Welcome to School Year 2012-13

Welcome to a new school year here at LAUSD.  I hope that everyone had a relaxing summer and enjoyed some time off.  I spent quite a bit of my time this summer at a District middle school supporting training on the observation process that is being used as part of the teacher evaluation.  It was great to be out at a school site (even if kids weren’t there) and to make contact with so many teachers and administrators.

I also spent some time this summer streamlining the Classified Performance Framework some more and thinking through the performance evaluation process that we will implement this school year on a trial basis.  I worked on linking the professional development offered by our Personnel Commission to the proposed framework, so that once an evaluation is completed, staff can identify District training that might be useful for growth and development.  I have also been working on the tool that employees will use to plan their growth activities for the year.

I will present this information at our next Advisory Committee Meeting, which I have scheduled for Thursday, September 27, 2012.  I also want to discuss other potential measures that we can incorporate into the process.  This will include an overview of what is being used for teachers and how we could potentially incorporate the same or different measures.

Hope you can join us!

June 21, 2012 Advisory Committee Meeting Notes

We held our last Advisory Committee Meeting for the 2012 School Year on June 21, 2012.  We spent nearly the entire meeting reviewing the proposed Classified Performance Framework.  The Classified Performance Framework is the foundation for supporting all classified employees.  From this, we will build evaluation tools, align professional development, etc.

 I loaded a great deal of extra language into the framework from a variety of sources.  At the meeting, we tried to eliminate redundancies; streamline language; ensure a consistent thread through Ineffective, Developing, Effective, and Highly Effective rating categories; etc.  We only got about half way through the document, but I could see the direction the group was taking.  With that in mind, I continued on my own to streamline and consolidate.  You can find the redline document here (so that you can see what we changed).  I’ve also added a clean copy, so that you can see a more final version without the confusion of multiple edits.  If you prefer a Word or PDF version of either of the documents (the links to the sections of the framework, as shown on the first page of the document, are live in the Word and PDF versions – for some reason they disappear when converting to a Google doc format), please send me an e-mail requesting that to:  heidi.hrowal@lausd.net.

PLEASE REVIEW AND PROVIDE ME WITH ANY COMMENTS BY THE END OF JULY 2012.  I invite your feedback regarding these documents.  Please review and look for:

• redundancies that we can eliminate or consolidate,
• any clarifications that we can include to make it more understandable,
• consistent threads of content through the various rating categories,
• applicability to all workers types (office-based, technical/professional, classroom-based, field, and supervisor/manager) in the LAUSD classified service,
• ways to simplify or streamline the language.

Send your comments directly to me at heidi.hrowal@lausd.net rather than posting them to the blog.  Feel free to post discussions to the blog, but I prefer that you send me your notes on the document directly.

Starting in August, I will present our “final” to District senior management and the classified bargaining units (although I welcome their feedback now).  We will also begin to link professional development to the various parts of the framework, and begin building evaluation tools.

Recap of May 17, 2012, Advisory Committee Meeting

Our meeting of May 17 was very exciting because we had quite a few new faces.  Welcome to everyone that newly joined us.  We spent most of the time at the meeting going over a very rough draft of the classified performance framework.  Admittedly, the initial draft was inconsistent and not comprehensive.  The intent was to spark discussion and get people’s ideas on paper.

The language for “Developing” and “Effective” for each of the 7 areas of the framework was posted around the room.  Participants were asked to work on whichever area was of greatest interest to them.  We asked them to revise the language to make it clearer and to ensure that there is a clear difference between developing and effective.  This is an important dividing line in the framework and the language must be clear and understandable.

The revisions to the language that were identified at that meeting can be found here for Developing and here for Effective.  Anything crossed out was removed and wording highlighted in blue was added.  Feel free to comment on the changes you see, make additional recommendations, etc.  You can comment to this blog, or send an e-mail. 

I am continuing to work on revising these by meeting with people throughout the District, at various meetings scheduled over the next few weeks.  Additionally, the Advisory Committee will continue to work on this throughout the summer.

Brief Note on May 17, 2012, Advisory Committee Meeting

Thanks to everyone who attended the May 17th meeting.  We had quite a few new faces, and some good discussion.  I won't be ready to post the notes until some time next week.  Additionally, based on some discussion, we already saw some issues with some areas of the initial performance frameworks.  I will be putting my head down and trying to address those, hopefully before I begin the meetings throughout the District over the next couple weeks.

In order to ensure one more meeting before the school year ends, I will have one more Advisory Committee Meeting during mid-June.  This meeting will be held at the Beaudry Building from 3:30 - 5:00 p.m. on the selected date. Please go the survey and indicate your date preferences.

Thanks for your interest in this work!

Next Advisory Committee Meeting - Thursday, May 17, 2012

Thanks to all of you that provided input that helped us determine the date for this Advisory Committee Meeting.  At this meeting we will be reviewing the initial draft of the classified performance framework.  You can access the document here.  We will be working on clarifying "Effective" and "Developing" in each of the sections.  Feel free to get input from others or prepare your own notes prior to coming to the meeting.  I look forward to working with all those that attend.

The meeting is at Beaudry headquarters on Thursday, May 17, from 3:30 - 5:00 p.m.

May 2012 Advisory Committee Meeting

Wow - April really zoomed by.  I spent quite a bit of time working on developing the structure and defining the framework for classified employee performance based on the work at the last Advisory Committee Meeting.  I will post the materials prior to our next meeting for review and comment, but I'm still playing around with format options and want to try a couple of things out.

In the meantime, I'm looking at Thursday, May 17 or Monday, May 21 as potential dates for our next meeting.  Please respond to this survey to let me know which date works better for you.  I am also opening up this invitation to those individuals who have indicated a willingness and desire to participate as focus group members (we have about 350 people indicating interest).  These are all classified employees throughout the District.  I am looking forward to their input.

See you soon!

Advisory Committee Meeting - March 26, 2012 - Recap

We held a Supporting All Employees - Classified Advisory Committee Meeting on Monday, March 26, at 3:30 p.m. at District headquarters.  Click on these links to find the agenda and presentation materials.  The primary purpose of this meeting was to organize the list of competencies that we have gathered over the course of the last few months.  We had asked various groups (including readers of this blog) to provide input regarding those competencies that all classified employees should possess for successful performance as an LAUSD employee.  We had quite a number of competencies, many of which overlapped or varied only slightly.  The committee worked to organize the list, determine whether the list was complete, and eliminate any competencies that would not be readily understandable by everyone without having to read the definition.  The group organized the competencies by header/title, sub-categories, and terms to use in the definition.  You can find the result in these editable notes.  Please take some time to look at the list and indicate whether you agree or not, and any thoughts or suggestions that you have that clarify the information.

Over the course of the next month, I will begin to define the various parts of these competency lists.  I will work on one of the 7 competency areas at a time and post as I go.  I encourage your involvement in the process.