*Please note that Final and/or Preliminary Marks must first be allowed and turned on for the district
When mapping evidence to the rubric in an observation, the evaluator has two options to mark rubric competency indicators using Preliminary Marks or Final Marks.
• Preliminary Marks are used to tag a competency indicator to more than one piece of evidence. The evaluator may witness the competency being represented multiple times throughout an observation and may be at different proficiency levels. Using preliminary marks, the evaluator and staff member can track each occurrence the competency is witnessed.
• Final Marks are given as an overall observation mark of a competency of the evidence collected. Competency indicators can only be marked once. Final marks may be used as the only mark in tying evidence to a rubric or assigned in conjunction with preliminary marks.
• When Preliminary Marks are used, after tying the evidence to indicators, the evaluator can toggle to Final Marks, review competency preliminary marks, and using professional
judgement give a final overall mark for the competency observed.
Preliminary marks aid in determining Final marks in an observation. The cumulative Final marks
aid in providing the Summative rating with ease.
Final & Preliminary Marks Settings
Within the observation editor, the option for setting Final/Preliminary Marks and the option for viewing marks are directly below each Domain in the rubric.
(A) Toggle between Final and Preliminary Marks (applied to all Domains)
(B) View Marks in Scripting allow you to view/compare linked evidence for the selected standard
(C) Hide/show Previous Marks while mapping current observation
To change marks, toggle the switch between Final & Preliminary Marks
The marks shown in blue text = on, text in grey = off
PREMIMINARY MARKS
Preliminary Marks are used to tag a competency indicator to more than one piece of evidence. The evaluator may witness the competency being represented multiple times throughout an observation and may be at different proficiency levels or indicators. Using preliminary marks, the evaluator and staff member can track each occurrence the competency is witnessed.
Preliminary Marks are active when toggled on and “Preliminary (mark multiple” is highlighted in blue text
Evaluators can tag a competency indicator to multiple pieces of evidence within a single observation
A. In the Rubric, preliminary marks appear as open circles at the end of the indicator
B. In the Scripting, preliminary marks appear as an open box with coding identifying the indicator
Align scripted evidence with Preliminary Mark
To tag evidence to an indicator with a preliminary mark
set the cursor at the end of the evidence > hover over the indicator descriptor in the rubric > click on the text when you see the pointing hand cursor and/or the descriptor underlined
Delete a Preliminary Mark within the rubric
Delete an unwanted preliminary mark on the rubric
Click on the preliminary mark (1) in rubric that you want to delete (2) A pop-up confirmation box will appear showing what evidence the indicator is linked to and asking to confirm that you wish to delete this mark. Click “Confirm”
Delete a preliminary mark in the scripting
RIGHT click (control-click) on the preliminary mark in the scripting (1) you wish to remove* (2) Confirm and click “Delete This Mark”
*If you are using the browser Mozilla Firefox, you need to click on the mark first, then right click to remove it
Best Practice - When finished tagging the scripted evidence to the rubric, change preliminary marks to Final to assign the overall final rating for any competency marked was preliminary for that observation.
FINAL MARKS
Final Marks are given as an overall observation mark of a competency for the evidence collected. Competency indicators can only be marked once. Final marks may be used as the only mark in tying evidence to a rubric or assigned in conjunction with preliminary marks.
Final Marks are active when toggled on and Final is highlighted in blue text
In the Rubric, (A) Final Marks are indicated with a solid shaded indicator cell
In the Scripting, (B) Final Marks appear as a solid shaded box with coding identifying the indicator
Assign a Final Marks
Set the cursor at the end of the evidence /scripting > hover over the indicator descriptor in the rubric > click the text when you see the hand cursor and the descriptor underlined > the cell will turn a solid color of the competency level selected
To Remove a Final Mark
Hover over the indicator descriptor in the rubric and click on the text when you see the pointing hand cursor and the descriptor underlined
Using Final Marks with Preliminary Marks
Once preliminary marks are given and complete, the evaluator should assign a final mark for any competency with preliminary marks for that observation. Completing this step will ease the finalization process in the summative evaluation, as well as allowing the staff member to see the overall rating for that competency for that observation.
Change Preliminary Marks to Final (mark once). Final Marks are active when toggled on and Final is highlighted in blue text
Final marks should be placed at the end of the scripting. The preliminary marks are already tagged to specific evidence, so the final marks just need to be at the bottom
To decide on a final mark, the evaluator can look at all the preliminary marks (open circles) and using professional judgement, decide what the final rating would be for that competency
Click (A) “View Marks” or “View Marks in Scripting” for a popup window showing the selected Competency’s preliminary marks with the tagged evidence in that observation
Click (B) “View Cumulative Data” in the popup window to see where the selected competency has been marked in all observations conducted in the current year/evaluation cycle
SETTING PRELIMINARY MARKS AS THE DEFAULT
Final is the system default mark. However, when using Preliminary marks, you should change the default to Preliminary. By doing so, your first markings will be preliminary without changing over when you begin mapping evidence to the rubric.
Hover over your name in the upper right on the navigation bar and click “Personal Settings” (1)
Under Evaluation Settings, (2) click “Preliminary Mark Settings”
The active default is Final (mark once), (3) toggle (click) the switch to Preliminary (mark multiple) > The text will turn blue indicating active and you will receive a message of your new setting
EVALUATEE’S VIEW OF PRELIMINARY AND FINAL MARKS
After the observation is marked and sent to the staff member, the staff member will see all preliminary and final marks, thereby allowing the staff member to see all pieces of evidence that contributed to the final competency marking.
