Under the leadership and vision of the Kansas Commissioner of Education, Dr. Diane DeBacker and Pamela Coleman the Director of Teacher Education and Licensure, and the entire staff at the Kansas Department of Education, the Kansas Educator Evaluation Protocol (KEEP) was developed to reflect the essential and critical components of teaching and leading in today's schools. Working together with more than 100 Kansas educators and the experts at Education Testing Services (ETS), the Kansas State Department of Education (KSDE) was able to pilot a model teacher/leader evaluation system that establishes a consistent metric by which the performance of all levels of educators within a district can be fairly and appropriately measured.

KEEP is an integral part of Principal 3 of the Kansas Waiver to the Elementary and Secondary Education Act which requires the state to develop and adopt guidelines for teacher and principal evaluation systems which include student growth as a significant factor. The development and piloting of KEEP meets the first part of that requirement to adopt guidelines for teacher and principal evaluation systems. The second part that requires student growth as a significant factor will be the focus of a new Teaching in Kansas Commission II (TIKC II) that was supported by the Kansas State Board of Education in June 2012. Multiple valid measures will be examined including achievement on state assessment results, self-assessments, district/school classroom-based assessments, student work samples, student portfolios, unannounced observations, educator work products, peer observations, school/district committees, professional development participation and products, performance tasks, school-home communications, student surveys, family engagement and others. This is not an exhaustive list, but an example of the concept of multiple measures of achievement. The recommendations of the TIKC II should be finalized by December and formally presented to the Kansas State Board of Education by spring/summer of 2013.

The development of KEEP was guided by two important principles. First, the teacher evaluation system should identify critical aspects of teaching that would distinguish stronger and weaker teaching practices and that could be supported by professional learning. Second, the evaluation system should allow for a breadth and range of evidence to support those identified aspects so that evaluation could be used flexibly across the teaching spectrum.

The critical aspects of teaching and learning in today's schools are identified through the four constructs for teacher evaluation in KEEP. They are:

• Learner and Learning which focuses on how the teacher plans instruction based on learning and developmental levels of all students; how the teacher recognizes and fosters individual differences to establish a positive classroom culture; and how the teacher establishes a classroom environment conducive to learning.
• Content Knowledge which focuses on how the teacher demonstrates a thorough knowledge of content and how the teacher provides a variety of innovative applications of knowledge.
• Professional Responsibility which focuses on how the teacher engages in reflection and continuous growth as well as how the teacher participates in collaboration and leadership opportunities.
• Instructional Practice which focuses on how the teacher uses methods and techniques that are effective in meeting student needs; how the teacher uses varied assessments to measure learning progress; and how the teacher delivers comprehensive instruction for students.

The quality of the evidence leads to an evaluation rating at one of four levels: highly effective, effective, progressing or highly ineffective.

Care was taken during development to ensure all educators, including those teaching in music, art, physical education, library media, computer labs and others, could easily transition to the model. This was accomplished by establishing constructs that represent the already established process of teacher self-reflection, goal setting and collaborative reflection. The constructs apply to all disciplines and the artifacts of evidence used to determine proficiency within the constructs can be tailored to specific disciplines.

This idea was borne out during the first KEEP pilot during the 2011-2012 school year. Thirty-four schools in 17 districts participated in the initial pilot. During the pilot, music teachers were able to identify artifacts of evidence that captured students progressing from the beginning of the year to performance ready. That may have been done through videos or audio recordings, or another method that captured student progress throughout the year. The key was that, even within a given discipline, there was not just one way to demonstrate progress within the constructs.

This standards-based method, using evidence and artifact collection to highlight the teacher's work, provides a system that is honest, transparent and beneficial to both employer and employee.

A second KEEP pilot is planned for the upcoming 2012-2013 school year, when 25 additional districts will participate. All districts will pilot KEEP in 2013-2014, with statewide implementation set for the 2014-2015 school year. Even upon full implementation, districts will not be required to use the KEEP system. Those that already have a high quality evaluation system in place will be able to work with KSDE to demonstrate that their system has the essential components to meet all state and federal requirements.