APPR UPDATE – Assembly Bill A.10475 and the “Same As” Senate Bill S.8301

Both the Assembly and Senate now have bills regarding changes to the APPR law. Key aspects of the proposed Assembly and Senate legislation include:

  • No state tests and, therefore, no state growth scores based on those tests, can be required for teacher or principal evaluation purposes.
  • The commissioner would develop regulation regarding alternate assessments for grades 3-8.
  • Currently approved assessments for transition score determination would be automatically approved for continued use in teacher and principal evaluations.
  • The selection of assessments to be used in determining student achievement APPR ratings for teachers and principals would be subject to collective bargaining.
  • Existing APPR agreements would remain in place until a successor agreement is negotiated. No required timeline for this is identified.
  • Any assessments that have been negotiated for use in the determining grades 3-8 moratorium transition scores shall continue to be used until a successor APPR agreement is negotiated.
  • For the first subcomponent, a teacher shall have an SLO consistent with regulation. Subject to negotiations, state assessments may be used for SLOs.
  • An optional second student performance category subcomponent may be used, as negotiated locally. This option may be based on either a state-created or administered test or a state designed supplemental assessment.
  • The provision that an “Ineffective” in the student performance category, when an optional measure is included using certain approved supplemental assessments, must automatically result in an overall “Ineffective” APPR rating is removed. Remaining provisions of the HEDI “Matrix” to determine an overall APPR rating remain intact.

It appears that no other aspect of current law or regulation regarding teacher and principal evaluation has changed. The full implications of these changes for principal APPR will need additional analysis, given certain aspects of the language. SAANYS will continue to review and monitor this and any subsequent proposed legislation and updates will be provided as the process continues. Our advocacy will be to ensure that changes to teacher APPR provisions will be “mirrored” for principals where appropriate.