Cecil J. Picard Educator Excellence Symposium and Celebration 

Join us as we honor the 2014 Louisiana Teacher and Principal of the Year finalists. The event includes: 

• Luncheon hosted by Dream Teachers featuring Ron Clark, New York Times bestselling author and founder of the Ron Clark Academies.
• Common Core-centered professional development workshops led by Louisiana Teacher Leaders.  

Awards ceremony and dinner to honor the state's top educators and announce the 2014 Teacher and Principal of the Year. Clickhere for more information or contact excellenteducators@la.gov.

Final Evaluation Resources

Throughout the last month, we've released a number of resources to help guide districts through the end-of-year Compass process. The table below recaps the key actions districts will take in the coming weeks to ensure all teachers and leaders receive actionable and accurate final evaluations. Resources are available in the District and Teacher Support Toolboxes.

By the end of this week, all value-added invalidation requests are due to the Department. These requests must be submitted by a district leader through the Compass Information System (CIS). More information about who is eligible is included in the Guidance for Districts on Managing Extenuating Circumstances.

In coming weeks, we will release additional resources for districts and schools that did not use the CIS data system this year and plan to upload evaluation results to CIS. We will also release additional information about submitting an alternate rubric request for the upcoming year.

Please contact Compass@la.gov with questions.

Compass Upload Process

For districts planning to upload their evaluation data into the Compass Information System, we will release additional guidance in the upcoming newsletter. This guidance is intended to guide planning and discussions with vendors. We released preliminary materials this past fall, but the process has been updated to reflect improvements made to Compass in January, and will enable districts to manage data entry for end-of-year evaluations.

The upload function in Compass Information System will be available on June 10th, and districts have until July 29th to upload all information.

For questions, please contact compass@la.gov to schedule a conversation.

Compass Summer 2013 Evaluator Trainings

Summer 2013 Compass Evaluator Trainings for new evaluators of teachers and new evaluators of leaders have been scheduled. While participants are encouraged to attend sessions with participants from their own LEA, this is not required. Trainings will be held around the state. 

Participants must register on Coursewhere. Click here for Teacher Evaluators and here for Leader Evaluators. If you have questions or need additional information, please contact your Network Leader.

Each year, evaluation data is collected related to student achievement for the LA 4, Title I and 8(g) early childhood programs.  Districts/charter schools participating in these programs are required to report data from the Developing Skills Checklist, as well as demographic information via an intake form. Training on the data submission process for new early childhood teachers, paraprofessionals and administrators will be held in July at several locations across the state.  Please inform the Department of your training needs by using this simple survey by Friday, June 14, 2013. A listing of training dates, locations, and times can be found on the survey as well. 

If you have any questions, please contact Anita Ashford at 225-342-3647 or at anita.ashford@la.gov.

Please forward to all LEA child nutrition program supervisors. The Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program applications are now available for school food authorities. Complete the application and submit online for the 2013-2014 school year through the Child Nutrition Program website. More details can be found here.