Tennessee Department of Education staff outlined how districts should monitor teacher observation pacing in TNCompass and explained new and continuing requirements for CLASS observations for pre-K teachers during a February office-hour webinar.

The presenter said observation pacing depends on a teacher’s licensure category (professional or practitioner) and the teacher’s prior Level of Overall Effectiveness (LOE) or individual growth score. Practitioners or permanent-waiver holders without a prior LOE must receive the maximum (minimum-required) number of observations; a teacher who scored a level 5 last year must have at least one observation that is unannounced, and all educators have at least one “professionalism” observation, typically completed later in the year.

The guidance matters because districts must meet those minimums to comply with state evaluation pacing. The presenter told attendees that: “The number of required observations for an educator who has a PYE in the previous year is determined by their level in the school year immediately preceding the PYE.” For teachers who were in PYE (Provisional Year of Experience) for multiple years, districts should go back to the most recent year that is not PYE to determine pacing; if no LOE exists for that year, full pacing applies.

For monitoring, the presenter recommended the TNCompass “pacing guide” report (Reports tab) set to the 2024–25 academic year and suggested downloading it in Excel. The report shows educator type, licensure used for pacing, required minimums by domain (instruction, planning, environment) and current completion counts; a column indicates whether pacing has been met. The presenter said principals can download the report for individual schools and that other TNCompass reports — a Staff Observers report and Observation Summary reports by school and district — provide observer certification status and completion tallies.

On CLASS and pre-K: the presenter said that for the 2025–26 school year all VPK-funded and special-education preschool teachers are required to have observations using both the CLASS Assessment Scoring System and the CLASS environment tool for coaching and feedback. “This is not a requirement for evaluation. This is a requirement from early learning that everybody has to do this,” the presenter said. Districts that are TEAM-model districts may choose to use either the TEAM rubric or CLASS as their evaluation observation tool for pre-K teachers, but TNCompass accepts only one rubric per educator for evaluation entry; districts must select that rubric on the flexibility survey.

The presenter clarified that TEAM districts electing to use CLASS for evaluation will enter CLASS observations into TNCompass and that the system converts CLASS scores to the TEAM scale for LOE calculation: “TNCompass converts for you your CLASS scores into a TEAM scale.” CLASS observer certifications are valid for a single school year and expire on June 30; observers must pass an annual reliability test. The Early Learning Division provides training and registration information, and the presenter directed districts to work with their preschool supervisor or coordinator on local decisions.

Other operational notes provided: only staff who have passed the TEAM certification can be granted permission to observe in the administration tab; districts should update contact lists in TNCompass after staffing changes; missing LOE components (observation score, achievement measure, growth measure) may prevent an LOE from generating and can affect pacing; and districts may perform additional observations beyond the minimums. The presenter also listed support contact emails and TNCompass resources for administrators, PYE exemption guidance, and pacing-report walkthroughs.

The webinar concluded with the presenter answering chat questions about CLASS vs. TEAM choice, certification availability, how CLASS observation counts compare to TEAM (the presenter directed districts to the Early Learning Division for CLASS-specific counts because CLASS and TEAM are structured differently), and how marking a teacher PYE affects visibility of previously entered observations in TNCompass.