Schroon Lake Central School Staff Resources
"APPR" stands for Annual Professional Performance Review. This is the method New York State uses to evaluate the job performance of teachers.
Here is the famous "purple memo" that summarizes NYS plans for evaluation.
Schools with Model Evaluation Plans
NYSED Field Guidance Paper - "The purpose of this guidance is to answer questions that educators, administrators, and community stakeholders may have about Education Law §3012-c and §§100.2(o) and Subpart 30-2 of the Commissioner’s regulations for the school years 2012-13 and beyond."
SLCS will be using the NYSED approved rubric (conversion) devised by the New York State United Teachers.
Teachers are scored on a scale of 100. 60 points is from things like classroom observation and evidence collected to support scores on the local rubric. 20 points is from measures of student growth on state measures. 20 points is from student scores on locally-selected measures. Teachers receive an overall rating based on this score.
State Growth Measures: The performance of students in any given teacher's class will be compared to the performance of students around the state who are similar to her students. Characteristics that they will consider include economic disadvantage, disability, and knowledge of English. This portion of a teacher's score is provided by the state when all of the state testing data is collected and analyzed.
NYS Growth Measures refers to the idea that a student should grow as a result of teaching. They intend to measure student growth and not achievement to allow teachers to achieve high ratings regardless of incoming levels of achievement of their students. They intend to measure growth compared to similar students. They will define similar students by up to three years of the same prior achievement and three student-level characteristics (economic disadvantage, learning disability, and English Languager Learner status).
NYSED ran a simulation based on sample data from 2010-2011 and found, statewide, teacher evaluation on this system in that year may have resulted in the following distribution of ratings across the entire state:
Common Core Assessment Materials
Test Generation Resources
Old State Tests
- High School NYS Regents Examinations
- Elementary NYS ELA, Science, Social Studies, Math
- Archived NYS Regents Exams
- REALLY Old NYS Regents Exams, some going back to the 30s and 40s
- Released test questions from the California Standards Tests (CSTs) - various subjects
- Massachusetts (MCAS) State Testing Old Tests
Interim Assessment Resources
In Brief
Interim assessments are short tests given at regular intervals throughout the year to check on student progress toward meeting the state standards. SLCS teachers will administer such tests at least each ten weeks. The tests will be given during a window two weeks before or two weeks after the end of a marking period. Such tests may or may not count in a student's grade.
The tests have to be constructed such that they are transparent, aligned, and spiral. "Transparent" means that the tested material is known to teacher and students before the test. "Aligned" means that the test measures achievement on the Common Core State Standards. "Spiral" means the test covers material going back to the beginning of the year.
Test questions are categorized by standard. Teachers analyze the results, looking for weaknesses. When such weaknesses are found, the teacher devises an action plan to address the weakness in future lessons.
There is in each district a "School-Based Inquiry Team" to serve and to assist with interm assessment construction, interpretation, and development of action plans.