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Section 24-A-3 of the Illinois School Code and Section 50.400 of Illinois Administrative Code require individuals who are conducting licensed educator performance evaluations to complete a pre-qualification program or retraining at least once per license cycle (or, if not licensed, once every five fiscal years.)

Individuals interested in becoming legally qualified to conduct evaluations of certified personnel must successfully complete the respective Administrator Academy course(s) as outlined in the Teacher and Principal/Assistant Principal Performance Evaluation Qualifications guidance document linked below. For additional information regarding registration and content of these courses, please contact your Regional Office of Education, Intermediate Service Center, or one of the following organizations: Illinois Principals Association, Illinois Association of School Administrators, Illinois Education Association, or Illinois Federation of Teachers. ​

• Teacher and Principal/Assistant Principal Performance Evaluation Qualifications​

Districts are reminded that they have the option of developing their own pre-qualification program. Districts choosing to develop their own pre-qualification process shall notify the Illinois State Board of Education no later than July 1 immediately preceding the school year in which the process or program will be implemented. The notification shall at least include the type of training to be offered, names of individuals presenting the training, and date upon which each school district-designed trainer completed the “train-the-trainers” program offered by, or on behalf of, the Illinois State Board of Education. [Part50 Administrative Rule, Section 50.400(c)​] ​

(“Evaluator” as set forth in 105 ILCS 5/24A-2.5 or 105 ILCS 5/24A-15)
(“Pre-Qualification” as set forth in 105 ILCS 5/24A-3) ​

Section 24-A-3 of the Illinois School Code and Section 50.400 of Illinois Administrative Code require individuals who are conducting licensed educator performance evaluations to complete a pre-qualification program or retraining at least once per license cycle (or, if not licensed, once every five fiscal years.)

Public Act 104-0020 was signed into law June 30, 2025, and makes student growth components optional in teacher, principal, and assistant principal performance evaluations. The law is effective July 1, 2025. ​Each local school board is tasked with verifying that each evaluator who conducts performance evaluations has completed this training and is properly qualified prior to conducting evaluations. For specific questions regarding your situation and retraining timeline, please review your school board's requirements. 

To receive retraining credit, pre-qualified evaluators must meet state retraining requirements, including but not necessarily limited to participation in appropriate Administrator Academies and completion of all required Administrator Academy Application/Dissemination components. These academies may only be provided through specific approved entities for the purpose of requalifying evaluators.

All of the materials are the sole property of the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE), and use of these materials is limited to pre-approved presenters. 

If you are an evaluator looking to complete one of the required academies, please contact IASA, IEA, IFT, IPA or your local ROE/ISC for scheduled training dates.​

Thank you.

• Teacher and Principal/Assistant Principal Performance Evaluation Qualifications​
  

Student Growth Component No Longer Required By Law

Public Act 104-0020 was signed into law June 30, 2025 and makes student growth components optional in teacher, principal, and assistant principal performance evaluations. The law is effective July 1, 2025.

Pera

The Performance Evaluation Reform Act (PERA) (Senate Bill 315; Public Act 96-0861) was passed by the Illinois General Assembly and signed by the Governor in January 2010. In summary, PERA requires, among other things, that:

• By September 1, 2012, principals, assistant principals, teachers in contractual continued service (i.e., tenured teachers) and probationary teachers (i.e., nontenured teachers) be evaluated using a four rating category system (Excellent, Proficient, Needs Improvement, and Unsatisfactory).
• Anyone undertaking an evaluation after September 1, 2012 must first complete a pre-qualification program provided or approved by the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE).

PERA established the Performance Evaluation Advisory Council (PEAC) comprised of teachers, principals, superintendents and other interested stakeholders to advise ISBE on the development and implementation of improved performance evaluation systems and supports. 

There was an education reform bill that stemmed in part from PERA. The bill was Senate Bill 7 and was signed into law by the Governor on June 13, 2011. Senate Bill 7 addresses, among other things:

• A standard upon which the State Superintendent may initiate certificate/license action against an educator for incompetency;
• Requirements for the filling of new and vacant positions;
• Acquisition of tenure;
• Reductions in force/layoffs and recall rights;
• The system for the dismissal of tenured teachers;
• Required school board member training; and,
• Processes related to collective bargaining and the right to strike.

This ISBE Nonregulatory Guidance document addresses questions that ISBE has received regarding various provisions of PERA and Senate Bill 7 (P.A. 97-8, effective June 13, 2011) (a trailer bill making limited changes to Senate Bill 7 was signed that same day, P.A. 97-7). This Nonregulatory Guidance: (a) does not contain all of the information you will need to comply with these laws and any related administrative rules, but is intended to allay confusion and differing interpretations in the field (b) provides ISBE’s interpretation of various statutory provisions and does not impose any requirements beyond those included in any applicable laws and regulations; and (c) does not create or confer any rights for or on any person.

The Nonregulatory Guidance and any updates to this Nonregulatory Guidance are available below:

• Approved Providers of OAED PERA Training for Board Members
• PERA Implementation Guidance Documents
  • ISBE Guidance 14-2: Recall Rights of Honorably Dismissed Teachers
• PEAC / PERA Presentation Slides
  
• Mandatory Board Training
  Board member training that satisfies Section 10-16a of the Illinois School Code (added by Public Act 097-0008) is available via the Illinois Association of School Board's Online Learning Center. Senate Bill 7 authorizes ISAB to conduct this mandatory training and additional providers may be approved by ISBE (in consultation with IASB) for this training in the future. Additional information and course information is available at on the IASB website, http://www.iasb.com/.

Senate Bill 7

Senate Bill 7 (Public Act 97-8) significantly changed the processes by which a tenured teacher can be dismissed. One of the most substantial modifications is the Optional Alternative Evaluative Dismissal (“OAED”) Process for PERA Evaluations, now codified at 105 ILCS 5/24-16.5. Only PERA-trained board members may participate in the vote to dismiss a teacher through this process.​

• ​See Illinois School Code Section 24-16.5 [105 ILCS 5/24-16-5]
• See Current Rules in Effect:
  • 23 Illinois Administrative Code, Part 51 (Section 51.290)​
  • 23 Illinois Administrative Code, Part 1 (Section 1.210)​
    

Part 50

• Part 50: Evaluation of Certified Employees Under Articles 24A And 34 of the School Code (Administrative Rules)​​
  

​
• ​Case Study Addendum
• PERA Research Study Interim Report
• Technical Report Supplement
• Teacher and Principal Evaluation Training During COVID-19
  Performance Evaluation Advisory Council (PEAC) Training Committee Guidance to Trainers of Teacher and Principal Evaluator Academies during the COVID-19 School and Provider Closures​.
  • May 26, 2020 PEAC Training Committee Guidance - May 26, 2020​
    
  • April 14, 2020 PEAC Training Committee Guidance​​ - April 14, 2020
    
  • March 25, 2020 PEAC Training Committee Guidance ​- March 25, 2020​​​​​​
  ​For the most current information on this situation, please monitor ISBE’s COVID-19 resource page​​.
• PEAC Resources
  
  • ​Glossary ​
    
  • Timeline​
    
• Peac General Guidance
  
  • Initial Teaching Evaluation ​Academy​​
    
• PERA Coach Virtual Newsletter
  
  • 2019
    
    • March 2019 Issue - Remediation and Professional Development Plans, Summary Sheets for Observable Components, Evaluation of Special Education, Evaluator Prequalification and Retraining​ Reminders
    • January 2019 Issue - ​New State Prequalification Program, Statewide Calendar for Prequalification Training, Midpoint Data Review Conference, and Refining Observation Skills
  • 2018
    • October 2018 Issue - Part 50 Rules About Observations, Informal Observations, The Roles of the Evaluator, Pre-Observation Conferences, Post Observation Conferences, Evaluator Prequalification Update
      
    • August 2018 Issue - Start of the Year Requirements, Evaluation Cycles, Professional Development for Evaluators, Components and Outcomes of Effective Evaluation Systems, How Has Your Evaluation System Changed, and Questions and Sharing​
      
    • April 2018 Issue - Finding Time for Evaluation, Professional Learning Communities, Collaborative Conversations, Joint Committee Meetings in the Spring, When Evaluators Need to Take Retraining, Questions and Sharing, Additional Resources
    • January 201​8 Issue - Learning Goals, Reflective Conversations, Questions and Sharing, and Additional Resources
  • 2017
    • November 2017 Issue ​- PERA implementation requirements and best practices, timeline and evaluator retraining information
    • April 2017 Issue ​ - A continuous improvement approach
    • January 2017 Issue​​ - Annotated SLO examples and Reflective Conversations About Student Growth
  • 2016
    • October 2016 Issue - evaluator certification renewal information, conducting observations, reflective conversations and time management
    • August 2016 Issue - start of the year requirements, an evaluation timeline and time management
    • May 2016 Issue - how to use evaluation data and sustainability 
    • April 2016 Issue - getting ready for implementation and preparing an on-going communications plan
    • March 2016 Issue - spotlight on two district's journey to PERA implementation
    • February 2016 Issue - focus on optional weightings and determining Summative Ratings
    • January 2016 Issue - continued focus on assessing student growth and student learning objectives
  • 2015
    • December 2015 Issue - focus on assessing student growth
    • November 2015 Issue - focus on developing a communication plan and evaluation teacher practice
    • October 2015 Issue​ - focus on getting started and the work of the PERA joint committee​​​
      
• Technical Assistance for Initial Training Pre-Qualification
  

  Calls are coming into CEC and ISBE about technical issues such as networks being blocked, ports not being open, content filtering that does not match the network ports as well as other environmental issues. There are also minimum requirements that are not being met by some of the computers being used for training.

  Please see the documents below for more information regarding the technical issues that may need to be adjusted on a person’s computer or network for optimal use of the system.

  Every person is strongly encouraged to run the System Check, confirm the version of flash player and browser they are using and to ensure their hardware accelerator is disabled (See Start-Up Guide below for directions).

  If these documents do not help you please call the Growth Through Learning Help Line at 1-800-416-9734. Please leave a detailed message and include your name, phone number and e-mail address. Your call will be returned as soon as possible.​

  • Teachscape Minimum System Requirements
  • Teachscape Framework for Teaching Proficiency System Start-up Guide
    Includes the System Check information!
  • List of Teachscape Domain Names & IP Addresses
  • Newsline Announcements: Growth Through Learning Illinois
• Webinars
  • ​Assessment Webinars - Balanced Assessment​
    

  District Use Only

  • ISBE Evaluation Webinar - 
    • March 9, 2016: Employee Evaluations Webinar (18:41)
    • This webinar gives an in-depth look at the school code that mandates employee evaluations, as well as explaining what scoring methodology is used, and how the information is entered into Employment Information System (EIS).​​​

General Guidance

• Education Reform in Illinois –  ISBE Non-Regulatory Guidance on the Performance Evaluation Reform Act and Senate Bill 7​
  
• Guidebook on Implementing the Student Growth Component in Teacher and Principal Evaluation Systems
• Guidance on Creating a Summative Rating in Teacher Evaluation Systems 
• Model Teacher Evaluation System - Creating a Summative Rating​ 
• Guidance on Collecting Evidence of Teacher Practice Not Observable During Classroom Observations in Teacher Evaluation Systems 
• Model Teacher Evaluation System - Measuring Student Growth Using Type III Assessments 
• Guidance on Peer Evaluation in Teacher Evaluation Systems in Illinois​ 

Teachers Guidance

• Guidebook on Student Learning Objectives for Type III Assessments 
• Guidance on Creating Operating Guidelines for Student Growth Models in Teacher Evaluation Systems 
• Student Learning Objective Template​
• Guidance on Building Teacher Evaluation Systems for Teachers of Students With Disabilities, English Learners, and Early Childhood Students​ 

Administrators Guidance

• PEAC District Evaluation Data Guidance 
• Guidance on Assistant Principal Performance Evaluation in Illinois 
• Guidance on Needs Improvement Rating in Teacher Evaluation Systems in Illinois 
• Guidance Regarding Evaluating Teacher Practice and Understanding Summative Ratings 
• Guidance on District Decision Making 
• Guidance on Using Illinois 5Essentials Survey Data in Principal Evaluation​ 
• Guidance on Alignment of Three Factors in Principal Evaluation
• Guidance on Measuring Student Growth for First-Year Principals in Principal Evaluation Systems
• Guidance on Teacher Evaluation Systems for Beginning (Novice) Teachers in Illinois​ 
• Student L​earning Objective Template​
• Guidance on Building Teacher Evaluation Systems for Teachers of Students With Disabilities, English Learners, and Early Childhood Students​ ​
• Guidance: Recommendations for Supporting Evaluators of Teachers, Principals, and Assistant Principals

​Joint Committees Guidance

• Guidance on District Decision Making​ 
• Guidance on Creating Operating Guidelines for Student Growth Models in Teacher Evaluation Systems​
• Guidance Regarding Evaluating Teacher Practice and Understanding Summative Ratings​

School Boards Guidance

• Guidance on District Decision Making
• Guidance on Recall Rights of Honorably Dismissed Teachers​​

District Guidance

• March 9, 2016: Employee Evaluations Webinar (18:41)
• This webinar gives an in-depth look at the school code that mandates employee evaluations, as well as explaining what scoring methodology is used, and how the information is entered into Employment Information System (EIS).
• March 9, 2016: Employee Evaluations Webinar Questions and Answers​
• ​This document answers questions asked during the March 9, 2016 Employee Evaluations webinar.
• Entering Employee Evaluations: A How-To Guide
• ​This document provides step-by-step technical instruction on how to access Employment Information System and enter evaluations, both individually and using batch templates.​