SDE: TLE Training Funds

Dear Educators,

The State Department of Education has worked diligently to provide districts with the baseline training needed to begin the qualitative portion of the Teacher and Leader Evaluation System for the upcoming pilot year. As we have discussed in the past, after deliberations by the state's Teacher and Leader Effectiveness Commission last fall, the State Department has set aside $1.5 million to provide you with training on your selected evaluation framework. SDE had made provisional plans for distributing the $1.5 million directly to districts, if necessary.

The State Department posted a Request For Proposals (RFP) to solicit bids for training. The Department received one bid per framework. The Cooperative Council for Oklahoma School Administration (CCOSA) submitted a proposal for the Tulsa Model training; Learning Sciences International, Inc. (LSI) submitted a proposal for the Marzano training; McREL, in partnership with CCOSA, submitted a proposal for the McREL training; and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, in partnership with The Leadership and Learning Center, submitted a proposal for the Reeves training. These proposed trainers submitted bids originally totaling more than $4.3 million.  The State Department began negotiations with each proposed trainer in an attempt to align the proposed cost with the Department’s allocations. The RFP process has not been successful. 

Given that time is of the essence, to best serve the needs of districts, and to provide you with more autonomy over these funds, SDE has determined that it will indeed be most effective to distribute the $1.5 million directly to districts to seek TLE evaluator training. 

The State Department continues its commitment to provide as much financial support as possible to districts for training associated with TLE. The State Department plans to recommend to the State Board of Education that the most cost efficient way in which to complete the TLE training is to distribute the funds to districts and allow each district to contract directly with the trainers.  In order to keep districts from being responsible for the carryover of these funds into FY13, funds will not be distributed until after June 30. These dollars will be earmarked for TLE training for administrators. However, you will be able to determine the best direct use of the funds at the district level, so long as the dollars are utilized for TLE evaluator training. 

The Department has established guidelines regarding the length of training, training session expectations, training certification, and other details regarding the training process.  Please see the information on the following pages. Additional information will be provided as necessary.  If you have any questions, please contact Alicia Currin-Moore at Alicia.Currin-Moore@sde.ok.gov. 

 The following chart explains the TLE Training funding.

* Please note that the proposed cost per participant is based on the components of the state’s RFP, including the maximum number of participants per training session. Therefore, actual costs may vary. If your district attends a training session that has not met the capacity requirements, the funds to be paid by the district may increase.  Districts will be notified by each framework trainer regarding specific cost information.  

Currently, the OSDE has approved the following providers to deliver TLE training to Oklahoma districts:

Documentation regarding each provider’s credentials are available upon request.  If additional trainers are approved in the future, all district superintendents will be notified.

The OSDE will supply each framework trainer with information collected by the department as it pertains to TLE training.  Specifically, the OSDE will provide district information regarding district personnel contact information, the number of administrators in need of training, the selected Career Tech training sites, any information pertaining to employee contractual obligations, and a sample training schedule.  The OSDE cannot guarantee that this information will be used by the framework trainers in developing each training schedule.  The OSDE will require each framework trainer to provide documentation regarding administrator registration, attendance and completion.

For each leader framework, the OSDE requires a minimum of fifteen (15) hours of training for each participant responsible for evaluating leaders.  For each teacher framework, the OSDE requires a minimum of twenty (20) hours of training for each participant responsible for evaluating teachers.  This training can be completed in a variety of ways.  It can be in-person training, webinars, or self-study; however, at least 50% of the teacher or leader evaluation training hours must be in-person training.

Each Oklahoma administrator responsible for teacher or leader evaluation must pass a rigorous provisional certification assessment created by the framework developer and approved by the OSDE to ensure each participant’s mastery of the Framework’s components. Passage of the initial certification assessment will be used by the OSDE to provisionally certify administrators in evaluation in accordance with 70 O.S. § 6-101.10. Details regarding the requirements for final certification will be provided at a later date.

The certification assessment must include both a written examination as well as video or live observation scoring. The OSDE will require documentation regarding the names of each administrator who took the certification, whether the administrator passed the assessment, and the number of testing attempts taken prior to passage.