May 10, 2011

TO THE ADMINISTRATOR ADDRESSED:

Subject: Deadline for the Data Collection for State Fiscal Stabilization Fund

This letter is to remind school districts that the deadline to submit data required for the annual summary of the campus-level evaluation scores from the Professional Development and Appraisal System (PDAS), or the districts locally-adopted appraisal system, is quickly approaching. The deadline is June 30, 2011. Although almost all local education agencies (LEAs) have completed the first part of the survey regarding the system used for teacher appraisal, most have not reported the results of teacher appraisals or data on administrator appraisals. These data are required by the United States Department of Education through the assurances in the State Fiscal Stabilization Fund awarded to LEAs in 2010 and 2011.

Education Service Center (ESC) Region XIII is collecting the data. To submit the required appraisal data, please follow this link: http://apps.esc13.net/edapp.

The system will accept your county/district number and then request a response to 12 questions. The questions most districts have not yet responded to regard the number of teachers rated as proficient at each campus, the nature and uses of the administrator appraisal systems, and the number of administrators rated as proficient in each LEA.

The ESC will protect the identity of teachers as required by the federal government. We appreciate your efforts to collect these data. Please complete the survey by Thursday, June 30, 2011.

If you have questions regarding the survey, please contact Lauralee Pankonien, Senior Coordinator for Certification/ESC Region XIII, at (512) 919-5313 or Michael Vriesenga, Program Supervisor with the Texas Education Agency, at (512) 463-8911.

Thank you for your assistance in complying with the data collection.

Sincerely,

Ann Smisko, Ph.D.
Associate Commissioner
School Improvement and Educator Initiatives