(a) Approved teacher or principal practice rubric shall mean a rubric approved by the commissioner for inclusion on the State Education Department's list of approved rubrics in teacher or principal evaluations.

(b) Approved student assessment shall mean a student assessment approved by the commissioner for inclusion in the State Education Department’s lists of approved student assessments to measure student growth for use in the mandatory subcomponent and/or for use in the optional subcomponent of the student performance category.

(c) Classroom teacher or teacher shall mean a teacher in the classroom teaching service as that term is defined in section 80-1.1 of this Title who is a teacher of record as defined in this section, except evening school teachers of adults enrolled in nonacademic, vocational subjects, and supplemental school personnel as defined in section 80-5.6 of this Title.

(d) Common branch subjects shall mean common branch subjects as defined in section 80-1.1 of this Title.

(e) Co-principal means a certified administrator under Part 80 of this Title, designated by the school's controlling authority to have executive authority, management, and instructional leadership responsibility for all or a portion of a school or BOCES-operated instructional program in a situation in which more than one such administrator is so designated. The term co-principal implies equal line authority, with each designated administrator reporting to a district-level or comparable BOCES-level supervisor.

(f) Developing means an overall rating of developing received by a teacher or building principal, based on the ratings an educator received in the student performance category and observation/school visit category pursuant to the matrix prescribed in section 30-3.6 of this Subpart.

(g) District means school district and/or board of cooperative educational services, unless otherwise provided in this Subpart.

(h) Effective means an overall rating of effective received by a teacher or building principal, based on the ratings an educator received in the student performance category and observation/school visit category pursuant to the matrix prescribed in section 30-3.6 of this Subpart.

(i) Evaluator shall mean any individual who conducts an evaluation of a classroom teacher or building principal under this Subpart.

(j) Highly effective means an overall rating of highly effective received by a teacher or building principal, based on the ratings an educator received in the student performance category and observation/school visit category pursuant to the matrix prescribed in section 30-3.6 of this Subpart.

(k) Ineffective means an overall rating of ineffective received by a teacher or building principal, based on the ratings an educator received in the student performance category and observation/school visit category pursuant to the matrix prescribed in section 30-3.6 of this Subpart.

(l) Lead evaluator shall mean the primary individual responsible for conducting and completing an evaluation of a classroom teacher or building principal under this Subpart. To the extent practicable, the building principal, or his or her designee, shall be the lead evaluator of a classroom teacher in this Subpart. To the extent practicable, the lead evaluator of a principal should be the superintendent or BOCES district superintendent or his/her designee.

(m) Leadership standards shall mean:

(n) Principal shall mean a building principal or an administrator in charge of an instructional program of a board of cooperative educational services.

(o) School building shall mean a school or program identified by its Basic Educational Data System (BEDS) code, as determined by the commissioner.

(p) State approved student growth model means a statistical model that uses prior academic history, poverty, students with disabilities and English language learners, and any additional factors approved by the commissioner to measure student growth.

(q) State-designed supplemental assessment shall mean a selection of state tests or assessments developed or designed by the department, or that the department purchased or acquired from:

(r) Student growth means the change in student achievement for an individual student between two or more points in time.

(s) Student growth percentile score shall mean the result of a statistical model that calculates each student's change in achievement between two or more points in time on a State assessment or other comparable growth measure and compares each student's performance to that of similarly achieving students.

(t) Student learning objective(s) (SLOs) are academic goals for an educator’s students that are set at the start of a course, except in rare circumstances as defined by the commissioner. SLOs represent the most important learning for the year (or semester, where applicable). They must be specific and measurable, based on available prior student learning data, and aligned to the New York State learning standards, as well as to any other school and district priorities. An educator’s scores are based upon the degree to which his or her goals were attained.

(u) Superintendent of schools shall mean the chief school officer of a district or the district superintendent of a board of cooperative educational services, provided that in the case of the City School District of the City of New York, superintendent shall mean the Chancellor of the City School District of the City of New York or his or her designee.

(v) Teacher or principal state provided growth scores shall mean a measure of central tendency of the student growth percentile scores through the use of standard deviations and confidence ranges to identify with statistical certainty educators whose students’ growth is well above or well below average compared to similar students for a teacher's or principal's students after the following student characteristics are taken into consideration: poverty, students with disabilities and English language learners. Additional factors may be added by the commissioner, subject to approval by the Board of Regents.

(w) Teacher(s) of record shall be defined in a manner prescribed by the commissioner.

(x) Teaching Standards are enumerated below:

(y) Testing standards shall mean the Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing (American Psychological Association, National Council on Measurement in Education, and American Educational Research Association; 2014- available at the Office of Counsel, State Education Department, State Education Building, Room 148, 89 Washington Avenue, Albany, NY 12234).

(z) The governing body of each district shall mean the board of education of each district, provided that, in the case of the City School District of the City of New York, governing body shall mean the Chancellor of the City School District of the City of New York or, to the extent provided by law, the board of education of the City School District of the City of New York and, in the case of BOCES, governing body shall mean the board of cooperative educational services.

(aa) Traditional standardized assessment shall mean a systematic method of gathering information from objectively scored items that allow the test taker to select one or more of the given options or choices as their response. Examples include multiple-choice, true-false, and matching items. Traditional standardized assessments are those that require the student (and not the examiner/assessor) to directly use a “bubble” answer sheet. Traditional standardized assessments do not include performance assessments or assessments in which students perform real-world tasks that demonstrate application of knowledge and skills; assessments that are otherwise required to be administered by Federal Law; and/or assessments used for diagnostic or formative purposes, including but not limited to assessments used for diagnostic screening required by Education Law section 3208(5).