§ 20-2-210 - Annual performance evaluation
O.C.G.A. 20-2-210 (2010)
20-2-210. Annual performance evaluation
(a) All personnel employed by local units of administration, including school superintendents, shall have their performance evaluated annually by appropriately trained evaluators. All such performance evaluation records shall be part of the personnel evaluation file and shall be confidential. In the case of local school superintendents, such evaluations shall be performed by the local board of education. Certificated professional personnel who have deficiencies and other needs shall have professional development plans designed to mitigate such deficiencies and other needs as may have been identified during the evaluation process. Progress relative to completing the annual professional development plan shall be assessed during the annual evaluation process. The state board shall develop a model annual evaluation instrument for each classification of professional personnel certificated by the Professional Standards Commission. The local units of administration are authorized to use the models developed by the State Board of Education.
(b) Annual teacher evaluations shall at a minimum take into consideration the following:
(1) The role of the teacher in meeting the school's student achievement goals, including the academic gains of students assigned to the teacher;
(2) Observations of the teacher by the principal and assistant principals during the delivery of instruction and at other times as appropriate;
(3) Participation in professional development opportunities and the application of concepts learned to classroom and school activities;
(4) Communication and interpersonal skills as they relate to interaction with students, parents, other teachers, administrators, and other school personnel;
(5) Timeliness and attendance for assigned responsibilities;
(6) Adherence to school and local school system procedures and rules; and
(7) Personal conduct while in performance of school duties.
(c) In making a determination of the academic gains of the students assigned to a teacher, evaluators should make every effort to have available and to utilize the results of a wide range of student achievement assessments, including those utilized by the teacher, set by the local board of education, or required under this article. It is recognized that in some instances a determination of the academic gains of the students assigned to a teacher is dependent upon student assessments which have not yet been administered at the time of the annual evaluation or, if they have been administered, the results are not yet available at the time of the annual evaluation. In such instances, the annual teacher evaluation shall be performed on the basis of information available at the time and shall be considered as the annual evaluation for the purposes of this article. As results of student assessments subsequently become available, an addendum to the annual evaluation shall be completed and become part of the teacher's cumulative evaluative record which may be used in a teacher's subsequent annual evaluations.
(d) The superintendent of each local school system shall identify an appropriately trained evaluator for each person employed by the local unit of administration for the purposes of completing an annual evaluation as required in subsections (a) and (b) of this Code section. The evaluator shall be required to complete such annual evaluation for each certificated person prior to April 1 of each year. The superintendent of each local school system shall be responsible for ensuring compliance with this Code section.
(e) In addition to the evaluation by a trained evaluator provided for in subsection (a) of this Code section, the local school system may require each principal and assistant principal of a school to have his or her performance evaluated annually by the teachers in the school. Such evaluations by teachers shall be confidential, solicited and recorded on an anonymous basis, and made available only to the local school superintendent and the local board of education. Such evaluations shall not be subject to Article 4 of Chapter 18 of Title 50.
(f) Any teacher who removes more than two students from his or her total class enrollment in any school year under subsection (b) of Code Section 20-2-738 who are subsequently returned to the class by a placement review committee because such class is the best available alternative may be required to complete professional development to improve classroom management skills, other skills on the identification and remediation of academic and behavioral student needs, or other instructional skills as identified in a plan derived by the principal of the school in consultation with the teacher.