Florida Administrative Code › 6 - DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION › 6A - State Board of Education › Chapter 6A-5 - EDUCATOR STANDARDS, PREPARATION AND PERFORMANCE › Section 6A-5.0411 - Calculations of Student Learning Growth for Use in School Personnel Evaluations

Current through Reg. 50, No. 138; July 16, 2024
(1) Purpose. The
				purpose of this rule is to provide districts choosing to use the formulas for
				measuring student learning growth approved by the commissioner with a framework
				for using and interpreting scores in school district instructional personnel
				evaluation systems developed under Section
				1012.34, F.S., and to provide
				information for use in the approval of school leader preparation programs under
				Section 1012.562, F.S.
(2) Definitions. For the purposes of this
				rule, the following definitions apply.
(a)
				"Confidence interval." A confidence interval is derived from the standard
				error. It expresses the precision of a statistic as a range of values. An
				individual teacher's VAM score is an estimate of that teacher's contributions
				to student learning growth. The 95% confidence interval used in classification
				represents a range of possible values that would include the teacher's VAM
				score 95% of the time if VAM scores were repeatedly re-estimated with different
				students for each teacher.
(b)
				"Courses associated with statewide, standardized assessments" or "courses
				associated with statewide, standardized assessments under Section
				1008.22, F.S.," are those
				courses which are assessed by statewide, standardized assessments and are
				listed in the publication, "Florida VAM Course List," (effective April 2024),
				which is incorporated herein by reference (
http://www.flrules.org/Gateway/reference.asp?No=Ref-16550
).
				A copy of the Florida VAM Course List may be obtained from the Florida
				Department of Education, 325 West Gaines Street, Room 514, Tallahassee, FL
				32399-0400.
(c) "Covariate." A
				covariate is a variable or set of variables reflecting measured characteristics
				used in computing a statistical model that controls for specific influences on
				the outcome being modeled.
(d)
				"Covariate adjustment model." A covariate adjustment model is a statistical
				model that controls for the influence of one or more of the
				covariates.
(e) "Expected score."
				An expected score generated by a value-added model for a statewide,
				standardized assessment is based on the student's prior statewide, standardized
				assessment score history and covariates, as well as how other students in the
				state actually performed on the assessment. For each individual student, the
				expected score is the sum across all covariates of the value of the covariate
				multiplied by that covariate's contribution to student learning as estimated by
				the covariate adjustment model.
(f)
				"Observed score." An observed score is the actual score a student received on
				an assessment.
(g) "Staff
				information system." The staff information system is the comprehensive
				management information system maintained by the Department containing staff
				data reported by school districts in accordance with Rule
				6A-1.0014, F.A.C., (
http://www.flrules.org/Gateway/reference.asp?No=Ref-05723
)
				which is incorporated by reference herein. A copy of Rule
				6A-1.0014, F.A.C., may be
				obtained from the Florida Department of Education, 325 West Gaines Street, Room
				514, Tallahassee, FL 32399-0400.
(h) "Standard error." A standard error is a
				measure of the precision of a statistic. It is determined by both sample size
				and sample variability.
(i)
				"Student information system." The student information system is the
				comprehensive management information system maintained by the Department
				containing student data reported by school districts in accordance with Rule
				6A-1.0014, F.A.C., as
				incorporated in paragraph (2)(g) of this rule.
(j) "Value-added model" or "VAM." A
				value-added model is a statistical model used for the purpose of determining an
				individual teacher's contribution to student learning growth.