PEERS, or PA Educator Effectiveness Rating System, is a free, voluntary, web-based version of the Act 13 PA Educator Effectiveness semi-annual and annual rating tools, PDE 13-1, 13-2, 13-3, and 13-4. It is available to local education agencies (LEAs) for the evaluation of classroom teachers, nonteaching professionals, and principals/administrators.

PEERS allows educators across the state to view their own evaluation metrics, and to capture and store this information electronically as well as obtain a print version.

No, LEAs do not need to register or sign up to use PEERS. PEERS is available to all LEAs at any time.

​Developed by SAS® EVAAS® under the direction of PDE, PEERS is hosted within the existing PVAAS web application, and is accessed through the PVAAS login page.

Use of the existing PVAAS account management system allows for easy and secure access to PEERS. Users will access the system through PVAAS accounts they currently hold (if applicable), or through new accounts that are created locally. Users must enter their PVAAS username and password, and check an acknowledgment of “Access to Confidential Data” to access the system on the PVAAS website.

Remember: You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of the information provided in PVAAS. User accounts are intended for one user; each person should have his/her own PVAAS user account.

PEERS provides users with a web-based system to complete the summative forms of Act 13, i.e., the PDE13-1, 13-2, 13-3, and 13-4. PEERS does not manage the "front end" of the supervision process, such as scheduling observations, data collection and recording, pre-observation conference, SPMs, etc.

PEERS includes evaluation metrics for:

1. Observation & Practice
2. Building-level data
3. Student Performance Measures (SPMs)
4. Teacher-specific data, including PVAAS data and the Teacher Specific %P/A (if LEAs choose to use this %P/A or locally calculate this measure)
   

PEERS provides the users with a web-based means to complete these semi-annual and annual rating forms. The language and format are very similar, allowing for ease of use and consistency in addressing requirements of PA Act 13. The same business rules apply in both systems, in adherence to Act 13 rules and regulations. The system does provide features to leverage web-based technology and ease of use by LEAs, including the pre-population of a range of data elements.

Participation in PEERS is voluntary. It is an LEA decision to use some or all the functionality in PEERS.

LEAs can use the entire PEERS application or specific components of PEERS. It is possible to use PEERS as a stand-alone tool for completing the semi-annual and annual evaluation forms (in lieu of the current Excel documents). Or, PEERS can be used in combination with other systems an LEA may already have in place.

PEERS pre-populates demographic information from PIMS on the PDE 13-1, 13-2, 13-3, and 13-4, including LEA/district name, school name, educator name, and PPID. Staff are linked to their respective default evaluator- school administrator and district administrator. Additional evaluators, including co-evaluators, can be added to PEERS.

For each educator evaluated under Act 13, PEERS defaults to the most likely final rating tool, using the position code from PIMS. LEAs can change the form if the educator's position requires a different form than the default, e.g., change from 13-1 to 13-3. Please note: It is the LEA's responsibility to determine the appropriate form (13-1, 13-2, 13-3, and 13-4 PDE) for the semi-annual or annual evaluation of professional employees in the various roles within an LEA, as defined and guided by Pennsylvania Rules and Regulations, Title 22 (22 PA. Code CH. 19).

PEERS pre-populates the Building-Level Data and the LEA has the option of choosing the school year. The Building-Level score is converted to the 0-3 score for 13-1, 13-2, and 13-3.

PEERS pre-populates the PVAAS three year rolling average if and when available for a teacher. The three-year rolling average is converted to the 0-3 scale for the final rating form in PEERS. PEERS will also prepopulate the Teacher Specific achievement Measure, %P/A, if the LEAs chooses to use this calculated measure. LEAs may choose to calculate this measure locally.

The "ready for conference" feature allows the evaluator(s) to conference with an educator prior to the official release and signature on the summative form. This feature mirrors the process followed in the typical supervision/evaluation sequence.

Summary reports on released forms are available to evaluators, including reports displaying the final performance ratings, broken out by annual, semi-annual, and periodic ratings. Summary data for the Observation and Practice ratings is available, displaying the numbers of educators in each of the performance ratings in each of the four domains. Also available is an educator summary report, showing each educator assigned to that evaluator, their assigned ratings in each of the measures, the overall performance rating, and the final ratings. These reports include an extract feature, allowing data to be converted to excel files. Summary reports in PEERS provide information that is required on the annual PDE evaluation summary report.

Data is housed securely within PVAAS. Users access PEERS using the existing PVAAS account system, through accounts that currently exist for these users or through new accounts that are created locally. Only the LEA has access to their data in PEERS.

No individual evaluations or summary reports completed in PEERS or any evaluation results are reported to or accessed by PDE. Pursuant to 24 P.S. § 11-1123(i), LEAs have the responsibility to report aggregate results of all professional, temporary professionals, principals, and nonteaching professional employees to PDE.

Evaluators and teachers view one year at a time, with previous year data available as well. LEAs are encouraged and free to make local decisions regarding what they choose to print and/or store electronically at their own site each year. LEAs also have the option of extracting data from PEERS. The data extract includes data from all released 13-1, 13-2, 13-3, and 13-4 forms.

Principals see a list of their teachers, pre-populated with information from PIMS. If teachers need to be added or removed from their list, they can work with their PVAAS District Admin (or district "Administrative Evaluator(s)") to have these changes made. Each professional employee has a defaulted/most likely form (either the 13-1 or 13-3). LEAs can change to a different form, if needed, e.g., change from 13-1 to 13-3, orfrom 13-3 to 13-1.  Please note: It is the LEA's responsibility to determine the appropriate semi-annual or annual evaluation of professional employees in the various roles within an LEA, as defined and guided by Pennsylvania Rules and Regulations, Title 22 (22 PA. Code CH. 19).

​Yes! More than one evaluator may have access to an individual’s rating form during the input phase in developing the summative report. The system is designed with a “lock” feature: users input information into the forms one at a time, eliminating the danger of overriding one another’s changes. Additionally, the PEERS system allows evaluators to view who the co-evaluators are for each specific educator, providing for enhanced communication among evaluators.

Yes! For example, the Observation & Practice section allows the evaluator to enter the 0-3 rating for each domain of the Danielson framework. The values are updated automatically when a rating value is entered or changed. The final value is also calculated once all the ratings are populated and is updated any time a rating value is changed.

If an educator is associated with a school that does not have Building-Level Data, then the Observation & Practice value is automatically substituted.

The Teacher Specific section of the 13-1 requires the evaluator to enter both percentages (weightings) and ratings for the applicable parts for each educator as some of the percentages or other rules may be LEA specific. Once there is a three-year rolling average for PVAAS teacher specific data, this value will be automatically pre-populated in PEERS. The PVAAS three year rolling average will be converted to the 0-3 scale in PEERS.

If an educator does not have any available and applicable data as determined by the evaluator/LEA to support these metrics, PEERS substitutes the LEA Selected Measure rating. The percentages in this entire section must total 10%. If the percentages entered do not total 10%, the evaluator(s) will see an error flag to alert them.

The LEA Selected Measure section is similar to the Building section, in that it allows the evaluator to enter a single value or multiple values. If the educator is a Nonteaching Professional and has no LEA Selected Measure rating, the Observation & Practice value is substituted.

The summary section is the accumulation of all the previous sections and ratings.

This view is not editable, but rather allows the educator and evaluator to see how the sections combine to produce the performance rating. (If an evaluator needs to edit any sections of the form, s/he can navigate using the links at the top of the page or by using the pencil icons on the summary screen.)

Once the summary form is ready for viewing by the educator, it can be printed, and a handwritten signature obtained. This typically follows the "ready for conference" stage of the process, in which the completed (but not yet released to educator) form is shared and discussed with the educator. Following the conference phase, the educator's form is released, and a printed copy is signed by the educator.

​You can find more information about PEERS by clicking on the Pennsylvania Educator Effectiveness Rating System (PEERS) link located on the PVAAS login page. Various supports and resources are available. (District Admin and School Admin account holders can access the PEERS resources in the Online Help when logged into the PVAAS password-protected site.) Email pdepvaas@iu13.org for assistance accessing these resources.

For questions or support related to the system and its functionality, PVAAS accounts, or access, please contact SAS® EVAAS® via the “Contact Us” link, found at the top right of the PVAAS site.

For questions or support related to PA Act 13, Educator Effectiveness, and PA policy, please contact PDE at RA-PDE-Evaluation@pa.gov.