSA-tested grades and subjects, and those teachers who are teaching Keystone Exam courses – Algebra I, Biology, and Literature.   You can see that 50% of the teacher’s evaluation is based on observation of practice. The 4 domains that are to be observed and evaluated are those developed by Charlotte Danielson – planning and preparation, classroom environment, instruction, and professional responsibilities. 15% will be based on building level data; and that has been identified as the School Performance Profile for the building (s) in which the educator is working. 15% will be based on teacher-specific data or PVAAS – and you can see that there needs to be three consecutive years of data collected before a 3 year rolling average is available – and that is the PVAAS metric that will be used. And finally, 20% will be based on elective data – and the process that has been identified to identify and work with the elective data selected by the teacher and administrator is the SLO – or Student Leaning Objectives template.

For teachers who are NOT teaching a PSSA or Keystone Exam-tested course, grade, or subject, what you will notice that is different about their chart is that the elective data component comprises 35% of the final evaluation. The other components and percentages remain the same.

Non-teaching professionals have been subdivided into three groups of educators: (1) those holding an Educational Specialist certificate (for example, school nurses, guidance counselors, school psychologists); (2) educators holding an instructional certificate but who do NOT provide direct instruction to students (for example, instructional coaches, technology coaches); and (3) those holding Supervisory certificates.   Their chart looks simpler: 80% of the evaluation is based on observation and practice, and 20% is based on student performance. What has not yet been determined is what metric will be used for the student performance measure. These educators do NOT need to develop an SLO.

And, finally for principals, assistant/associate/vice principals and CTC Directors, the pie chart is very similar to that used with teachers who are eligible for a PVAAS teacher-specific score.

Components of the Educator Effectiveness Process Another way to show which components of the educator effectiveness process will be effective is the following graph which is on page 5 of the administration manual. As you can see, the use of elective data in this 13-14 school year is optional; but will be active from the 2014-15 school year forward.

What is a Student Learning Objective? A process to document a measure of educator effectiveness based on student achievement of content standards. The SLO in PA is written to a specific teacher and a specific class/course/ content are for which that teacher provides instruction All teachers in all content areas create an SLO. While Act 82 specifies that elective data “shall consist of measures of student achievement that are locally developed and selected by the LEA from a list approved by the Department and published in the Pennsylvania Bulletin by June 30 of each year”, the PA Bulletin published on June 22, 2013 notes that “LEAs shall use an SLO to document the process to determine and validate the weight assigned to Elective Data …”.   What data you use when developing an SLO is your choice; what form you must use is the SLO template to document your choices and your process. As you can see, a Student Learning Objective is a process used to document a measure of educator effectiveness based on student achievement of content standards. All teachers in all content areas are to create SLOs.

Reviewing the SLO Template We will take a quick look at the SLO template, but the various component parts will be discussed in detail in subsequent presentations.

The SLO template is a one-page document The SLO template is a one-page document. The front of the document notes information about the course(s) and students to be included. The goal is noted along with alignment to the relevant Pennsylvania academic content standards. Specific performance indicators are identified.

The flip side of the template includes performance measures and then the teacher and principal-agreed upon Teacher Expectations. There is a section for the evaluator to indicate the level of performance achieved, and a section for sign-offs.

Classroom Teacher Rating Tool Just to reiterate how SLOs fit into the overall evaluation process for teachers, let’s take a quick look at the Classroom Teacher Rating Tool, the PDE 82-1.

The teacher’s SLO rating would be entered into Section B – Student Performance, number 3, Teacher Specific Rating. As with the other scores entered onto the PDE 82-1, a whole number is used, and the 0 to 3 Point Scale is employed.

Additional information for each component of the SLO template will be discussed in the SLO Video series. Additional information for each component of the SLO template will be discussed in the SLO Video series.

SLO Contacts If you need more information regarding SLOs, please contact your IU representative listed below. IU 1: JoBeth McKee IU 3: Paul Cindric IU 4: Cathleen Cubelic, Anthony Conti IU 5: Kirk Shimshock, Linda Lorei, and Jim Gallagher IU 7: Natalie Smith IU 27: Lori Ceremuga, Marsha Hughes and Cristine Wagner-Deitch IU 28: Lynne Snyder SLO Contact information