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The Evaluation Year

An evaluation in eVAL spans the school year. This page outlines what happens when and how the pieces fit together.

The Big Picture​

Throughout the year, evidence is collected through different activities — observations, artifacts, student growth goals, and more. Each activity creates evidence that is aligned to your district's evaluation framework. At the end of the year, the evaluator reviews all the aggregated evidence and assigns a final summative score.

Year at a Glance​

WhenWhat HappensWho's Involved
Before school startsAdministrators select frameworks, configure settings, assign evaluators and plan typesDistrict Admin, School Admin
Early fallSelf-assessments, student growth goal settingEvaluatee, Evaluator
Throughout the yearObservations, artifacts, work on student growth goalsEvaluator, Evaluatee
Mid-year (optional)Mid-year review checkpointEvaluator, Evaluatee
SpringFinal observations, summative reflectionsEvaluator, Evaluatee
End of yearSummative scoring, final report, end-of-year conferenceEvaluator

How Evidence Flows​

Evidence starts in individual activities and flows into aggregated views:

  1. Created in activities — Evidence is produced within observations, artifacts, student growth, and self-assessments. While being worked on, evidence is typically private to the activity.

  2. Published — When an activity is shared or locked (e.g., an observation is submitted), its evidence becomes visible beyond that activity.

  3. Aggregated in Summative Evidence View — The Summative Evidence view collects the published evidence that's in scope for the evaluation, giving both parties a running view of what's been gathered.

  4. Scored in Summative — At year end, the evaluator reviews the aggregated evidence and the final evaluation score is determined. How scoring works depends on the evaluatee's plan type (see below).

Plan Types​

Each evaluatee is assigned either a Comprehensive or Focused plan type for the year:

  • Comprehensive — All eight state criteria are evaluated and scored
  • Focused — One selected criterion is the focus, along with student growth. Scores from the prior Comprehensive evaluation carry forward for the other criteria.

Your plan type affects which rubric components are in scope for evidence collection activities and what appears in the Summative evaluation. See Focused Evaluations for details on eligibility, configuration, and how scoring works.

Evidence Collecting Activities​

ActivityWhat It IsCreated By
ObservationsFormal classroom or leadership observations with pre/post-conference prompts; prompt responses can be included as evidenceEvaluator (evaluatee participates in conferences)
ArtifactsDocuments, links, and narrative text as evidence of practiceBoth parties
Student GrowthGoals set early in the year, achievement documented at year endEvaluatee (approved by Evaluator)
Self-AssessmentEvaluatee self-reflection, typically at beginning of yearEvaluatee

:::tip Observations Observations are typically the most important evidence gathering activity for teacher evaluations. The number of required observations is determined by your district's contract, not by eVAL — the system supports as many observations as needed. :::

:::note Self-Assessment Evidence Evidence from self-assessments is for reflection purposes and is not included in the Summative evaluation. :::

Summative Scoring​

At the end of the year, the evaluator completes the summative evaluation:

  1. Review aggregated evidence aligned to each criterion
  2. Score C1-C8 — assign a performance level (1-4) for each state criterion
  3. Score student growth components — these determine the Student Growth Impact Rating (Low, Average, or High)
  4. Final score — automatically calculated from the criteria scores and student growth impact

The result is one of four performance levels: Unsatisfactory, Basic, Proficient, or Distinguished.

:::warning Student Growth Impact A Low student growth impact rating will downgrade a Distinguished criteria score to Proficient. A score of 1 on any student growth component automatically results in a Low impact rating. :::