The Teacher Self-Assessment Scales (TSAS) can serve several purposes, including support for…
- looking beyond individuals and assessing for school- and district-level gaps in strengths and needs;
- stimulating a school or program-wide conversation about current status and capacity building;
- developing a shared understanding of the 'highly-effective' aspect of the NMTEACH rubrics;
- informing the process of customizing professional development for specific schools and programs; and/or,
- individual teachers can construct a personal summary for themselves and use it to help focus their professional development plan (PDP), which in New Mexico is due to the principal on the 40th day of each school year.
The TSAS, therefore, is more than an assessment or evaluation measure because its primary purpose is to serve teachers and administrators as a stimulus for differentiating and focusing the content and processes of both external technical assistance and internal (self-regulatory) professional learning. The result of all-of-the-above, therefore, suggests that the TSAS could be used in support of the supreme purpose of teaching: to consistently generate and apply new strategies and action for improving the teaching-learning process.