There are important rights of teachers when it comes to documentation received, responses written, and appeals of the evaluation.
Any documentation that an appraiser wishes to use in a teacher’s evaluation must be shared in writing within 10 working days of the appraiser’s knowledge of the occurrence that is documented. This protects a teacher from being blind-sided at the end of the school year conference for something that may have occurred in the fall.
A teacher has a right to respond in writing to any documentation that they receive. The written response must be given to the appraiser within 10 working days of receiving the documentation. A teacher can also submit a written response to the Observation Summary they receive and/or the Summative Annual Report at the end of the year.
A teacher can request a Second Appraisal by another appraiser after receiving their Observation Summary.
Remember, the formal Observation will score Domains I, II, and III. A teacher must request a second appraisal within 10 working days of receiving the Observation Summary. The second appraiser will conduct another formal Observation and conduct necessary walk-throughs in order to properly score Domains I, II, and III.
A teacher can request a Second Appraisal after receiving their end-of-year Summative Annual Report. It is important to note that the Second Appraisal will only rescore Domain IV. A teacher cannot request a Second Appraisal to rescore Domains I-III at the end of the year if the teacher had an opportunity to request a Second Appraisal earlier in the year. This is a significant departure from the rules under PDAS and forces the teacher to be diligent in the appraisal process and request Second Appraisals in a timely fashion.
UEA T-TESS Tip
Pay attention to timelines. Look to see if any documentation that could be used on your evaluation was given to you within 10 working days. Respond to any negative documentation within 10 working days. Request a Second Appraisal after you receive what you believe is a negative Observation Report. Do not wait until the end of the year. You may not have the opportunity to if you let timelines slip by you.