Planning & Key Settings

This is the short version: what you must do, what you should review, and the order to work through it. For step-by-step detail on any task, follow the links to the individual task pages.

Required tasks

Nearly everything in eVAL ships with a default. These three don't — evaluations can't take place until they're done.

Task	Why it's required
Select evaluation frameworks	Tell eVAL which evaluation types you'll run — teacher, principal, or both — and pick the framework your district already uses for each. Until this is done, no one but you can work in eVAL. Do it first.
EDS staff setup	eVAL has no accounts of its own; staff exist in eVAL only if they have been associated with eVAL in EDS. Your DSM adds incoming staff and removes those who've left. This runs in parallel with your work and continues all year — but nobody can be assigned until they're in eVAL, so start early.
Assignments & plan types	Every evaluatee needs an evaluator and a plan type before their evaluation can begin. You can do this centrally, delegate it to schools, or both. It's per-evaluatee rather than district-wide, so it fills in gradually — evaluators can start on anyone who's ready.

Settings to review: the defaults may not be right for your district

Everything below already has a default, so nothing is blocked if you skip it. But a default may or may not match how your district runs evaluations, and changing course after evaluators have started working is disruptive. Review these before the year begins.

:::tip These flow downhill Schools and district evaluators inherit your settings, and can't layer their own on top until yours are set. Prompts work the same way — and aren't visible below until you publish them. The earlier you settle these, the sooner everyone else can work. :::

Setting	Options	Why it matters
Workflow mode (per evidence collection type)	Simple or Formal — for Observations, Student Growth, and Summative	Formal requires the evaluatee to review and acknowledge online before a report is finalized. Simple lets the evaluator finalize directly.
Who assigns evaluators & plan types	Keep it central, or delegate to schools	Delegating lets principals and School Admins manage their own building's assignments and plan types.
Optional modules & school override	Enable/disable optional modules (e.g. Self-Assessment); allow schools to override defaults?	Controls which activities appear, and whether schools can deviate from the district default.
Revised Principal Goal Achievement rubric (only if you evaluate principals)	All participate · Opt in · Opt out · No participation	Sets whether principals use AWSP's revised Student Growth Goal Achievement rubric language — and who decides for each principal. See below.
Required notifications	Which workflow events always send email	Keeps action items (reviews, approvals, unlock requests) from being missed.

The critical path

1. Select frameworks — Evaluation Setup → Framework Setup. Required, and blocks everyone until it's done.
2. Configure Modules & Settings — Settings. Workflow mode (Simple/Formal), optional modules and school override, scoring options, and report section/evidence inclusion. Schools inherit these, so set them before evaluators start creating observations and student growth goals.
3. Publish your prompt bank — Prompt Bank. Prompts aren't visible to schools or evaluators until published. Publish early so they know what's available instead of building their own.
4. Delegate assignments — Assignments. If schools will handle their own, turn it on right away so they can start.
5. Assign evaluators and plan types — Assignments. For whatever you're not delegating. Comprehensive (all 8 criteria) or Focused (one criterion, for a prior Proficient/Distinguished rating). New staff usually start Comprehensive.
6. Set required notifications — Settings → Notification Settings.

In parallel, from day one: EDS staff setup with your District Security Manager. It neither blocks the work above nor waits on it — staff sync into eVAL nightly regardless, and get attached to a framework once one is selected.

Three settings worth extra attention

Most defaults can be adjusted as you go. These three are different: districts want them settled before evaluators start creating observations and student growth goals, so everyone works under the same rules all year.

Workflow mode — Simple or Formal

Mode	How it works
Simple	The evaluator submits and the report is immediately archived and locked. The evaluatee is notified and can view it, but isn't part of the final submission.
Formal	After submission, the evaluatee reviews and acknowledges the report within eVAL before it's locked, creating a documented sign-off.

It's set per evidence collection type, and the defaults are not the same across them:

Evidence collection type	Default
Observations	Formal
Summative Evaluation	Formal
Student Growth — Goal Setting	Simple
Student Growth — Goal Achievement	Simple

Deciding these is a policy question for your district: for each evidence collection, do you want the evaluatee's sign-off recorded in eVAL before the report is locked? Choose Formal where your process calls for a documented acknowledgement, and Simple where sign-off happens another way — for instance, when the two parties review the report together in person. See Workflows.

Report sections and evidence inclusion

Each report type — Summative, Observation, Mid-Year, Self-Assessment, Student Growth — has a configurable title and a choice of which sections and evidence it includes.

This is the easiest one to overlook. Standardize the layout before reports start being archived, so everything archived over the course of the year is uniform. See Report Configuration.

Revised Principal Goal Achievement rubric

If your district evaluates principals, decide how they'll use AWSP's revised Student Growth Goal Achievement (SGGA) rubric language.

In Settings → Student Growth, set the Revised Principal Goal Achievement rubric mode:

Mode	What it means
All principals participate	Every principal evaluation uses the revised rubric — no per-principal choice.
Principals opt in	Available but off by default; the evaluator turns it on for a principal who wants it.
Principals opt out	On by default; the evaluator can turn it off for a principal.
No participation	The revised rubric isn't offered; everyone uses the default language.

When the mode is opt in or opt out, the per-principal choice ("Use the revised Goal Achievement rubric language") is made by the evaluator when configuring the assignment or changing the plan type.

:::caution Settle this before evidence packages are built The two rubric versions have non-corresponding descriptor paragraphs, so evidence aligned to one can't carry across to the other. Once a principal's evaluation has Student Growth Goal Achievement evidence packages, eVAL blocks any change to the rubric version.

It isn't permanent — an evaluator who needs to switch can remove those evidence packages first — but that means discarding alignment work. Far easier to settle at the start of the year. :::

Recommended, but not blocking

Task	When	Notes
Prompt Bank	Before the year starts	Add observation and student-growth prompts — especially any that auto-assign to new evaluations.
Resources	Anytime	District reference documents and links, available to all schools.
District Viewers	If needed	Read-only oversight for selected schools.

Related

• Timeline — when each task should happen, including school and evaluator tasks
• Setup Tasks at a Glance — the full task list with step-by-step detail
• District Admin Guide
• Assignments & Plan Types
• Modules and Settings