Section 50.120  Professional Practice Components for Teachers

Each school district, when applicable (see Section 50.20 of this Part), shall implement the requirements of this Section regarding the evaluation of a teacher's professional practice.

a)         In order to assess the quality of the teacher's professional practice, the evaluation plan shall include an instructional framework developed or adopted by the school district that is based upon research regarding effective instruction; addresses at least planning, instructional delivery, and classroom management; and aligns to the Illinois Professional Teaching Standards (23 Ill. Adm. Code 24).

1)         The instructional framework shall align to the roles and responsibilities of each teacher who is being evaluated.

2)         The evaluation plan shall contain a rubric to be used in rating professional practice that aligns to the instructional framework developed or adopted under this subsection (a).

3)         If the rating scale to be used for each indicator of professional practice does not correspond to the performance evaluation ratings required under Section 24A-5(e) or 34-85c of the School Code, then the framework shall include a description of the four rating levels to be used and how these are aligned to the required performance evaluation ratings.  In addition, the district shall quantify the relative importance of each portion of the framework to the final professional practice rating.

b)         As required under Section 24A-5 of the School Code, the evaluation plan shall consider the teacher's attendance and his or her competency in the subject matter taught, as well as specify the teacher's strengths and weaknesses and the reasons for identifying the areas as such.

c)         Evidence of professional practice shall be collected through the use of multiple observations that include formal and informal observations.  For the purpose of this subsection (c), a formal observation shall allow the qualified evaluator to acquire evidence of the teacher's planning, instructional delivery, and classroom management skills and shall involve one of the following activities: an observation of the teacher in his or her classroom for a minimum of 45 minutes at a time; or an observation during a complete lesson; or an observation during an entire class period.  The qualified evaluator may designate another person to conduct the observation in situations in which he or she cannot complete all of the observations, or the observations cannot be completed in a timely manner, provided the individual so designated is a qualified evaluator, thus having completed the prequalification process and any retraining, as applicable, required under Section 24A-3 of the School Code.

1)         For each tenured teacher who received either an "excellent" or "proficient" performance evaluation rating in his or her last performance evaluation, a minimum of two observations are required during the cycle in which the current evaluation is conducted, one of which must be a formal observation.

2)         For each tenured teacher who received a "needs improvement" or "unsatisfactory" performance evaluation rating in his or her last performance evaluation, a minimum of three observations shall be required in the school year immediately following the year in which the "needs improvement" or "unsatisfactory" rating was assigned, of which two must be formal observations.

3)         For each nontenured teacher, a minimum of three observations shall be required each school year, of which two must be formal observations.

4)         Each formal observation shall be preceded by a conference between the qualified evaluator and the teacher.

A)        In advance of this conference, the teacher shall submit to the qualified evaluator a written lesson or unit plan and/or other evidence of planning for the instruction that will be conducted during the window of time when the formal observation may occur and make recommendations for areas on which the qualified evaluator should focus during the observation. 

B)        The qualified evaluator and the teacher shall discuss the lesson or unit plan or instructional planning and any areas on which the qualified evaluator should focus during the observation, if applicable.

5)         Following a formal observation, the qualified evaluator shall meet with the teacher to discuss the evidence collected about the teacher's professional practice.  The qualified evaluator shall provide feedback following a formal evaluation to the teacher in writing (electronic or paper).  Following an informal observation, the qualified evaluator shall provide feedback to the teacher either orally or in writing (electronic or paper) and if the feedback is in a written format, also provide the teacher with an opportunity to have an in-person discussion with the evaluator.

A)        The teacher shall consider (that is, reflect upon) his or her instruction and, if applicable, may provide to the qualified evaluator additional information or explanations about the lesson presented. 

B)        The qualified evaluator shall provide feedback to the teacher about the individual's professional practice, including evidence specific to areas of focus designated during the conference preceding the observation (see subsection (c)(4) of this Section).

C)        If the qualified evaluator determines that the evidence collected to date may result in the teacher receiving either a "needs improvement" or "unsatisfactory" performance evaluation rating, then the qualified evaluator shall notify the teacher of that determination.

D)        The teacher shall work with the qualified evaluator or others (e.g., professional learning team, department head), as determined in the plan, to identify areas for improvement.

E)         Evidence gathered during the informal observations may be considered in determining the performance evaluation rating, provided it is documented in writing.

d)         Evidence of Professional Practice

1)         Any evidence collected during an observation shall be consistent with the rubric developed under subsection (a) of this Section.

2)         The qualified evaluator shall share with the teacher any evidence collected and judgments made about the evidence during the conference held following the observation (see subsection (c)(5) of this Section).

3)         The evaluation plan shall define how the evidence to be collected will be used to determine a final professional practice rating.