Massachusetts Performance Assessment for Leaders
Assessment Policies
Program Year 2015-2016
Program Year Cycles
The Performance Assessment for Leaders (PAL) is currently the performance assessment
required for initial principal licensure in Massachusetts. Annually, the task instructions
and rubrics will be reviewed for improvements. Thus, each year, task instructions and
rubrics may or may not be changed or updated. In most cases, these changes will be
minor to improve clarity and provide guidance, and will apply to the current Program
Year.
Candidates are assessed according to the task instructions and rubrics that are in use for
the Program Year when their work is submitted, not the Program Year when they register
for PAL. Candidates are responsible for aligning their work products to the task
instructions and rubrics that are in use when they submit their work initially or resubmit
work following scoring.
Program Year
Start
End
2015-2016
September 1, 2015*
June 30, 2016
2016-2017
July 1, 2016
June 30, 2017
2017-2018
July 1, 2017
June 30, 2018
*(Includes all work completed between May 16, 2015 and September 1, 2015)
Assessment Fee Payment Beginning with the 2015-16 Program Year, candidates will be
required to register and pay $500 to complete PAL. Registration fees must be paid using
a credit card-VISA, MasterCard, American Express, or Discover are accepted. A creditcard based gift card can also be used for fee payment.
The assessment fee payment covers the costs of administration of the PAL system,
including submission processing, scoring, and score reporting. Upon successful
authorization of payment, candidates will see an online payment confirmation with the
authorization number and the total charges. Once the payment has been authorized
and processed, candidates will be granted access to the ShowEvidence system to
complete the PAL.
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PAL Assessment Policies
Issue with Payment
If a credit card charge for any PAL fee payment is disputed or results in an outstanding
balance, the candidate’s ShowEvidence account will be suspended until the full fee
payment has been made. In addition, any scoring that has commenced will be
suspended until the full fee payment has been made. Candidates will be charged a $35
fee to reinstate their account and must pay the full outstanding balance before they
complete PAL.
All questions concerning suspended accounts and outstanding balances should be
directed to accounting@showevidence.com with a subject line “PAL Outstanding
Balance.”
Withdrawal and Refunds
Registered candidates who wish to withdraw from PAL can do so at any time within the
first 12 months of registration. Those who elect to withdraw before any work has been
submitted are eligible for a refund minus a processing fee of $75, if the request is made
within 12 months from their registration date.
Withdrawing candidates who have submitted work for at least one task will not be
eligible for a refund.
Once a candidate withdraws from PAL, the candidate will no longer be able to access
the ShowEvidence system to view or submit work for any task.
Candidates who withdraw from PAL but elect to take PAL in the future will need to reregister and pay the full registration fee.
Candidates who would like to withdraw from PAL should send a message to
support@showevidence.com with a subject line “PAL Withdrawal.”
Assessment Fee Duration—Valid for two years
The PAL registration fee is valid for two years from the time of initial fee payment and
registration. Candidates have two years from their registration date to complete and
submit work for all four PAL assessment tasks. After the two-year period, candidates’
accounts will be closed. Candidates will receive a system and email notification within
30 days and again within 10 days of their account expiration date.
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PAL Assessment Policies
After account expiration, all of a candidate’s completed and scored work will be retained
for future use. If candidates have not completed their PAL within the two year period and
their account has been closed, they will have to register again, paying the full fee that is
required at that time, in order to complete PAL.
Duration of scored tasks
In some instances, candidates may have completed, scored tasks, but not all four tasks
as required for PAL. The scored tasks will be retained in the on-line scoring system for
seven years for licensure purposes. After seven years, the scored tasks for any
incomplete PAL will become invalid. Candidates will be required to complete new tasks
to replace those that have become invalid, when completing PAL.
Resubmission
Candidates are eligible to revise and resubmit their assessment task work products for
scoring if they do NOT achieve a score of proficient or better on any of the four PAL
tasks. This also applies to candidates whose task submissions were returned as
incomplete and not scorable. Candidates will have two years from the time they initially
register for PAL to revise and resubmit their tasks, under the resubmission option.
If a task is scored below proficiency (or had been returned as incomplete), the candidate
will be able to initiate a retake action on the task in the ShowEvidence system and pay
their Resubmission fee. Candidates will be charged $125 (for filing and scoring costs) per
task for each resubmission completed before the end of their two-year initial
registration period. If the initial two-year registration period has expired, the candidate
will be prompted to pay the full registration fee. Upon payment, the candidate will be
able to upload new artifacts, documents, and commentary for the selected task.
All resubmitted work must be completed according to the task instructions and will be
scored according the rubrics in use during the Program Year of resubmission. If the task
or rubrics have been changed, candidates will be alerted, as a revised task will appear in
the list to advise the candidate to upload and submit work products aligned to the
revised task.
There is no limit on the number of resubmissions a candidate can complete for each
task, although each resubmission is to be charged separately and must be completed
within the two-year initial registration period.
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PAL Assessment Policies
Appeal
Candidates are eligible to appeal their scores if the scores in question fall below the
proficiency cut score.
If a candidate believes there is an error in the final scores for a given task that is below
the proficiency cut score, he or she can request to have the task scored a second time.
The request must be made within one year of the initial score report. After the one year
period has expired, the candidate will not be able to appeal.
To initiate an appeal, the user will need to select the appeal action on the task. This
action is only available after the task has been scored and the score is below proficiency.
Candidates will be charged $200 per appeal to cover the costs of processing, rescoring
and adjudication.
Once an appeal request has been made and the candidate’s payment is confirmed, the
candidate’s work will be assigned to a second rater for scoring and will be notified when
the new scores are available. There are two possible outcomes and fee payment
implications: if the two sets of scores are in agreement or if the two sets of scores are
different.
If the results of the second rater are in agreement with the original scores, then the
candidate will be notified that the scores for the submission were confirmed.
ShowEvidence will retain the candidate’s appeal fee payment to cover the processing
and scoring expenses.
If the second rater results yield scores that are different than the original scores, then
the candidate will be notified that an error was identified and that new scores will be
posted. Only scores of proficiency or above will be reported to the state and the
candidate will be eligible for a refund. In all cases, if the second rater scores are higher
than the initial scores, the candidate will automatically receive a refund minus a
transaction fee of $35 for processing the appeal.
If the second rater scores are lower than the initial scores, the candidate’s appeal fee
payment will be retained to cover the processing and scoring expenses, and no change
in the original score will be made.
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PAL Assessment Policies
Cheating, Fraud and Plagiarism
As outlined in the PAL Rules of Assessment Participation (a copy of which is available at
www.ma-pal.com), candidates are to submit their own work for scoring and adhere to
the professional guidelines pertaining to authorship and citation as the Rules explain.
Any submitted work that raises questions about possible irregularities, such as cheating,
fraud or plagiarism will be temporarily removed from scoring and set aside for further
investigation and review by the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and
Secondary Education. Candidates will be notified that their submissions are being
reviewed for irregularities. Following the review, candidates will be notified of the
outcomes and next steps. The PAL Rules of Assessment Participation outline the
possible consequences if irregularities are found and confirmed.
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