The purpose of the professional growth cycle is to provide structures that foster collegial interaction that leads to continuous improvement of teaching practice. Formal evaluations provide quality, in-depth and focused feedback on teaching. Formal evaluations are required at least once in every professional growth cycle, are required at any time when there is a concern about a teacher's performance, and delineate levels of teaching performance by trained evaluators. Professional development plans for continuous improvement are designed by each teacher and reviewed annually. The connection provides for the integration of the results from formal evaluations with the teacher's objectives in subsequent years, and requires long-range professional development plans to be adjusted annually.
Every teacher participates actively every year.
This participation allows extensive choices for teachers, requires peer observations at least once in each professional growth cycle, and provides accountability for clarity, rigor, and substance for teacher choices and plans during years without a formal evaluation. Ongoing professional dialogue between teachers and administrators is focused on MCPS performance standards and student results. Dialogue requires annual objective setting and review conferences and provides for review of student results data as part of the objective setting process. The criteria for the formal evaluation are based on the MCPS performance standards and rubric which use research-based criteria and emphasize the MCPS belief in each student's capacity to learn. Within the framework of three, four, and five-year cycles, teachers select from a variety of professional development options and strategies to motivate and energize them to focus on the practice of teaching and its impact on student results.