Guidelines for Claiming Students for Teacher Effect Scores

1. Guidelines for Claiming Students for Teacher Effect Scores Spring 2014

2. The Claiming Process • Shortly after the conclusion of state testing, teachers claim students they taught during the school year, and their claiming rosters, once approved at the district and school levels, are used to calculate teacher effect scores, or TVAAS. • Under Tennessee’s teacher evaluation legislation, teacher effect scores count for a portion of teachers’ overall evaluation scores. For teachers who receive an individual growth score (often referred to as teachers in “tested grades and subjects”), TVAAS scores count for 35 percent of the final evaluation score. • The claiming process is key to ensuring that we have accurate data by which to calculate teacher effect scores.

3. The Claiming Process • The two most important points to consider in the claiming process are that, in the overwhelming majority of cases: • All students should be claimed for 100 percent of their instructional time, and • All teachers should personally verify their claiming roster.

4. Table of Contents Part I – Getting started • Login • Verify teacher license number Part II – Define you class roster • Establish the group of students for whom you were responsible at any point during the school year. • Establish the group of students for whom you are the Teacher of Record for Quick Score purposes. • Organize your students into groups for Quick Scores. Part III – Linkage rosters for teacher effect reporting • Instructional time - percentage of time a teacher spent as the primary classroom instructor • Instructional availability - the number of days a student is available for instruction

5. PART I - Getting started • Teachers can begin the process of claiming their students once they receive notification from their school administrator that the claiming window is open. • Teachers will need two items to start claiming: • EdTools username and password. Click on the “Can’t access your account?” link if you don’t remember your login. Principals may also look up teacher logins within EdTools. • Teacher license number.

6. Step 1: Login to EdTools Log onto EdTools at https://tdoe.randasolutions.com Click here if you can’t remember your login, or contact your administrator.

7. Step 2: Click on the Processing tab, then click Teacher-Student Connection

8. Step 3: Use the drop down menu to select an assessment

9. The page will refresh, click Continue.

10. NOTE: If you see this page, contact your school administrator. This means that steps one and two of the School Demographic Data Verification (SDDV) have not been completed for your school.

11. Step 4: Verify your teacher license number the first time you log in.

12. Once you have validated your teacher license number, each time you login you will land on your roster.

13. PART II – Defining Your Class Roster • Class rosters are automatically created when students are assigned to a Teacher License Number. • You define your class roster in three ways: • Establish the group of students for whom you were responsible at any point during the school year. • Establish the group of students for whom you are the Teacher of Record for Quick Scores purposes. • Organize your students into groups for Quick Scores.

14. Establish the group of students for whom you were responsible at any point during the school year Class rosters are automatically created when students are assigned to a Teacher License Number. It is possible that you will have students on rosters for courses that you do not teach. You will need to delete these students from your roster. It is also possible that not all of the students you teach are on your roster and you will need to add students.

15. The status columnindicates if a student was considered absent, marked ineligible or has had a Report of Irregularity (RI). Students are marked absent for any content area for which they did not have responses. If the student should have responses, contact your Building Testing Coordinator and ask that they notify the state. If there is another reason for the lack of responses, such as the student should be placed on the ineligible roster or should have an RI, please contact your Building Testing Coordinator. An RI status will not be reflected until the state processes the RI.

16. The eIEP column indicates students who received special education services.

17. Each content area has a separate roster. Click on the content area to review and/or edit student rosters for EACH content area. The button for the current content area will be yellow and the initials for the content area will show next to “My Class Roster.”

18. The following fields define your class roster: Content area should be checked if it is a content area you teach to the students. Note: RLA indicates the Reading/Language Arts content area. Teacher of Record (TOR) should be checked if the student is currently in your grade book and you will need the Quick Score for their final grade. Only one teacher may be the TOR for each student. Class Period (CP) is required to organized Quick Scores. Even if you teach a self-contained class and do not actually use class periods, you will need to assign each content area to a class period.

19. Step 1: Remove an entire content area from the roster if you did not teach that content. All four content areas will show regardless of your roster information. Click on the content area name to review the roster.

20. For example, if you teach only Reading/Language Arts and you have students on rosters for all four content areas, you need to remove students from the rosters. To remove Math, Science and Social Studies from the student rosters, click on the relevant content area. The page will refresh to the roster for the content area. In the image below, Science is now yellow and the letters Sci are in the roster header.

21. To edit the roster for all students, click the pencil on the left to edit all. The page will refresh and all students will be open to edit. Click in the box under the content area in the header to remove science from each student on the roster.

22. The page will refresh and all information for each student for the content area, Teacher of Record (TOR) and Class Period (CP) will be removed. Click the save icon at the right.

23. The page will refresh to the Science roster. The “edit all” section is now closed and Science is no longer selected for any students. Also TOR and CP have been cleared. This teacher will not receive Quick Scores or teacher effect information on these students in Science. Note: Student names remain in all content areas, they are only reported for a teacher in content areas that are selected.

24. To review each content area roster, select another content area. Follow the steps outlined above to remove Social Studies from the student roster if you do not teach these students Social Studies, for example.

25. Step 2: If needed, add students to your class roster. If you do not have a pre-assigned class roster, you will receive the following message when you first log in: Click Add Student(s) to Roster… to create your roster.

26. The page will refresh to add students. To add a group of students use the drop down box to select a TAG (Test Administration Group). The list of TAGs for the school will open. Select a TAG to add students to your roster. Then click Search.

27. The page will refresh and show the list of students under the TAG available to be added to your roster.

28. To add all of the students from the TAG to your roster, click in the box on the header to the left and in the box in the header under the content area. For example if you teach Reading/Language Arts, click the box under RLA. Then click “Add Selected to Roster”.

29. The page will refresh to your Reading/Language Arts roster. The Class Roster identifies all students for whom you were responsible at any point in the school year.You will have the opportunity to determine the percent of time you instructed a student on the linkage roster later in this process.

30. To add an individual student, enter the student’s last name. Click Search. The page will refresh to show all students with the last name and the TAG that the student document was processed under.

31. Click in the box to the left of the student’s name that you wish to add to your roster, and in the box for the content area(s) you wish to report them under. Note you MUST select at least one content area. Click “Add Selected to Roster”.

32. Step 3: If needed, remove students from your roster. To remove a student completely from your roster for ALL content areas, select the pencil “Edit” to the left of the student name. At the bottom of the roster, click This should only be done if you did not teach the student for any content area at any point within the school year.

33. Establish the group of students for whom you are the Teacher of Record for Quick Scores purposes Teacher of Record (TOR) should be checked if the student is currently on your grade book and you will need their Quick Score for their final grade. Division of grades between classes (for example, dividing Reading and Language Arts or team teaching scenarios) is a local decision. Only one teacher can be the TOR for a content area.

34. Step 1: Select the content area for which you have students on a grade book and are the Teacher of Record. Click the pencil on the left side to edit students individually or as a group.

35. For example, if you teach 3rd grade science and 4th grade math there will be both 3rd and 4th grade students on your roster. The Teacher of Record (TOR) box is only available for students that have the content area selected.

36. Step 2: Click in the box under TOR in the header to identify yourself as the Teacher of Record for each of the students available on the roster. If you were instructionally responsible for a student at the beginning of the year, but the student is now on another teacher’s roster and you are not the TOR, click in the TOR box next to the student’s name to remove the student from the Quick Score roster for your class. You will have the opportunity to determine the percent of time you instructed a student on the linkage roster later in this process.

37. Organize your students into groups for Quick Scores. Class Period (CP) is required to organize Quick Scores. Even if you teach a self-contained class and do not actually use class periods, you will need to assign each content area to a class period. When you identify yourself as the Teacher of Record for a student, the Class Period (CP) selection will become available.

38. Step 1: Click on the drop down box for CP in the header and select a class period to assign all of the students that have TOR selected.

39. The page will refresh and the class period will be assigned to all of the students who were available to edit.

40. Step 2: To edit student class periods individually, click on the drop down box on the row with the student and click on the class period. Step 3: Once all student Class Periods are assigned, click the save icon on the right.

41. Complete Your Class Roster Once you have identified all of the students for whom you have been instructionally responsible at any point within the school year for each content area, selected the students who are currently in your grade book and for whom you are the Teacher of Record, and assigned those students to class periods, you are ready to complete your class roster. Click in the acknowledgement box at the bottom of the page. You will only click this box once, regardless of the number of content areas for which you have students. The page will refresh. You can print your class roster and/or continue to linking.

42. The page will refresh to your linking roster for teacher effect reporting. To add or remove students to the roster, click “Back to Roster” at the top left. This will return you to the instructional roster where you can make edits as defined in the previous slides.

43. PART III – Linkage Roster for Teacher Effect Reporting, or TVAAS • For each student, a teacher is required to claim two categories of information – instructional time and instructional availability. • As a measure to protect teachers’ effect scores from extreme situations, the claiming information will be aggregated and will exclude any student test score outliers based on the student’s testing history (for example, if a student chooses answer choice “A” on every single test question this student’s test score will likely be excluded from the teacher’s effect score).

44. Instructional Time • Instructional time is defined as the percentage of time a teacher spent as the primary classroom instructor for each student. • For example, if a teacher is solely responsible for a student’s classroom instruction for the duration of the instructional period, the teacher claims 100 percent instructional time. • If the teacher splits that responsibility equally with another teacher, each would claim 50 percent. • If a teacher is absent from teaching for a period of time, the appropriate percentage of instructional time must be determined per local policy.

45. Instructional Availability Instructional availability is determined by the number of days a student is available for instruction, as defined by local policy, during the entire instructional period. The instructional period for the student may be determined using both enrollment and attendance. Instructional availability is reported as follows: Traditional Schedule (approximately 180 days): Full – F (150 days or more) Partial – P (75-149 days) Excluded – (74 days or fewer) Modified Schedule (approximately 90 days): Full – F (75 days or more) Partial – P (38-74 days) Excluded – (37 days or fewer) According to Tennessee state law TCA 49-1-606 (a), only students claimed as F count towards a teacher’s teacher effect calculation.

46. Instructional time defaults to 100%. • Instructional availability was identified either on the student response document for state testing or by a building administrator. • Both of these can be edited on this page.

47. Step 1: Click on the box next to the student(s) to be edited.

48. Step 2: Click the content area and percentage to make edits. Edits can be made individually or in groups for both percentage and instructional availability. Click “Apply Changes to Selected Students” when you’ve made your selections. Contact your administrator if you have questions.

49. Additional information provided on the linkage roster is related to a student’s eligibility for claiming. If this information is incorrect, contact your administrator. A student who did not receive instruction in a content area (for example, an 8th grade student taking Algebra I did not test in 8th grade Math) will be marked ineligible for linking. Only administrators can add or remove students to the special education and Ineligible Rosters.

50. Once you have reviewed/edited the percentage of instruction and student availability for each student on your linkage roster, click the acknowledgement box at the bottom of the page. The page will refresh, click Print My Linkage Roster or Finish.