Bulletin Vol. 9, No 1 Sept , 2014

STANDARDS AND PROCEDURES IN EVALUATION

Every year school teams meet to review the “Standards and Procedures in Evaluation” document before the end of June. It is essential that this discussion takes place on the parameters for evaluation at your school to ensure that everyone is on the same page. If you have not reviewed this document yet, it is not too late! There is nothing which prevents modifications during the school year to account for changes that occur, as long as parents are informed of these changes.

What are the main evaluations for each subject?
Will the document be per teacher or per level?
Are there exams? How much will they be worth?
How will the information be sent to parents?

There are responsibilities for both teachers and principals in a school. Ideally, developing the standards and procedures should be a collaborative effort between both groups. The process should involve dialogue between the teaching staff and the principal so that the final proposal will have the agreement and support of both parties.

Do I have to include school board mandated exams?

Teachers always have the option of using the mandated exam mark whether those are specifically mentioned or not in your Standards and Procedures document. The document does not have to include a detailed description of every single evaluation that you use. Any teacher may include a header called EXAMS which can (but doesn’t have to) include school board mandated exams, as well as other teacher created or textbook included evaluations.

MESAs

The Management and Educational Success Agreement (MESA) is an agreement between each school or center and the Director General of the School Board. This agreement runs for a period of one year and must be renewed each year upon the consensus of the parties. This agreement must reflect the objectives and indicators of the School Board strategic plan and partnership agreement (swl website). It must elaborate the strategies and actions that each school will undertake to reach their targets and thereby support the targets of the school board.

The MELS expects an increased graduation/ qualification rate by the year 2020. Priorities are, aside from increasing graduation rates, to address special needs students, to improve the quality of written and spoken language, to increase the registrations and number of programs in vocational education, and to keep promoting non-violent and healthy schools.

At the school level, you have been probably working on updating your MESAs. MESAs are data driven and include a component of accountability. Schools should not be identifying too many priorities at a time, but rather a limited number that will be addressed more efficiently.

MESAs

Mandatory MELS Exams

The only mandatory MELS exams, other than secondary IV and V, are the grade six English Language Arts and Mathematics exams.

Board Mandated Exams

I have sat down with both the director and assistant director of E.S.D. to discuss the findings of the elementary mandated exams survey completed last June. I highlighted the concerns most teachers had commented on and suggested a few ways of improving the situation. The E.S.D. has already started brainstorming with their consultants and are preparing regarding this year’s mandated exams. Hopefully our comments will sensitize the school board to the teachers’ reality!

I.E.P.s

At the beginning of the school year, schools should be planning to revise all of the I.E.P.s Please remember to use the I.E.P. release money to meet as a team because this budget will not be carried over to next year. Although there are different practices happening in our schools, I must stress that I.E.P.s should be reviewed as a team! It should not be up to one individual (usually the resource person or homeroom teacher) to be released in order to complete the goals and strategies.