Teachscape On-Line Professional Development Training Module.
The state of Michigan requires that all administrators are trained in Teacher Evaluations per the legislation that was passed in the summer of 2011. With the support of the Superintendent, I have been providing training to administrators on a monthly basis during the General Administrators meeting since September of 2011. However, there is a need for additional intensive training in order to further enhance our system for implementing fair and consistent evaluations throughout the district.
As a result, we have purchased a subscription to use the Teachscape Framework for Teaching Proficiency System. The system is a complete solution for observer training and assessment. Developed in partnership with ETS and Charlotte Danielson. The Framework for Teaching Proficiency System enables districts and states to promote high-quality observations by implementing rigorous training for all observers. All Dearborn administrators that have responsibility to complete teacher evaluations will go through this rigorous training process. The process involves over 26 hours of training plus a 4 hour final examination in order to achieve proficiency as measured by the Danielson evaluation model. Additional information on the Teachscape Training module can be found at the following site: https://www.teachscape.com/products/danielson-proficiency-system
Funding for Teachscape
The state of Michigan is providing funding to cover the cost of training for administrators. They are willing to reimburse one principal per building with the possibility of receiving funding for the assistant principal as well (pending the number of grant requests across the state). However, we have a need in our district to train all administrators that evaluate teachers as this is a critical function of their job. Thus we are purchasing this software for all administrators that evaluate teachers regardless of the grant funding. We anticipate that we will receive a reimbursement from the state somewhere in the area of $12,000 to $18,000 (The overall cost of this software is approximately $24,000). The cost of this software is $399 per administrator. However, since there was bid from WCRESA we are getting a lower price of $350 per administrator plus a 5% support fee.