Summative season is upon us. Spring is the time that many school leaders prepare for and complete summative evaluations for teachers.

As you prepare for summative evaluations this spring, this post walks you through steps to prepare your data.

Preparing Your Data for the Teacher Summative Report

Make sure you are on track to meet the expectations set by district leadership for the number of observations, student surveys, and other evaluative measures you should complete for each teacher. You can check this information in two places in the NEE Data Tool:

  1. Look at the NEE Implementation Dashboard at the bottom of your NEE home screen. Ensure you are on track to complete the goal number of observations and other scorings.
  2. Look at your Building Activity Report under the Status Reports menu to see a breakdown of the data entered for each teacher. If data has not been entered for a teacher or teachers, the Building Activity Report will display that information at the top of the report.

By the first part of March, you should have entered all of the evaluation data you will be using for teachers’ summative reports. This includes all classroom observations, student surveys, professional development plan scorings, and unit of instruction plan scorings. The specific measures you use for evaluation depend on your district’s approach to NEE implementation. You may use all four NEE measures or just one.

Let’s review NEE’s recommendations for the formative evaluations that should take place for each measure before a teacher’s summative evaluation in the spring. A word of caution: Over the next several paragraphs, you’ll read many “shoulds.” If you followed NEE’s evaluation recommendations from the start of this school year, these are the data points that should have been entered, broken down by the teacher evaluation measures available in NEE.  Local districts have a variety of approaches to implementing NEE, so if you’re unsure of the expectations in your school, check with \district leadership to make sure you have all the right pieces in place.

Classroom Observations

Expectations may vary by district, but NEE typically recommends that each teacher is observed between 6 and 10 times per year for 10 minutes apiece. Each teacher should be evaluated on 3 to 5 priority indicators of effective teaching, as determined by school leadership. Classroom observation data should be entered for each observation, and ideally, face-to-face feedback is provided to the teacher.

Student Surveys

Typically, schools that use the NEE Student Survey will survey students once or twice a year (usually November and February, or only in February). The NEE Student Survey allows scores from evaluator-collected data to be triangulated with student perceptions of teaching effectiveness. Students respond to survey items that align with the same 3 to 5 priority indicators measured in classroom observations. If students are surveyed more than once over the course of the summative cycle, the scores that are fed to the summative report represent an average of the survey results.

Teacher Professional Development Plans

The teacher professional development plan guides a teacher’s professional growth over the course of the school year. Some states, including Missouri, require a TPDP for teachers. In NEE, the TPDP can be a scored element of a teacher’s summative evaluation.

A TPDP can be scored at any point during the school year. However, most school leaders score teachers’ plans either right before the summative report is completed or at the end of the school year. If the district prefers that the scores for the TPDP be reported on the summative report for the same school year, the TPDP must be scored before the summative report is completed. If the TPDP is scored at the end of the school year, the score will be reported on the teacher’s next summative report.

Unit of Instruction Plans

The NEE Unit of Instruction provides evidence of a teacher’s ability to turn written curriculum into taught curriculum. The UOI Organizer is not intended to be a full unit plan template. It is a document that organizes the elements of an instructional unit into a format that an evaluator can score. The teacher may use any unit from the school year to complete the organizer, which is generally submitted and scored by the end of January.

What If I Didn’t Evaluate Much or At All?

If you’re behind – even way behind – on your teacher evaluation data, here’s what we recommend: If you’re planning to conduct summative evaluations this spring, you need to enter data. Do what you can now. Get into classrooms – whether in-person or remotely – and provide formal feedback to teachers. Consider administering student surveys to gather additional data. Notify teachers of your plans, and involve them in your decision-making when possible.

If you haven’t entered formal data but you have been visiting informally with teachers throughout the year, make note of those conversations in the general comments section of the teacher’s summative report. What were areas where the teacher needed support from you? How did they adapt? Where did they excel? What do they want to work on going forward?

If you want to talk through specific ideas, please reach out to us. You can call 844-793-4357 or email nee@missouri.edu. We are happy to help.

How Should School Leaders Interpret Data for the Summative?

As you prepare for summative reports, an important question to consider is: How will you interpret the evaluation data?

The NEE evaluation process should be grounded in support for teachers’ professional growth. It is important to show support for teachers, celebrate successes, and think through plans for continued professional growth and development next year and beyond.

Use the summative report to document the teacher’s journey over the past year. What is the difference between their teaching at the beginning of the year and their teaching now? What were the strengths that emerged, and what do they want to work on going forward? Use the summative feedback conference to set the next professional learning focus.

If there are ongoing performance concerns, consider developing a teacher performance improvement plan that sets clear expectations, develops goals, and provides extra support and guidance to the teacher.

For technical guidance for completing summative reports in the NEE Data Tool, review Guidance for Completing Teacher Summative Reports in the NEE Data Tool.

The Network for Educator Effectiveness (NEE) is a simple yet powerful comprehensive system for educator evaluation that helps educators grow, students learn, and schools improve. Developed by preK-12 practitioners and experts at the University of Missouri, NEE brings together classroom observation, student feedback, teacher curriculum planning, and professional development as measures of effectiveness in a secure online portal designed to promote educator growth and development.