The ongoing saga that is the portfolio scoring process for teachers includes those submitting Fine Arts portfolios. While Pre-K/Kindergarten teachers received their scores in late July, well after the Department of Education’s stated deadline, Fine Arts portfolio scores have yet to be returned to teachers.

Yes, those teachers completed their portfolios by April 15th, but the results are still not back yet. That means Fine Arts teachers submitted portfolios 124 days BEFORE they will receive any feedback.

Here’s more from an email sent by one district about the portfolio process:

We got more guidance last night from the State Department on reporting these portfolio submissions…heads up, the fines arts comes out Friday, August 17th and has the same issues but the deadline is the same for early grades and fine arts so we will have to work fast to get this done. Please let your music/art people know to be looking in Educopia for submission errors such as mismatch standards, etc. on Friday the 17th.

The “submission errors” this email references are those the TDOE is blaming on teachers in what has been a huge headache of a process.

Now, the state is offering to provide further review IF a district requests it on behalf of certain teachers:

while we will not allow resubmissions, we will re-review educators’ collections in select cases. If a district reviews its submission error cases with impacted teachers and believes it has identified a case in which there was not in fact a submission error, the district can request to have those collections re-reviewed.

 

By Aug. 27, districts will be asked to submit one form with the names of the teacher(s) whom you believe do not have a submission error but were noted as having one, along with their portfolio collection. Those collections will be peer reviewed again. If it is confirmed there is a submission error, the educator will still receive a 1 on that collection and have the opportunity to vacate his or her overall portfolio score. They will also receive feedback on what error they made. If the peer reviewer determines there was no submission error, the collection will be scored and the department will review and post the new score in TNCompass.

This means Fine Arts teachers will only have a few days to review their graded portfolios and ask the district to submit the form requesting further review. If the portfolio score ends up being vacated, teachers will then receive the school score (from TNReady) for 35% of their TEAM evaluation score. Of course, this year’s TNReady administration was a complete disaster. As a result of the DOE’s interpretation of legislation passed in April, teachers who have a TEAM score based in any part on TNReady may choose to vacate their score for this year entirely.

It is still unclear what the long-term consequences are for a teacher who does not have a TEAM score for a year of service. These scores are used to apply for tenure and to renew a teaching license, so it seems there may well be an “adverse impact” if the score ends up being vacated altogether. Perhaps the 2019 Commissioner of Education will have some idea of what this all means.

For more on education politics and policy in Tennessee, follow @TNEdReport