 This year’s party will be held on Monday, June 26, 2017 from 2:00 to 6:00 pm @ Amarante’s Sea Cliff located at 62 Cove Street, New Haven.
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 NHFT President David Cicarella testifying at the State BoE.The State of CT Board of Education voted to prevent the use of state standardized test scores from being used in the summative rating for teachers’ evaluations. Based on the PEAC (Performance Evaluation Advisory Committee) recommendation, Smarter Balanced Assessment will not be used in a teacher’s evaluation, but instead will be used to inform goal setting (SLO’s) and assess professional development needs.
NHFT President Dave Cicarella, a member of the PEAC Committee, testified at the State Board of Education in Hartford on April 5th. Dave urged the board to reject the use of the state mastery test for evaluation purposes stating that placing an emphasis on one high stakes test creates an unhealthy focus “to pass the test” with schools potentially becoming “test prep factories”. In further testimony, he stated “multiple measures of assessments” are utilized to determine student growth and provide substantial educator accountability. Dave stated “The Smarter Balanced Assessment is best used for other purposes”. By David Cicarella, NHFT President
The calendar committee has sent the final draft to Dr. Mayo. It is now scheduled for a vote at the April 24th BoE meeting. As an FYI our contract states: “…a yearly calendar shall be discussed with the Federation prior to June 1st annually and published”. We are ahead of schedule in terms of the contractual obligation. While I cannot send the draft while it is under review , I can share the following items as they must be adhered to per state law for regional calendars.
NHFT articles TEVAL MID-YEAR CONFERENCES: A Crucial Checkpoint nhftlocal933 February 9, 2017 Comments Offon TEVAL MID-YEAR CONFERENCES: A Crucial CheckpointBy David Cicarella, NHFT President As you read this article, TEVAL mid-year conferences are either underway or have been completed. The mid-year conference is a crucial checkpoint in the TEVAL process. At this time, two important items are addressed. Potential Adjustment of Student Learning Objectives (SLO) SLO’s are reviewed and the teacher and their Instructional Manager (IM) determine if an adjustment to the SLO(s) is warranted. An example is the scenario whereby a teacher has a significant number of students that have been chronically absent from September through February. This will impact a teacher’s ability to meet the SLO and an adjustment would be in order. Teachers Self Rating for Classroom Practices At this mid-year conference, the teacher will complete the “self-rating for classroom practices” and the IM will do the same. The teacher and IM discuss the ratings looking for items of instructional practice where there is agreement and disagreement. The purpose is to promote a professional dialogue to ensure supports are provided for areas where there is agreement that the teacher would benefit from these supports. It is equally important to discuss items of disagreement. For example, a teacher rates themselves STRONG on an item while the IM rating is DEVELOPING. A respectful dialogue needs to occur in February, not in June. Our colleagues that co-authored TEVAL to ensure important discussions purposely designed the self-assessment component so potential adjustments and supports are put in place mid-year, which allows for subsequent improvement in instructional practice. The self-assessment ratings are unofficial and have no bearing on the final TEVAL rating. Too often I receive calls whereby a teacher conveys that they were “rated developing” at this mid-year conference. NO teacher receives any ratings mid-year. Summative ratings occur only at the end of the school year. There is no such thing as a “mid-year rating”. The mid-year conference is an informal assessment of instructional practice with the sole purposes of celebrating successes and identifying areas in need of improvement and implementing support. As we continue to modify TEVAL and tweak it for improvement, the emphasis is shifting to more “fact-based” evidence. Teachers should be hearing “I rated you strong on this indicator because of this evidence”. Instructional Managers have been undergoing collegial calibrations in our ongoing attempt to strengthen the evaluation process and use objective, fact-based data when conducting observations and the subsequent evaluations. The Major Components of TEVAL
The New Haven Register incorrectly referenced a “partnership” between the city of New Haven and the NHFT. The reporter was contacted and he has since corrected the on-line version of the article.
The NHFT Executive Board agreed on the following as a prerequisite to our collaborating on any alternate school:
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