Burnsville Public School District staff presented findings from the annual review of the district’s QComp (performance pay) program and recommended expanding learning walks and evaluator calibration in the 2025–26 school year.

The review covers four components of the district’s compensation and professional growth system: career-ladder teacher leadership roles, job-embedded professional development led by teacher leaders, collaborative professional learning teams (CTs), and teacher evaluation tied to performance pay. The presenter said the district follows a continuous improvement cycle in implementing these components.

Why it matters: QComp is the district’s structured link between professional learning and compensation; changes affect coaching time, observation frequency and supports available to probationary teachers.

District data show 83 mentors supporting nearly 120 mentees, and eight continuous-improvement coaches (CICs) serving about 600 licensed staff across 18 sites. In surveys, 82% of respondents agreed the mentoring relationship “enhance[d] their ability and confidence to carry out their job responsibilities,” and 71% of collaborative teams reported fully implementing the plan-do-study-act cycle — a 10% increase from the prior year. About 86% of both tenured and probationary staff reported the observation process had a moderate-to-high impact on instruction.

Staff described a pilot of “learning walks” this year for 63 probationary teachers, in which participants visited 3–5 classrooms during two half-day sessions focused on Danielson Framework Domains 2 and 3. The presenter said 95% of participants agreed the learning-walk process supported professional growth and that nearly three-quarters of participants reported making a specific change to their instruction after participating.

Board members asked about interrater reliability among evaluators. The presenter said interrater-reliability work is an ongoing professional-development requirement and noted turnover in administrator and coach roles creates a recurring need for calibration. “That itself needs more interrater reliability opportunities,” the presenter said, adding the district plans to continue building those opportunities so teachers receive aligned feedback regardless of who observes them.

Recommendations for 2025–26 include expanding and refining the learning-walk program with greater flexibility, increasing observation and feedback opportunities for probationary teachers (partly to offset reduced observations for tenured staff), training on consolidated evaluative rubrics for specialized roles (two tools aligned with the 2022 Danielson framework), and ongoing calibration for evaluators and coaches to improve consistency of feedback.

The presentation concluded with staff proposing continued alignment of CICs with site administrators to target supports based on observed classroom trends.

The board asked clarifying questions but no formal action was taken; the presentation was informational and will inform implementation planning for the coming year.