Start of Year Setup
At the beginning of each school year, administrators complete several setup tasks before evaluations can begin. Most of this work belongs to the District Admin — frameworks, settings, and prompts are district-level configuration that flows down to every school and evaluator, so the earlier they're made, the sooner everyone else can work.
One task gates all the others: until the District Admin selects an evaluation framework, nobody else can do anything in eVAL.
Schools usually focus on assignments — giving each evaluatee an evaluator and a plan type, when the district delegates that to them. But prompts matter too. District prompts flow down to district evaluators, and to School Admins and on to principals, so everyone can see what already exists before writing their own. It's important to get the district-defined prompts published as early as possible, so evaluators can plan their own prompts before starting work on evaluations.
:::tip Start here New to this, or planning the year? Planning & Key Settings is the short version — the settings to review and the order to work through them. :::
Setup Tasks at a Glance
| Task | District Admin | School (if delegated) | Required? |
|---|---|---|---|
| EDS Staff Setup | Coordinate with DSM | — | ✓ Required |
| Framework Selection | ✓ Required | — | ✓ Required |
| Modules & Settings | ✓ Sets defaults | If allowed | Recommended |
| Evaluator Assignments | ✓ Always | If delegated | ✓ Required |
| Plan Types | ✓ Always | If delegated | ✓ Required |
| Prompt Bank | ✓ Yes | ✓ Yes | Recommended |
| Resources | ✓ Yes | ✓ Yes | Optional |
| Notification Settings | ✓ Yes | — | Optional |
| District Viewers | ✓ Yes | — | Optional |