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Texas Teacher Evaluation and Support System
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Teachers may be appraised annually, through either a locally participate in a GSPDP conference with their appraiser, and developed process approved by the district and campus submit the plan to their appraiser within six weeks of completing site-based decision-making committees, or the commissioner- the T-TESS orientation. For all other teachers, the rules require recommended appraisal process —T-TESS. that a teacher take the GSPDP from the previous year and The commissioner-recommended Texas Teacher Evaluation and Support System has three major components: student growth, goal-setting and professional development, and observation. revise it as needed based on changes to the context of the teacher’s assignment during the current school year, and submit it to the appraiser within the first six weeks of instruction. Student growth All teachers are required to maintain the GSPDP throughout the school year to track progress toward their goals and Prompted by a May 3, 2017, settlement of lawsuits filed by TCTA participation in the professional development activities included and three other statewide teacher groups over teacher appraisal in the plan. They also are required to share their GSPDP with requirements, TEA agreed to eliminate from its teacher appraisal their appraiser prior to their end-of-year conference, and the rules the requirement to use one or more of the specified student GSPDP is used by the appraiser to determine the teacher’s growth measures in individual teacher appraisals, for both the state- ratings for the goal-setting and professional development recommended and locally developed appraisal systems. dimensions of the T-TESS rubric. The GSPD/self-assessment Instead of requiring that teachers be appraised based on one informs the scoring of two of the dimensions in Domain 4 of the or more specified student growth measures including student observation rubric. learning objectives, student portfolios, pre-and-post test results Ratingson district-level assessments, or value-added data based on student state assessment results, the rules simply require that a teacher be appraised based on how the individual teacher’s There are five performance levels under T-TESS: distinguished, accomplished, proficient, developing and improvement needed. students progress academically in response to the teacher’s Observation pedagogical practice as measured at the individual teacher level Each teacher will be appraised based on four domains (Planning, by one or more student growth measures. Instruction, Learning Environment, and Professional Practices As a result of the lawsuit, TEA clarified that under a locally adopted teacher appraisal system, in addition to considering how the individual teacher’s students progress, the district may also consider how groups of teachers’ students progress. and Responsibilities) consisting of a total of 16 dimensions. The evaluation of each of the dimensions will consider all data generated in the appraisal process. The data for the appraisal of each dimension will be gathered from pre-conferences, observations, post-conferences, end-of-year conferences, the Although TEA rules require that, if calculating a single overall GSPDP process, and other documented sources. Teachers are summative appraisal score for teachers, the performance of required to receive at least one classroom observation of a teachers’ students must count for at least 20% of a teacher’s minimum of 45 minutes, but by written, mutual consent of the summative score, as a result of the lawsuit settlement TEA teacher and the certified appraiser, the required minimum may clarified that under a locally adopted teacher appraisal system, be conducted in shorter time segments. The time segments there is no required weighting for each measure. If a district must aggregate to at least 45 minutes. provides a single overall summative rating to teachers (which they are not required to do), they can weight each component, Frequency of and timelines for observations including student growth, at a level determined by the district. Each school district must provide teachers with a calendar for appraisals within three weeks from the first day of instruction. As of 2019, TCTA-initiated legislation requires the commissioner The appraisal period for each teacher must include all of to ensure that teachers cannot be assigned an area of the days of a teacher’s contract. Observations during the deficiency on their appraisal solely on the basis of disciplinary appraisal period must be conducted during the required days of referrals or documentation regarding student conduct in the instruction for students during one school year, and the appraisal commissioner-recommended appraisal process. It does not calendar will only exclude observations in the two weeks prohibit a teacher from being assigned an area of deficiency following the day of completion of the T-TESS orientation in based on documented evidence of a deficiency in classroom the school years when an orientation is required. management obtained through observation or a substantiated report. It applies the same standard to a locally developed appraisal process. Annual appraisals are required for all teachers, except that a teacher may receive a full appraisal less frequently if the teacher agrees in writing and the teacher’s most recent full appraisal Goal-setting & professional development resulted in summative ratings of at least proficient on nine of Teachers new to a district or in their first year of T-TESS must the 16 dimensions, and did not identify any area of deficiency, develop their goal-setting and professional development plan, defined as a rating of “improvement needed” or its equivalent, 18
APPRAISAL CONFIDENTIALITY Teacher appraisal results are confidential. However, legislation passed in 2019 makes it mandatory (instead of discretionary) for a school district or open-enrollment charter school to provide a requesting district, open-enrollment charter or private school at which a teacher or administrator has applied for employment a document evaluating the applicant’s performance, and for districts to give TEA these documents for purposes of a TEA investigation. Additionally, legislation passed in 2019 provides that, for districts opting to implement a new local teacher designation system, in which teachers receive “designations” based on appraisal results (see “incentive pay” on page 10), TEA must collect information necessary to set standards for, evaluate and provide technical assistance for these systems, including information that is otherwise confidential (i.e., appraisal results). However, the law provides that such information remains confidential (i.e., TEA must keep the appraisal results confidential).
on any of the 16 dimensions or the performance of teachers’ students. (A full appraisal must still be conducted at least once every five years under state law, though district policy could stipulate a lesser number of years.) Teachers not receiving an appraisal in a given year must participate in the GSPDP process. A modified end-of-year conference will address their progress on the GSPDP, the performance of their students and the following year’s GSPDP.
Conferences/written summaries
After a teacher’s first year of appraisal under T-TESS in the district, an observation pre-conference must be conducted prior to announced observations. A post-observation conference must occur within 10 working days after an observation and must include a written report of the rating of each dimension observed that is presented to the teacher only after a discussion of the areas for reinforcement and areas for refinement. At the post-observation conference, an appraiser can allow for a revision to an area for reinforcement or refinement based on the post-conference discussion with the teacher. Although additional observations and walk-throughs do not require a post-observation conference, they do require a written summary within 10 days if the data gathered during the additional observation or walk-through will impact the teacher’s summative appraisal ratings. Texas Education Code Sec. 21.352 allows districts to “require that appropriate components of the appraisal process, such as classroom observations and walkthroughs, occur more frequently as necessary to ensure that a teacher receives adequate evaluation and guidance. A school district shall give priority to conducting appropriate components more frequently for inexperienced teachers or experienced teachers with identified areas of deficiency.”
End-of-year conference
An end-of-year conference between the teacher and appraiser must occur no later than 15 working days before the last day of instruction. A teacher’s written summative annual appraisal report must be provided to the teacher within 10 working days of the conclusion of the end-of-year conference and no later than 15 working days before the last instructional day. The end-of-year conference must include a review of the appraisal data collected throughout the current school year and previous school years, if available; an examination and discussion of the evidence related to the teacher’s performance on the four dimensions of Domain 4, as well as of evidence related to the performance of teachers’ students, when available; and an identification of potential goals and professional development activities for the teacher for the next school year.
Responding to a negative appraisal
A teacher can provide a written response/rebuttal to a written observation summary, written summative annual appraisal report, or any other written documentation associated with his/ her appraisal, as long as the teacher submits the response/ rebuttal within 10 working days of receiving the documentation. However, a teacher is prohibited from submitting a written response to a written summative annual appraisal report for the ratings in Domains 1, 2, and 3, if those ratings are based entirely on observation summaries or written documentation already received by the teacher earlier in the appraisal year. Additionally, a teacher can only respond to Domain 4, and the student growth component, after receiving the written summative annual appraisal report. Teachers who disagree with their appraisal can request a second appraiser, if they do so within 10 working days of receiving a written observation summary or a written summative annual appraisal report. However, a teacher is prohibited from requesting a second appraiser in response to a written summative annual appraisal report for the ratings of dimensions in Domains 1, 2, and 3, if those ratings are based entirely on observation summaries or written documentation already received by the teacher earlier in the appraisal year. Finally, teachers can file a timely grievance per district policy.
Appraiser qualifications
An appraiser must be either a campus administrator or “supervisory staff whose job description includes the appraisal of teachers and who is not a classroom teacher,” who has received training and is certified as an appraiser. Classroom teachers can serve as certified appraisers on the same school campus at which they teach if they are the chair of a department or grade level whose job description includes classroom observation responsibilities.
