State approves Marcellus APPR plan

The Marcellus Central School District’s Annual Professional Performance Review plan has received approval from the New York State Education Department. The approval satisfies a requirement of the federal Race to the Top (RTTT) education initiative and makes Marcellus eligible to receive federal Race to the Top and state education aid.

Marcellus submitted its Annual Professional Performance Review Plan on June 15 and the state gave it final approval Dec. 12.

The approval is the result of months of collaboration between MCS officials, the Marcellus Faculty Association (MFA) and the Marcellus Administrators Association (MAA) to craft the district’s APPR.

“I’m proud to serve with professionals who never lose sight of why we’re all here,” said Superintendent Dr. Craig J. Tice. “All through the process, everyone kept their eyes on the goal: to enhance classroom instruction for our students, while simultaneously providing growth opportunities for our teachers.”

Student performance on local and state exams will factor into individual teachers' evaluations. Other factors will include growth in students' work and assessment of classroom skills through observations by a trained evaluator. Administrator evaluations will consider factors like assessments growth toward determined goals, a supervisor's (or other trained evaluator's) assessment of leadership and management, and other additional benchmarks.

Depending on their scores, teachers and administrators will be placed into one of four categories: highly effective, effective, developing or ineffective.

Marcellus has had an APPR plan in place since the 2002-03 school year, when a team led by then-Superintendent Dr. Timothy Barstow developed the original document, as part of the district’s Professional Development Committee (PDC). Now, as a requirement of Race to the Top and the state Education Department, the updated and refined plan transitions to its current form. Click here to view the Marcellus APPR and the state’s approval.

“Marcellus has a tradition of attracting and keeping some of the finest educators in the region,” Dr. Tice said. “The new evaluation plan will help us continue to do so.”