Just as New York State's Teaching Standards describe effective practice, the NYSUT Teacher Practice Rubric reveals the state's broad standards in specific and focused terms. The 2014 revised edition of the rubric, selected for use in the TED system, has been approved by the New York State Education Department for use statewide by districts working to implement Annual Professional Performance Reviews.
The 2014 NYSUT Teacher Practice Rubric was revised to reflect teacher and evaluator feedback from district field experience.
What if my district is using the 2011 or 2012 editons of the NYSUT rubric?
Districts that have already submitted an APPR plan or already have had their APPR plan approved do not need to take any action at this time. Since the 2012 and 2011 editions of the NYSUT rubric remain on the list of approved teacher practice rubrics, districts may continue using it.
What if my district agrees to use the 2014 Edition of the rubric for the 2014-2015 school year?
The district will need to resubmit its APPR plan for approval. Please consult NYSED APPR Guidance Document (section C8 page 24-26) for details on submitting proposed rubric adoption to an approved APPR plan. Material changes, such as change of rubric, must be submitted to the State Education Department on a form prescribed by the Commissioner.
For each school year, a district/BOCES proposing a material change to their approved APPR plan must submit the change to the Commissioner by March 1, unless consent of the Commissioner is obtained upon a finding that the material change is required to achieve full implementation of a plan that rigorously adheres to the provisions of Education Law 3012-c and Subpart 30-2.
NYSED will send a letter to the district indicating approval of the requested change to the APPR plan. The timeline for review of plans is contingent on the date of receipt and current volume of other submitted plans. It is estimated that review of the APPR plan will take 4 - 6 weeks from the date the plan is submitted online.
What if my district has not yet submitted an APPR plan?
Districts that are currently negotiating their APPR plans are encouraged to use the 2014 Edition of the NYSUT rubric. Simply choose the 2014 Edition of the rubric from the Review Room drop down when completing an APPR plan.
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About the NYSUT Teacher Practice Rubric
The rubric extends the standards set by New York State through clear and detailed descriptions of effective teaching practices, and provides educators with a vocabulary and structure for articulating the more complex and subtle dimensions of teaching practice. This vocabulary establishes language for teacher self-reflection and goal-setting, and facilitates the essential conversations that must take place between teachers and evaluators as part of the TED system. The Teacher Practice Rubric is a critical tool for both teachers and evaluators and should be distributed early in the evaluation process to be used as the common reference throughout.
Because quality evaluation is not a one-way street, the rubric helps to establish teachers as full participants in evaluation and continual professional growth. It describes specific, measurable and/or observable behaviors in and out of the classroom. The rubric clearly defines the expectations for each element's performance indicators to provide for objective evaluations and fair and consistent ratings of effectiveness. Measures of teacher effectiveness have been selected to reach across the continuum of teacher practice so that all state teaching standards are assessed.
The Teacher Practice Rubric is designed by practitioners to provide an accessible and easy-to-navigate experience for both teachers and evaluators engaged in examining teaching and professional practices. It powerfully describes - in the context of the New York State Teaching Standards - the wide variety of skills, performances, behaviors, and dispositions that teachers bring to their work. Starting with the state standards as a foundation, and using the rubric's descriptions as a guide, teachers can use the TED Workbook to easily organize and share the evidence of their practice.
The TED workbook is aligned to the rubric's performance indicators and clearly and systematically delineates the relationship between the New York State Standards and their elements. It provides for an orderly cataloguing of evidence and accomplishment, and encourages evaluators to uncover teacher contributions and capacity to meet performance expectations. The evidence collection forms demonstrate how evaluators reference the rubric and the teaching standards to assess how a teacher's evidence, collected through observation, artifact analysis, or other measures, informs scoring and rating.
The TED system supports a process for a deep look into teachers' talents and strengths. As teachers' collaborative partners, evaluators use the rubric and performance indicators to determine the scope of the evaluation. The rubric keeps the evaluation focused on teaching practice, and still ranges widely enough to capture teachers' professional practice both in and out of the classroom. By using the New York State Teaching Standards and the Teacher Practice Rubric, teachers and districts will be able to integrate the feedback from evaluations to generate meaningful professional development.