1. Finding the Fine Line: Close-Reading and the North Carolina Educator Evaluation Rubric

2. Kim Simmons North Carolina Educator Evaluation System Consultant, Educator Effectiveness Robert Sox Professional Development Leadership Coordinator, Educator Effectiveness Elizabeth Colbert Chief of Outreach and Support, North Carolina Virtual Public School Michael Martin Senior Policy Analyst, RttT Project Management

3. Fundamental Challenge: Applying the specific language of the rubric to the vastly complex and diverse set of teachers and teacher circumstances in a helpful and fair way.

4. Some Assumptions…

5. Teaching is challenging.

6. Every teacher has substantive strengths in practice to build upon and share with colleagues.

7. Every teacher has substantive areas for improvement in practice and take steps to grow.

8. Evaluating teaching and teachers is very challenging.

9. The NCEES, has 6 standards, all of which matter.

10. The 5 standards that are rated by an evaluator do not make the mistake of being overly prescriptive.

11. The text in the standards matter… … and a close-reading of the text across rating levels will yield meaningful distinctions between teacher performance...the building blocks for good feedback.

12. Our Objective Today: Participants will be able to apply close-reading techniques to the language of NCEES rubric to make distinctions between rating levels when evaluating teaching or using the rubric to self-assess.

13. We are trying to teach a habit of mind of returning to the text to develop a text-based rationale for ratings. A specific rationale for ratings is necessary to provide the type of feedback that actually helps someone grow. Connection to Close-Reading in the Common Core From College and Career Ready Anchor Standards: 1. Read closely to determine what the text says explicitly and to make logical inferences from it; cite specific textual evidence when writing or speaking to support conclusions drawn from the text.

14. Some Key Points: The Danger of Over-Generalizing “Into the Gray” The value of the text in the gray box Developing a continuously refined understanding of the vision of teaching excellence.

15. An Ancillary Goal for Us: To learn from you about how you are currently interpreting the rubric.

16. North Carolina Educator Evaluation Process Process The new evaluation process requires bravery and the ability to have challenging conversations about practice. Bravery  to believe there are always ways to improve  to invite critical feedback  to give critical feedback

17. Agenda: Part 1: Think-Aloud (Robert and Mike) Part 2: Think Together (Eliz and Kim) Part 3: Group Work (All) Part 4: Share-Out Part 5: What we are doing to support use of the rubric

18. N.C. Educator Evaluation System http://ncees.ncdpi.wikispaces.net/NCEES+Wiki