Arkansas right now is judging evaluating teachers through a system called "TESS." They say it stands for "Teacher Excellence and Support System," but I'm not so sure I believe them. This system (that's supposed to be there to support teachers) is split into 4 domains: Planning & Preparation Classroom Environment Instruction Professional Responsibilities D1 & D4 then are split into 6 subcategories, and D2 & D3 each have 5. On each little subcategory, teachers are rated as Unsatisfactory, Basic, Proficient, or Distinguished. So to recap: 22 things to be rated on, with scores from 1-4. I perused the Arkansas Department of Education website for a few minutes to get some data for this and found a slew of powerpoint presentations. 22 of them, actually, with an average of 30 slides per topic. All designed to explain to me exactly how to be seen as a "Distinguished" teacher. All those categories are really good goals. Of course I...
just me, stepping out of the boat in faith, trying not to focus on the waves around me