Principal Evaluation (T-PESS)

Employee Performance & Evaluation

The Texas Principal Evaluation and Support System, or T-PESS, is the Texas Commissioner of Education's recommended rubric and is the adopted Principal and Assistant Principal Evaluation system in Fort Worth ISD.

Individuals who will be appraising principals or assistant principals must be certified in T-PESS. For more information about becoming a T-PESS certified appraiser, please see Region 11.

T-PESS Manual

T-PESS Activities

Employees must activate their own Eduphoria accounts. Please see the guidance provided in the link below.

Eduphoria First Time Log-In Instructions

After setting up your account, contact the Office of Employee Performance and Evaluation to update your rights.

Beginning of the Year (BOY)

Evaluation Calendar

Beginning of Year (BOY) Activities

	Activity	Who	Notes
1	Submit T-PESS Certificate for current year		Principals and APs must submit their T-TESS Certificate for the current year using the link.
2A	T-PESS Update (for returning administrators)	Appraisees and Appraisers
2B	t-pess cERTIFICATION	For T-PESS appraisers new to the role
3	Update Eduphoria Profile	All Eduphoria Users	Administrators who move campuses will need their security rights updated. Please contact Employee Performance & Evaluation.
4	Claim Appraisees	All Appraisers	Click the three dots or triangle to "claim" the appraisee. Select from the drop down.
5	Archive or Delete any Old Goals	Administrators	Delete or archive any old goals in My Evaluation Process. This will clean up your dashboard as well.
6	Complete Self-Assessment	Administrators	Use the self-assessment as a needs assessment to determine areas of growth. The, develop goals based on the areas of growth.
7	Write Goals	Appraisees	One (1) professional growth goal and one (1) student growth goal should be written in SMART format.
8	BOY Conference	Appraisees and Appraisers	Appraisees and Appraisers meet to discuss goals for the upcoming year. Modify as necessary.
9	Approve Goals	Appraisers	Appraisers should approve goals after conducting the BOY Conference.

Ongoing Feedback: School Site Visits & Informal Assessment

Ongoing school visits are conducted to observe the campus environment, interact with the school community, gather evidence, coach, and provide actionable feedback regarding performance and practices in various contexts and settings. Increased frequency of those visits provides a comprehensive perspective on trends, patterns, and the extent of evidence. Those visits also provide an opportunity for the appraiser and principal to discuss strengths and challenges with the T-PESS process and practices.

https://tpess.org/principal/evaluation

Middle of the Year (MOY)

Mid-Year Conference

When ongoing school visits are conducted, the mid-year conference then provides a platform to focus on the status of the goals and whether adjustments in actions need to occur to accomplish the goals. This midyear checkpoint is also used to formatively assess performance and practices using the T-PESS rubric. As a result of this meeting, the appraiser and principal should have a clear understanding of the principal's current level of practice, the performance trajectory with rubric ratings, and actionable next steps to leverage leadership practices. The Mid-Year Conference is an extension of the ongoing dialogue between the appraiser and principal.

These should occur in the middle of the school year, ideally in January.

Artifacts & Evidence

Because T-PESS is an evidence-based process, it is imperative that the appraiser and principal must collect and prioritize evidence throughout the year. Each indicator of the T-PESS rubric provides numerous examples of artifacts and evidence. The appraiser should be intentional about conducting school site visits to collect pertinent evidence, including the impact on systems, processes, teacher performance, student outcomes, and including the implications on the larger system.

Principals and appraisers synthesize their collected artifacts and evidence, to create a comprehensive view of the principal's performance throughout the year. This brief summary is not intended as a portfolio, but rather a concise review of information that may be used as consideration for performance and ratings during the end-of-year conference. T-PESS evidence is collected using four comprehensive strategies:

Purposeful observations and walk-throughs tied to principal practices.
Ongoing and purposeful data collection tied to the systems and processes within the campus.
Artifacts and/or evidence tied to the domains, indicators, and descriptors in the rubric.
Other performance data regarding the campus and its operational systems and processes, staff, students, and parent/community stakeholders.

The principal may be asked to provide the summary evidence to the appraiser in advance of the EOY meeting, as specified in local policy or procedure, or as requested by the appraiser.

End of the Year (EOY)

The appraiser and principal review artifacts and evidence that was collected throughout the year and map the evidence to the goals and rubric. The artifacts and evidence inform goal attainment, and, with the principal's input, decisions are made about final performance ratings using a preponderance of evidence. That information is further used to project and establish draft performance goals and performance refinements for the next school year as a cycle of continuous improvement.

To finalize the annual process, the appraiser takes into consideration the information shared during the End-of-Year Conference, along with evidence collected throughout the year, to complete the T-PESS Summary Rating and Goal Attainment Form. Pursuant to local procedures, both the appraiser and principal sign and submit the required forms.