Index

Shared Terminology

For the sake of comparison, we use a single lexicon to describe all components. Below is a list of those terms.

• Novice Teacher: A teacher without tenure or in the probationary stage common for new teachers
• Experienced Teacher: A teacher with tenure or that has passed out of whatever probationary stage there may be at the beginning of a career
• Probationary Teacher: A teacher that had tenure of been sufficiently experienced to pass out of the initial probationary stage, but that has, due to poor evaluation scores, been classified as struggling/developing/probationary/at risk.
• Corrective Action Plan (CAP): A professional development, growth, or improvement plan that happens as a result of poor evaluation results
• Standardized Growth Measures (SGM): Measures that use state standarized tests to measure student growth and compare teachers across the state (e.g. VAM, SGP)
• Student Learning Objectives (SLO): Other measues of student growth, which may include requirements to use state-approved assessments or more qualitative or individual measures. These do not, however, use states standardized tests in order to compare teachers in the same subject and grade across the entire state
• Teacher Practice (TP): Measures that assess the teacher, including observations, surveys, lesson plans, student artifacts.

  In many/most models, Measures of Teacher Practice form a Framework that is scored. We use the following terminology to describe the components of this framework:

  • Domain: A Domain is the highest level that receives a score and typically is something like Classroom Environment, Planning, and Instruction. In some cases (like Professionalism in the FFT framework), a domain may represent something that is, in another model, a separate measure of teacher practice. That's okay. In some cases, a Domain may be conceptually broken into subcategories that aren't scored but group dimensions. These should be called Sub-Domains
  • Dimension: A Dimension is a scored component of a domain and usually much more specific (Teachers lead discussions of high-level concepts).
  • Element: An element is an un-scored component, usually of a dimension.

• Standard: A Standard is also a high-level system goal for teacher practice. The difference between a Standard and a Domain for our evaluation is that a Standard is not scored or part of a scoring rubric. A very good example of the difference is Arizona, which uses both. The InTASC Standards are key system-wide goals for teaching, and the FFT Domains are what the teachers are scored on in the state provided model. Any district may adopt a different evaluation framework (e.g. set of Domains) that aligns to the standards. Many other states do not differentiate.