Measures of Student Learning Approaches for Selecting and Using Multiple Measures in Teacher Evaluation-Step 6

By assigning weights to each of the multiple measures in educator evaluations, districts are signaling which results or measures in the system are deemed to have more value than others, are better aligned with student learning expectations, and are more appropriate for measuring educator impact.  Districts may preliminarily weight each measure at the beginning of the school year, however the weights must be finalized before a measure of student learning rating can be determined.  Districts are encouraged to continuously evaluate the impact of weighting decisions and make revisions as needed in the upcoming evaluation cycles.

Table 5 provides an illustration of how districts may consider distributing the weights assigned to each MSL (which was also shown in Table 2), and how the ratings from individual measures sum for a single overall MSL rating (for the technical information on summing to an overall rating see the end of Step 6).  Each of the columns is described below:

Table 5:  MSL weighting and combining ratings example as shown in COPMS (refer to Tables 3 and 4 for example success criteria)

A description of the measures and weights illustrated in Table 5 was described in Step 4. Sample success criteria for measures were given in Step 5. After determining which performance category the teacher earned on each measure, the final step is to combine the weighted ratings in order to determine an overall MSL score, which is used to determine an overall MSL rating shown in the bottom right of the table (the specific math for combining the ratings into an overall MSL score and the conversion of that score into an overall MSL rating is illustrated in Table 6).  For more detailed information on how to calculate an overall MSL score and combine the overall MSL score with the overall professional practice score, please see Determining Final Effectiveness Ratings Using the Colorado State Model Evaluation.  

Tools/resources for completing Step 6:

• Measures of Student Learning Tool: This Microsoft Excel tool is one sample approach designed to help Colorado educators input the measures that will be used in their evaluations, see the impact of the weighting decisions for each measure, input the desired learning targets that are expected as a result of their instruction, and synthesize the evidence from multiple measures into one score that will be used in educator evaluation. It includes the requirements included in S.B. 10-191, the rationale for decisions made, and creates sample graphics for various groups of teachers.
• Determining Final Effectiveness Ratings Using the Colorado State Model Evaluation: Technical document for combining MSL scores with professional practice scores.