Section 1.320  Evaluation of Certified Staff in Contractual Continued Service

Each school district shall submit to the State Board of Education an evaluation plan (the Plan) for the evaluation of all certified school district employees in contractual continued service.  Where cooperative educational programs operate between or among school districts, or are operated by Regional Superintendents of Schools, pursuant to Sections 3-15.14, 10-22.31 and/or 10-22.31a of the School Code [105 ILCS 5/3-15.14, 10-22.31, and/or 10-22.31a], the Plan shall be submitted by the administrative agent who is the fiscal and legal agent for the cooperative program, or the governing board, or the board of control of the entity.  In this Section all such entities are included in the term "school district".

a)         The Plan shall conform to the requirements of Article 24A of the School Code [105 ILCS 5/Art. 24A] and shall contain assurances that teachers were involved in the development of the Plan or that, where applicable, the Plan was developed in cooperation with the exclusive bargaining representatives.

b)         Whenever any substantive change is made to a Plan, the revised Plan shall be submitted to the State Board of Education for review and comment, and the district shall at the same time provide a copy of any such revised Plan to the exclusive bargaining representatives (Section 24A-4 of the School Code).

1)         For purposes of this Section, a "substantive change" shall mean any change to:

A)        the description of the duties and responsibilities of each teacher and the standards to which the teacher is expected to perform (these descriptions may be individualized or extend to a class of teachers);

B)        the schedule for evaluations;

C)        the classification or classifications of qualified administrators authorized to conduct evaluations; and/or

D)        the definitions of "excellent", "satisfactory", or "unsatisfactory".

2)         A "substantive change" shall not include a change in the names of individual administrators authorized to conduct evaluations.

c)         The State Board of Education shall review each Plan or revision submitted pursuant to subsection (b) of this Section to determine whether the Plan conforms to the requirements of Article 24A and may provide advisory comments on the Plan's procedures for evaluation.  The State Board of Education shall reject as unacceptable those Plans or revisions that do not conform with Article 24A of the School Code.  A school district, upon rejection of its Plan, shall revise its Plan to conform with Article 24A of the School Code and shall promptly resubmit the revised Plan to the State Board of Education.

d)         Consulting Teachers

1)         The school official responsible for selecting a consulting teacher when required under Section 24A-5(g) of the School Code must undertake a diligent effort to identify a consulting teacher, which effort must include, but should not be limited to:

A)        contacting qualified teachers within the district;

B)        requesting the regional superintendent of schools to supply a roster of qualified consulting teachers; and

C)        requesting the exclusive bargaining agent for the district to supply a roster of qualified consulting teachers.

2)         If the school official cannot identify a qualified consulting teacher after completing the effort described in subsection (d)(1) of this Section, the State Board of Education shall supply a qualified consulting teacher.

3)         If the consulting teacher becomes unavailable during the course of a remediation plan, a new consulting teacher shall be selected in the same manner as the initial consulting teacher.  The remediation plan shall be amended as necessary upon consultation with the new consulting teacher for the balance of the remediation period.  The consulting teacher shall be informed, through conferences with the qualified administrator (or an assistant principal in a school district having a population exceeding 500,000) and the teacher under remediation, of the results of the periodic evaluations conducted pursuant to Section 24A-5(h) of the School Code in order to continue to provide assistance to the teacher under a remediation plan.

(Source:  Amended at 29 Ill. Reg. 15789, effective October 3, 2005)