EASTCONN Helps Districts With New Educator Evaluation Program

EASTCONN is helping five northeastern Connecticut school districts pilot the state’s new System for Educator Evaluation and Development (SEED), by providing professional development and supports that will help pilot districts implement new protocols this year.

EASTCONN staff is working on the first-year pilot of Connecticut’s model SEED initiative with educators in Windham and in a small-rural-district consortium that includes Eastford, Franklin, Columbia and Sterling.

“We’re very excited to be part of it,” said Columbia Superintendent of Schools Francine Coss, adding, “There is a great deal of hard work being done, both at the state level and among [pilot] cohort members.”

Coss said she was glad that EASTCONN was facilitating the five-town pilot.

“As always, EASTCONN is a fantastic resource,” Coss said. “They anticipate our needs and they manage the complexities, so that they are not foreboding. Throughout the training process…they are not just simply delivering the information, they are providing it to us with meaning.”

The SEED model was developed in response to Connecticut’s new Core Requirements for Educator Evaluation, which provide requirements/guidelines for a teacher and administrator evaluation and support program.

EASTCONN has also begun presenting a series of regional, informational workshops to help non-pilot districts from the northeastern Connecticut region understand the core requirements and the SEED model. Districts must either select the SEED model or develop their own evaluation plan by March 30, 2013, for implementation in the 2013-2014 school year.

“The sessions are very helpful in clarifying what the objectives, issues and opportunities are,” said Fred Baruzzi, Superintendent of the Mansfield Public Schools, who was among 80 administrators attending an EASTCONN workshop in October for non-pilot towns.

Under Connecticut’s new educator evaluation system, teacher evaluations will be linked to students’ academic growth and development, as well as classroom observations, among other things.
EASTCONN is also facilitating a new data management system with My Learning Plan® that will be employed in the five northeastern Connecticut pilot towns, as well as in nine other school districts participating in the state’s pilot, to gather data and support the process of teacher and administrator evaluation. My Learning Plan® is a provider of Web-based educator evaluation and professional learning data management solutions.

“We are working closely with the Connecticut State Department of Education and My Learning Plan to launch and implement this online evaluation system in the pilot districts,” said EASTCONN’s Director of Teaching, Learning and Technology Jim Huggins.

“We’re looking forward to being part of this major reform initiative in Connecticut,” he said.
SEED is being implemented statewide in collaboration with the CSDE, the state’s Regional Educational Service Centers (RESCs), the Connecticut Association of Public School Superintendents (CAPSS), the Connecticut Association of Boards of Education (CABE), and the Connecticut Association of Schools (CAS).

To learn more about SEED, the five-town pilot program or to obtain information about workshops for non-pilot towns in the EASTCONN region, contact EASTCONN’s Jim Huggins at 860-455-1569, or at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .