EDUCATEAlabama Professional Learning Collaborative is a formative system designed to provide data about a teacher’s current level of practice within a Continuum based on the new Alabama Quality Teaching Standards (AQTS).  As the process implies, the new system is a learning collaborative.  Data are used by the evaluator and teacher to set expectations, goals, and plans for teacher professional growth and learning.  There has been great effort to align the EDUCATEAlabama process with the Alabama mentoring program and broader teacher development initiatives. 

The need for a new teacher assessment process is dictated by the fact that there are new state teacher standards for practice – The “Alabama Quality Teaching Standards” (AQTS).  These standards will be the foundation for both teacher assessment and teacher professional development in the years ahead.  The process of revising the previous evaluation system to address the new standards also provided the opportunity to streamline the process in several ways, and to change the focus and purpose to a formative system.

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