Tennessee DOE staff walk district portfolio leads through TN Portfolio roster verification, login fixes and deadlines

Tracy Riddle, director of educator effectiveness for the Tennessee Department of Education, told district portfolio leads during a virtual office hour that they must check and confirm teacher rosters in TN Portfolio so teachers can log in, upload work and receive evaluation credit.

"The roster verification is a time for us to ensure that all of the correct teachers have access to the portfolio platform and that they can log in, get in, set up their accounts," Riddle said. She added that portfolio results feed evaluative measures and that an incomplete portfolio will not generate an LOE.

Riddle and other TDOE staff laid out the verification steps and common problems. Portfolio leads must download their district’s portfolio teacher report from TN Portfolio (the CSV at the bottom of the report), check each teacher’s TLN/license number, school email, portfolio model (subject/grade), and the date the teacher last accessed TN Portfolio. Riddle said a blank assessment date in the report indicates a teacher has not logged in and should be contacted immediately to avoid an incomplete portfolio.

Staff emphasized the TLN/license format: the leading three zeros may not appear in the CSV, but the nine-digit portion must be correct and must match records in TN Compass/EIS. Riddle said, "When we upload scores to TN Compass, we do ensure that the leading zeros are there. But you do want to check that the 6 numbers following the leading 3 zeros are correct." District EIS coordinators may need to correct TLNs in EIS if they are wrong in the SSO account.

On login errors, Riddle advised districts to distinguish two common failure points. If a teacher does not get past the SSO login screen, TDOE staff directed districts to contact DT Support (dt.support@tn.gov) for an SSO reset. If a teacher logs in and sees a message that they are not enrolled in TN Portfolio, that indicates the uploaded roster information (name, email or TLN) does not match the teacher’s SSO record; Riddle said she can help correct those mismatches from the roster side.

Taylor Reed, senior director of licensure, told participants that licensure transactions are averaging about three days for turnaround and that there are few reasons an educator employed since August would only now be receiving a TLN. Reed said automatic holds can occur when an educator answers a personal-affirmation question incorrectly during licensure submission, but otherwise recent long delays are uncommon.

Riddle reviewed use of the add/remove template embedded in the TN Portfolio guidance. The template should be downloaded (drop-downs require downloading the file), and it is used only for teachers to be added, removed or updated. If a teacher has already logged in with SSO, Riddle said staff should not change that teacher’s name or email on the roster because changes will break the SSO match. She reiterated that districts should update TLNs, school codes, and portfolio model fields when incorrect and should include a reason (via the template’s reason drop-down) for each add, remove or update.

Riddle said the roster verification process is required of portfolio leads and that TDOE will use verified roster counts when hiring peer reviewers; peer reviewer hiring will be discussed in the department’s February meeting. She also reminded district staff that the portfolio portion will count toward teacher evaluation: "We want all of our portfolio teachers to receive an individual gross score ... that will be 35% of their final LOE for 2425," she said.

Where to get help: Riddle directed districts with SSO problems to DT Support (dt.support@tn.gov). For portfolio questions, staff provided portfolio.questions@tn.gov. Riddle also gave other specialist contacts referenced in the meeting for licensure and assessment topics.

The department asked every district and charter to complete the Formstack roster verification survey and to file corrections via the add/remove template before submitting the verification survey. The recording of this office hour and the presentation materials are posted on the TDOE student-growth portfolios web page for step-by-step guidance.

Riddle closed by urging portfolio leads to ensure teachers are logged in now so they can begin uploading work well before submission deadlines and to contact the department if they run into problems.