OTES 2.0 is here. Now what? Rachael Fleischaker Adopting the revised Ohio Teacher Evaluation System (OTES 2.0) framework is really happening this year. The model, piloted three years ago, was set to “roll out” in the 2019-2020 school year. However, amidst a global pandemic and statewide school closures, temporary changes were made to House Bill 197, House Bill 164, and House Bill 404 that allowed districts to suspend or postpone teacher evaluations until the 2021-2022 school year. Now that the appointed year has begun, most music educators will find themselves navigating the OTES 2.0 framework. This article is meant to explain the required components of the framework, outline steps for collecting and analyzing high quality student data and clarifying some questions that are specific to music educators. Changes to the OTES Framework For many music educators, the student learning objective (SLO) process felt contrived. It was a test for the sake of testing, but the results greatly impacted the entire teacher evaluation. OTES 2.0 is an attempt to more accurately reflect what teachers do on a daily basis. School districts are not allowed to use student growth measures such as value-added data, student learning objectives (SLOs), or any other metric as a sole indicator for the effectiveness of a teacher. In other 33 | TRIAD
words, the 50/50 model for determining a teacher’s overall score (50% of the teacher’s evaluation being determined by the evaluator and 50% determined by how students scored on an SLO) has been replaced with a more holistic approach. The new framework still includes student data, but the data should emphasize students’ continued growth as it aligns to the daily interactions with their instructor. In other words, the assessments are just one of many pieces of evidence that learning is taking place. High quality student data (HQSD) will be designed by music educators in a way that authentically represents their instructional goals. Also gone is the use of shared attributions. Many music teachers across the state found themselves being evaluated on reading and math scores for their building rather than the effectiveness of teaching their own content. Under the revised model, music educators will be evaluated on the merit of individual professional growth and student growth in their specialized content area. Components of OTES 2.0 The OTES 2.0 framework is an outgrowth of the original model and therefore has many similarities. While the Ohio Department of Education (ODE) has several suggested practices for teacher evaluation, the required components of the revised model include
