Mississippi Principal Evaluation System (MPES)

1. Mississippi Principal Evaluation System (MPES) 2014-2015 Circle Survey Training November 2014

2. Goals for Today’s Training • What is the MPES? • Circle Survey overview • How to access and complete the survey • Circle Survey results

3. What Is the MPES? The Mississippi Principal Evaluation System (MPES) is a measure of principal performance: • Overseen by the MDE’s Office of Educator Quality • Developed to meet federal requirements as part of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) Flexibility Waiver • Mandated for all head principals, CTE directors, assistant principals, alternative-school principals, and special-school principals

4. MPES, Cont. Administrators are rated on: • Two schoolwide goals – ELA and mathematics (for CTE directors, goals are set based on Year 1 students and Year 2 students) • Two organizational goals – determined at the local level • Circle Survey

5. Circle Survey 30%

6. Circle Survey Overview The Circle Survey is: • A multi-rater tool administered by MSU’s Research & Curriculum Unit for the MDE • Provided to all districts free of charge • 3 equally weighted components • Certified staff feedback (33% of overall survey score) • Principal self evaluation (33% of overall survey score) • Supervisor evaluation (33% of overall survey score)

7. Circle Survey Overview, Cont. • Survey contains 30 leadership indicators divided into 6 categories • Each indicator is equally weighted • Indicators were developed and screened by multiple focus groups consisting of educators throughout the state • Indicators align with the MS Standards for School Leaders • Indicators are available on the MDE’s website • Average survey response time was 8 minutes last year

8. Circle Survey Overview, Cont. The Circle Survey is REQUIRED by the MDE for all districts in 2014-2015. • Other tools, such as the VAL-ED, may NOT be used in place of the Circle Survey for the MPES. • Your district may ask you to complete a tool such as the VAL-ED in ADDITION to the Circle Survey.

9. Circle Survey Overview, Cont. Key Dates Dec. 1: Districts receive Circle Survey codes Dec. 1: Circle Survey opens Jan. 31: Circle Survey closes Mar. 31: Circle Survey reports issued Apr. 30: Circle Survey Conference completed, Circle Survey Conference report and MPES form filed in personnel file, and Circle Survey Conference date reported in ELMS

10. To Access the Survey • Your district will be issued a website address and a list of randomly generated key codes for distribution to certified staff • Full- and part-time certified staff (e.g., teachers, counselors, librarians) are eligible to participate • Certified staff members will go to the website provided by MDE and type in their key codes • Survey requires only a computer with Internet access

11. To Access the Survey, Cont. • Survey requires respondents to acknowledge that they must be certified staff members • Survey requires respondents to verify their district and the name of the administrator being evaluated • This year’s survey does NOT have “save and continue” functionality. If you begin a survey and cannot finish it, just close it and start again using the same key code. • Your first completed survey response will be kept; incomplete surveys and duplicates will be automatically discarded.

12. To Access the Survey, Cont. You will NOT be asked to provide artifacts when completing the survey. Survey tools of this nature are inherently qualitative and, therefore, subjective—with or without artifacts. • However, at the end of the survey, you will be able to type in feedback for the administrator. These comments are optional and not included in an administrator’s score.

13. To Access the Survey, Cont. Acertified staff member should complete the Circle Survey for the school administrator(s) who oversees the staff member’s performance.* *E.g., All certified staff should complete the Circle Survey for the head principal. Additionally, if an assistant principal oversees a certain grade (e.g., 7-8th grade teachers only) or a select subgroup of teachers (e.g., math and science teachers only), then those certified staff should complete his/her Circle Survey. If the assistant principal’s role is schoolwide, then all certified staff in the school should complete the Circle Survey for the assistant principal. *E.g., All CTE teachers should complete the Circle Survey on the CTE director.

14. To Access the Survey, Cont. • Certified staff members evaluating multiple administrators (e.g., head principal and asst. principal) will be given multiple access codes (one code per administrator)

15. To Access the Survey, Cont. The MDE’s expectation is that all certified staff overseen by an administrator will participate in the administrator’s Circle Survey. The MDE recognizes that some certified staff may wish to “opt out” of the survey (e.g., certified staff who have been employed at the school for fewer than 60 calendar days), and the MDE recommends that these staff members be permitted to “opt out,” if requested. However, all staff must be given the opportunity to participate. • No minimum staff n-count • No minimum staff participation rate, but the number of staff who complete the survey for each MPES participant will be reported to the MPES participant

16. To Access the Survey, Cont. • Principals will have no way of knowing (based on the survey results) if you completed the survey or not • No identifying information is requested in the survey—consider that comments you type will be reported exactly as they are typed and may be identifiable depending on what you type

17. To Access the Survey, Cont. The RCU takes Circle Survey confidentiality very seriously.

18. To Access the Survey, Cont. District officials (not MPES participants themselves) should assist schools in distributing the codes to certified staff members. • Certified staff data are filtered automatically by each administrator and reported to the MDE and district administrators in aggregate only. • A certified staff member’s individual responses are never reported by the RCU to districts or the MDE. • Names corresponding with key codes are never received by the RCU. • Schools are encouraged to use the fishbowl method to ensure random distribution of key codes.

19. Circle Survey Reports • District superintendents will receive detailed reports with Circle Survey scores in March. • District superintendents are responsible for ensuring these reports are distributed to MPES participants. • Let’s view a sample report.

20. Please direct Circle Survey questions to the RCU. Circle Survey Questions

21. General MPES Questions http://www.mde.k12.ms.us/educator-evaluations/mpes mpes@mde.k12.ms.us