Before participating in the evaluation process, all school counselors, principals and peer evaluators must complete training on the evaluation process.

Within two weeks of a school counselor’s first day of work in any school year, the principal will provide the school counselor with a copy of or directions for obtaining access to a copy of:

1. the Rubric for Evaluating North Carolina School Counselors,
2. this policy, and
3. a schedule for completing all the components of the evaluation process.

Using the Rubric for Evaluating North Carolina School Counselors, the school counselor shall rate his or her own performance at the beginning of the year and reflect on his or her performance throughout the year. The school counselor should use his or her self-assessment to help determine and advocate for professional development needed to improve skills as a school counselor. The optional Summary Rating Form can be used to summarize ratings if wanted. Links to both of these will be provided later in the module.

Before the first formal observation, the principal shall meet with the school counselor to discuss the school counselor’s self-assessment based on the Rubric for Evaluating North Carolina School Counselors, the school counselor’s most recent professional growth plan, and the lesson(s) to be observed. The school counselor will provide the principal with a written description of the lesson(s). The goal of this conference is to prepare the principal for the observation. Pre-Observation conferences are not required for subsequent observations.

All school support staff members who are licensed by the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction are required to adhere to the annual evaluation requirements outlined in GS 115C-333.1. The minimum requirements for observations are shown in the table below.

	Probationary	Career
Pre-Observation Conference	3	1
Formal Observation(s)	3	1
Informal Observation(s)	n/a	2
Summative Evaluation	1	1
Other Requirements	Multiple administrators confer regarding observation results and representation on the final/summative evaluation.
Options	Administrators may choose to conduct additional observations. Likewise, the employee may request additional observations.

During evaluations, the evaluator shall note the school counselor's performance in relationship to applicable standards on the appropriate rubric for evaluating the school support staff member. Each formal observation should last at least forty-five minutes or an entire session or activity. Whereas most teacher observations can occur in the classroom setting, it will be necessary for observations to be done in a variety of settings and ways to completely assess what a school counselor does. For example, a school counselor will most likely not demonstrate all standards in a classroom guidance lesson, so the evaluator will also need to observe other school counselor activities such as parent workshops, facilitation of meetings, coordination of school-wide programs, etc. In some cases, such as actual counseling sessions, observations will not be possible due to confidentiality; however, the school counselor could provide some non-confidential summary process data related to counseling sessions as an artifact. You can find additional details about observations in the Evaluation Process Users Guide on the NCDPI NCEES wiki page.

The principal shall conduct a post-observation conference no later than ten school days after each formal observation. During the post-observation conference, the principal and school counselor shall discuss and document on the rubric the strengths and weaknesses of the school counselor’s performance during the observed lesson.

Prior to the end of the school year and in accordance with LEA timelines, the principal shall conduct a summary evaluation conference with the school counselor. During the summary evaluation conference, the principal and school counselor shall discuss the school counselor’s self-assessment, the most recent Professional Growth Plan, the components of the North Carolina School Counselor Evaluation Process completed during the year, classroom observations, artifacts submitted or collected during the evaluation process and other evidence of performance on the rubric.

Artifacts are natural by-products of a school counselor’s work and are not created for the purpose of satisfying evaluation requirements. School counselors should collect artifacts throughout the school year and use those artifacts to help the evaluator understand how the school counselor has functioned in his or her appropriate roles that are on the school counselor evaluation rubric. As school counselors create handouts, planning outlines, calendars, meeting agendas, assessments, action plans, results reports, templates, etc., throughout the school year, they should save them in an expandable folder, three-ring binder, sharable Google doc, etc. Do keep in mind that your collection of artifacts is not a scrapbook, be selective about what gets included. School counselor web pages can also serve as a great source of artifacts.

At the conclusion of the North Carolina School Counselor Evaluation Process, the principal shall:

1. give a rating for each element in the rubric,
2. make a written comment on any element marked “Not Demonstrated,”
3. give an overall rating of each standard in the rubric,
4. provide the school counselor with the opportunity to add comments to the School Counselor Summary Rating Form,
5. review the completed School Counselor Summary Rating Form with the school counselor, and
6. secure the school counselor’s signature on the Record of School Counselor Evaluation Activities and School Counselor Summary Rating Form.