Our New Teacher Academy is in full swing with its second session coming up next week. This is a great opportunity for new teachers to network with other teachers new to the profession, as well as receive resources and support to ensure a successful year.

The T-TESS Recertification window for the 2024-2025 school year is officially open! Appraisers seeking recertification for the 24-25 school year will be required to watch the 20-minute Alternate Domain I training module before recertifying. You must watch the video until completion & click the submit acknowledgment button before continuing with the lesson rating. If you are in "bonus years," we recommend you view the Alt. Domain I training module even though you are not in a recertification year.

**We recommend keeping up with your certification, even if you are not appraising this year. This will keep you from having to complete the 3-day academy in the future, should you need to appraise teachers.

You can view your certifications by navigating to My Account, My Certificates after you login.

TEA has released an Alternate Domain 1 rubric as an option for those districts who utilize resources that require/encourage lesson internalization. Districts will have the option to choose Domain 1 or Alternate Domain 1 when appraising teachers. You will receive more information in your appraisal recertification this year. Any new appraisers will receive Alt. Domain 1 training in their T-TESS certification course.

**If you are utilizing Alt. Domain 1 to appraise teachers AND you use Eduphoria to manage your appraisal data, your District Eduphoria Manager will need to update your appraisee process to include the new rubric. I have pasted a link to an Eduphoria help document below for more information.

The updated T-TESS website is live! Check out the updated information and easy to navigate resources!

Given the increase in virtual classrooms and requests from districts statewide, the TEA has developed an aligned T-TESS rubric which isolates relevant, high-leverage practices in virtual instruction settings. This streamlined rubric will address the Planning, Instruction, and Learning Environment domains, including all current T-TESS dimensions within these domains. The rubric communicates best practices for virtual instruction and allows for focused observations and feedback with virtual instruction teachers. Here's the link to the rubric:

We've now included the updated rubric from the SLO training for schools using that growth measure. You'll also find information about Texas Instructional Leadership training that can be scheduled with ESC 17 (or your own regional service center if you are outside Region 17).

You can contact Misty Castro at mcastro@esc17.net for a digital copy of the flipchart.

Always consult your T-TESS Appraiser Training Handbook for full guidance on the T-TESS process.

I've added a little set of Look For Cards to the Google drive. Print them out on one color or more (I divided the Domains so that you could easily print to different colors). Click here to download. Enjoy!

The state has published guidance on student growth for both T-TESS and T-PESS. Take a look at the documentation. The agency has thoughtfully involved instructional reflection as well as consideration of time in "office" in the growth measure methodologies. I think you'll be appropriately challenged by the expectations yet find the expectations workable as well.

Click here to view the T-TESS growth guidance.

Or here to view the T-PESS growth guidance.

As always, we are here to answer questions.

Email: mcastro@esc17.net
Website: https://www.esc17.net/page/ci.home
Location: 1111 West Loop 289, Lubbock, TX, United States
Phone: 806-281-5805
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ESCRegion17
Twitter: @mistycastro17