2014 SOAR Update
AAEA Fall Conference
presented by
Ivy Pfeffer, Assistant Commissioner
Arkansas Department of Education
October 29, 2014
Evaluation- it’s more than simply
assigning a label to an educator.
It is about gathering data, supporting
educators to make meaning of data, and
empowering them to use the data to
make good decisions for the benefit of
their students.
TESS Statute
• (5) Recognize that evidence of student growth
is a significant part of the Teacher Excellence
and Support System;
• (7) Require annual evidence of student
growth from artifacts and external
assessment measures;
ESEA Flexibility
• One-year extension for flexibility from
certain provisions of ESEA. The extension is
through the 2014-2015 school year.
• Principle 3 (teacher and leader evaluation systems)
has never been approved
– U.S. Department of Education’s continued
flexibility is subject to Arkansas’ continuing work
with local schools and districts to continue their
efforts to ensure that LEAs implement teacher
and principal evaluation and support systems
that will meet the ESEA flexibility requirements.
• In Arkansas’ plan for ESEA flexibility, the state
committed to implement teacher and principal
evaluation and support systems that used
multiple measures in evaluating performance,
including student growth based on state
assessments as significant factor in evaluating
educator effectiveness.
• The initial timeline for the implementation 201415 school year. Arkansas requested and received
flexibility to extend the timeline for inclusion of
student growth in the overall rating.
• The U.S. Department of Education has now
decided to grant additional flexibility on the
implementation timelines for the inclusion of
student growth in an educator’s rating under the
following conditions:
1. The state agency will calculate student growth data
based on state assessments during the transition
year for all teachers of tested grades and subjects
2. Each teacher of a tested grade and subject and all
principals will receive their student growth data
based on State assessments for the 2014-15 school
year
Options
• Options for additional flexibility for Arkansas’
teacher and principal evaluation systems will
be considered when states are allowed to
submit requests for renewal of ESEA
flexibility beyond the 2014-15 school year.
• Arkansas will seek options for additional
flexibility after receiving guidance regarding
the renewal process in the fall of 2014.
How Ratings Are Determined
Professional Practice
Student Performance
Performance
Rating:
Observations;
Artifacts/Evidence;
Professional
Growth Plan
Student
Growth:
Overall
Rating
Must meet
threshold
Growth is not a % of the overall rating but
acts as a trigger to alter the rating if there is
a discrepancy between the performance of
8
the teacher and performance of students.
Determining the Threshold
Student Ordinal Assessment Rank
SOAR
Academic Peers
• A SOAR Value measures student progress by
comparing one student’s progress to the
progress of other students with the same
performance histories. We refer to these
students as “academic peers.”
SOAR
• SOAR values are a measure of educational
progress independent of students’ proficiency
levels. SOAR is calculated using Student
Percentile Ranks.
• All students, no matter the scores they earned
on past state tests, have an equal chance to
demonstrate growth at any of the SOAR
percentile values on the next year’s test.
• Even though a student may not achieve
a score of 278 out of 280 this year, it is
possible for a student to have grown at
the 99th percentile from last year to this
year.
• Although a student may perform well
below the proficiency mark, that student
could potentially have a high growth
percentile.
350
300
Advanced
250
Proficient
200
Basic
Albert
Maria
150
Jake
100
50
0
Grade 3
Grade 4
Grade 5
Let’s see how Albert’s progress compares to
his Academic Peers
A comparison to his
academic peers allows us
to see that Albert actually
performed as well as, or
outperformed 70% of
students who last year
scored at the same level.
Albert’s SOAR is 70.
Teacher
SOAR
• Teachers’ median SOAR values are included in the
evaluation as a companion to teachers’
performance ratings on the Danielson
Framework. The expectation is for teachers to
meet or exceed the established growth threshold.
• Teachers whose SOAR value does not meet the
threshold cannot receive an overall rating of
“distinguished.” Teachers whose SOAR values
don’t meet the threshold for two consecutive
years will have their overall rating lowered a
level.
• If a teacher’s SOAR value and the teacher’s
performance rating do not support similar
findings about a teacher’s effectiveness, then
additional measures and artifacts may be
helpful to the teacher and evaluator to
further examine the discrepancy.
Grade Level SOAR
Comparison
School Comparison within District-4th Grade Literacy
80
70
SOAR Values
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
Series1
Grade 4 Lit
Grade 4 Lit
Grade 4 Lit
Grade 4 Lit
Grade 4 Lit
School A
School B
School C
School D
School E
29
63
73
41.5
75.5
Depicted in this chart are the median SOAR values for 4th grade
literacy in four different schools within a school district.
What Does SOAR really Do?
• SOAR provides us with data to:
–Ask the right Questions
–Seek answers to benefit our
students.
• As more data regarding SOAR is available, the
ADE will provide additional information to
schools and districts. The ADE is working to
develop a training guide for districts to use to
help educators better understand SOAR values,
the calculation process, and the impact on
educator ratings.
What’s Next?
• Examine course codes for data and school’s coding
methods
• Look at N’s for special education course codes.
• Look at classification consistency (above/below 30)
from one year to the next.
• Look at stability of teacher median’s from year to year.
– One year median SOAR value
– Multiple year median SOAR value
• What other questions/concerns would additional
analyses help to inform?
• Other options for growth measures at a local level