Page Navigation Links
District Overview & Description
Wenatchee Team Interviews
Introduction and Context
Information to Know Before Reviewing Our Model
Contact Information
View the TPEP Vision Statement & WSD Model
District Overview & Description
The Wenatchee School District, located in the central part of Washington state, serves approximately 7,700 students in its seven elementary schools, three middle schools, alternative high school, 4A high school, academy for home-school students, and skills center. Its students’ demographic characteristics are as follows:
- 0.52 percent American Indian or Alaskan Native
- 1.3 percent Asian or Pacific Islander
- 0.48 percent African American
- 43.2 percent Hispanic
- 51.83 percent white
- 54.94 percent eligible for free or reduced-price lunch.
The district employs approximately 500 teachers.
| Number of principals in pilot: | 12 |
| Number of assistant principals in pilot: | 0 in principal/6 in teacher pilot |
| Number of classroom teachers in pilot: | 56 |
| Number of district administrators evaluating participating principals: | 3 |
Wenatchee Team Interviews
http://vimeo.com/24440739
Right-click to download the video or click here to view or subscribe in iTunes.
Introduction and Context
Wenatchee S.D. TPEP Committee Goals and Outcomes
- Develop evaluation tools that reflect current research and promote professional growth.
- Review the current tools and retain those aspects that are effective and eliminate or revamp those aspects that are not.
- We will build off of previous work and experiences.
- Effectively use multiple measures of student growth for building/instructional improvement.
- Develop tools that are truly beneficial, not just the fulfillment of a requirement.
- Develop a teacher/principal evaluation system that reflects the WSD vision of becoming a world class school district.
Information to Know Before Reviewing Our Model
The WSD had a 3-tiered, rubric-based evaluation tool for teachers that was implemented within the last six years. The tool was the result of a collaborative effort between administration and teachers. There was a lot of good work from which to build and our culture of collaboration was necessary as we launched this project. Our principals’ evaluation tool was also recently rewritten, but not in a rubric format. However, we had been using multiple measures in our principal process for the last two years, so that aspect was not new thinking for us. Student achievement data was not part of either tool, so a lot of time and discussion took place before we decided to experiment with using data as a measure of effectiveness during the pilot process.
There are particular aspects of our work that we are especially excited about. Our teacher tool is aligned to Marzano’s instructional framework. We have been working with the Marzano group in the development of our tool and hope to continue working with them as we provide professional development during the pilot. The process that will be used to derive a summative score for both teachers and principals is totally new and we believe it is particularly innovative. Lastly, the timeline for this project was extremely compressed. We believe that the only reason we have been able to meet the deadlines is because of our collaborative working relationship.
Contact Information
If you have questions about Wenatchee’s model, please contact:
Superintendent: Brian Flones – flones.b@mail.wsd.wednet.edu
Director of Human Resources: Lisa Turner – turner.l@mail.wsd.wednet.edu
WenEA President: Gayle Northcutt – northcutt.g@mail.wsd.wednet.edu
President of the Principals/Directors Association: Mark Helm – helm.m@mail.wsd.wednet.edu
Assistant Superintendent: Jon DeJong – dejong.j@mail.wsd.wednet.edu