Overview
Seven CES employees conducted evaluations of the 60 educators in our sample without the appropriate license, waiver, or authorization to do so. Six of the seven employees were teaching coordinators and did not receive written authorization from their supervisors to conduct evaluations. One was a primary evaluator but did not have an administrator license or waiver. As a result, CES educators may not receive proper feedback on their performance.
Authoritative Guidance
Article 15 of the collective bargaining agreement between CES and Service Employees International Union / American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations Local 509 requires CES to ensure that each primary evaluator has either an administrator license or a waiver to conduct evaluations. Additionally, the CES Teacher Evaluation System guide requires teaching coordinators to have written authorization from their supervisors to conduct evaluations.
Reasons for Issue
CES does not have internal controls to ensure that all primary evaluators have administrator licenses or waivers and that teaching coordinators conducting evaluations have received written authorization from their supervisors.
Recommendation
CES should develop internal controls to ensure that all primary evaluators have the required licenses or waivers and that teaching coordinators conducting evaluations have written authorization from their supervisors.
Auditee’s Response
During the period covered by the Audit, CES was in the first year of implementation of a new online evaluation information system product used by many districts across the Commonwealth for the purposes of evaluating a group of non-instructional staff. Due to technical features built into this product, the Primary Evaluator was not accurately identified [by CES]. However, with respect to the actual implementation of the summative evaluations for these employees, CES does and will continue to ensure that the Primary Evaluator was and remains an appropriately licensed administrator, and holds an appropriate license or waiver.
CES will undergo a thorough review of this online system and the forms used within it, to configure them so that potential user errors are mitigated, its features are leveraged to support our internal control systems, and it reflects intended practice.
CES will implement a uniform method for notifying educators of their Primary Evaluator, notifying educators of their Primary Evaluator at the beginning of each academic year; and will review the licensure status of each Primary Evaluator prior to issuing such notification.
Post-Audit Period Actions for Finding 2
Teaching Coordinators are no longer required to carry out formalized evaluation activities of the special education staff assigned to work in their programs, this expectation has been removed, and therefore, there is no need for written authorization.
CES has reviewed all Primary Evaluators and confirmed they hold an appropriate license or waiver.
Both during and subsequent to the audit period, CES has made a number of modifications to the online evaluation system to adapt it to the needs of and structure of the respective programs and services.
Auditor’s Reply
In performing our testing in this area, we confirmed with CES officials that we had properly identified all the primary evaluators for the evaluations in question before we completed our analysis. As noted above, our analysis found that seven CES employees conducted evaluations of the 60 educators in our sample without the appropriate license, waiver, or authorization to do so. Further, our review of educator evaluation documentation included all phases of the evaluation process, not simply the summative evaluation.
Based on its response, CES is taking measures to address our concerns on this matter.
| Date published: | July 22, 2021 |
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