(a) Teachers holding an initial license pursuant to § 1210 of this title, a continuing license pursuant to § 1211 of this title, or an advanced license pursuant to § 1213 of this title must receive an annual evaluation through the Delaware Teacher Growth and Support System. The evaluation must be consistent with the Delaware Professional Teaching Standards and must otherwise be in accordance with the criteria and requirements of this section. (b) The Department, with the consent of the State Board of Education, shall promulgate rules and regulations to administer the Delaware Teacher Growth and Support System. The Delaware Teacher Growth and Support System must include an overall rating and a student- improvement rating and must identify what constitutes satisfactory performance and unsatisfactory performance on the overall evaluation and on each performance area of the evaluation. For the purposes of § 1273 of this title, Delaware Teacher Growth and Support System must also include a definition of "pattern of ineffective teaching" as it relates to unsatisfactory performance on the overall Delaware Teacher Growth and Support System evaluation. (c) (1) The Delaware Teacher Growth and Support System will have no more than 5 performance areas, as determined by the Department, with a required strong focus on student improvement, with 1 performance area dedicated to student improvement. All performance areas must be weighted equally. (2) The performance area dedicated to student improvement shall contain a Part I and a Part II. Part I shall contain at least 1 individual professional learning goal created by the teacher and administrator that is focused on the continuous improvement of skills aligned to the Delaware Teacher Growth and Support System teacher observation rubric. Part II shall contain at least 2 individual student improvement goals created by the teacher and administrator that demonstrate the teacher's contribution to student growth for his or her current cohort of students. If the teacher and administrator do not agree, the administrator's decision is final. Each "Part II" goal shall be based upon a measure that has been approved by the Department. Measures may be created by a local education agency but must be approved by the Department prior to use. The administrator shall assess the progress toward goals, regardless of whether the teacher has satisfied the requirements of § 1403(a) of this title, is on a directed growth plan, or has earned a satisfactory rating on his or her most recent performance evaluation. (3) Notwithstanding any other provision of law, rule or regulation to the contrary, grades 3 through 8 and high school state assessments required under § 151 of this title shall not be required as a measure of student growth as part of a teacher's evaluation. (4) The measure of student improvement must take into consideration student absence, student mobility, student chronic noncompliance with school rules, chronic failure by parents to abide by the Parents' Declaration of Responsibilities under § 157 of this title, and other factors that may adversely affect the evaluation. If a student has missed more than 15% of the class time, the student's performance shall only be used with the agreement of the teacher under this chapter. (d) A local education agency may develop and implement other assessment tools that measure annual student improvement, including assessments in other content areas. Assessment tools developed and implemented pursuant to this subsection must be approved by the Secretary and must be funded with local funds. (e) Nothing in this section prevents a local education agency from administering other evaluations in addition to the Delaware Teacher Growth and Support System, provided that administration of additional evaluations is reported to the Department. (f) A local education agency may make application to the Department for a waiver of the provisions of the Delaware Teacher Growth and Support System, which shall be granted, subject to the provisions of rules and regulations promulgated pursuant to this subchapter, if the request for a waiver is based on a locally developed evaluation process that is demonstrated to be the product of the collective bargaining process pursuant to Chapter 40 of this title and community review and is as rigorous and as educationally sound as the Delaware Teacher Growth and Support System, provides for evaluating educator performance by measuring student growth using multiple measures over the course of a curricular year, and contains a mechanism for certifying evaluators and for quality control.
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