What Are DDMs?
The purpose of district-determined measures (DDMs) is to gauge each educator’s impact on student learning. To do this there must be at least two DDMs per educator and at least two years of measurement outcomes.
DDMs measure growth, not just achievement, across all schools in the district where the same grade or subject is taught.
Every teacher must begin implementation of two District-Determined Measures -- common assessments for two of the groups they teach (We interpret this as two grades or two courses.) at the beginning of the 2015-2016 school year. Each DDM is an assignment/project/test the teacher will give sometime during the first few weeks of the term, and then again in March (or at the end of each term or semester, if you only have those students for that span), before the year’s deadline for teacher evaluations.
The measure needs to align with standards-based, grade-level content knowledge and/or skills outlined in the district's scope and sequence, and to the Massachusetts Curriculum Frameworks.
DDMs measure growth, not just achievement, across all schools in the district where the same grade or subject is taught.
Every teacher must begin implementation of two District-Determined Measures -- common assessments for two of the groups they teach (We interpret this as two grades or two courses.) at the beginning of the 2015-2016 school year. Each DDM is an assignment/project/test the teacher will give sometime during the first few weeks of the term, and then again in March (or at the end of each term or semester, if you only have those students for that span), before the year’s deadline for teacher evaluations.
- District-Determined Measures will be implemented within the first month of the 2015-2016 school year.
- Every teacher needs to have two DDMs (one for each of two groups).
- DDMs must be a measure of what students should know and be able to do by taking the course -- the essential learning of your course.
- DDMs should be aligned with state learning standards.
- Teachers who use final exams might consider modifying those exams to use as benchmark assessments for this purpose.
- DDMs can take the form of tests (pre- and post-), projects, performance assessments, portfolio reviews, or "mini-portfolios" (being selections of work from a short span of time)
- Teachers should consider linking their DDMs to their SMART Goals.
- Each DDM must include a common rubric or other grading tool (OR there can be one grading tool to cover all DDMs.), so that educators who teach the same course will in all likelihood arrive at the same score for the same quality of work.
The measure needs to align with standards-based, grade-level content knowledge and/or skills outlined in the district's scope and sequence, and to the Massachusetts Curriculum Frameworks.
- Does the DDM assess what is most important for students to learn and be able to do?
- Does the baseline assessment reflect the content knowledge and/or skills that educators intend to teach?
- Does the final assessment reflect the content knowledge and/or skills that educators did teach?
