AI-powered teacher evaluations
for Massachusetts educators.
Cut evaluation documentation from hours to minutes. EvalScribe is built around the Massachusetts Educator Evaluation Framework — the four Standards of Effective Teaching Practice, the four-level rating scale, and the flexibility for the district-adapted rubric your collective bargaining agreement actually uses.
Saved per evaluation
Built in natively
To capture notes
Evaluator-controlled ratings
Three evaluations free — no credit card · Individual plans from $100/year · School & district licensing available
Endorsed by educational leaders
Game changer. Absolute game changer for school admin.
Tobin Davidson · Assistant Superintendent · 40+ years in education
This is amazing. I would pay lots of money for this. I’m serious — it’s crazy good.
Kittie Brown · Assistant Principal
Also endorsed by Dr. Robert Stinson · Glenn Brown · Angie Brandt — read full quotes ↓
Built by a classroom teacher
Founded by a practicing K–12 educator with nearly 20 years in the field.
Massachusetts framework aligned
The four Standards of Effective Teaching Practice built in natively, with the four-level rating scale DESE requires.
Privacy-first
Transient processing on Microsoft Azure. Never used for AI training.
Built for workflow
Designed around the realities of being a Massachusetts evaluator using the DESE Model System or a locally-adapted district rubric.
Massachusetts's Educator Evaluation Framework, handled natively.
Massachusetts's educator evaluation system is governed by 603 CMR 35.00 and administered through the DESE Model System for Educator Evaluation. The framework organizes teaching practice into four Standards of Effective Teaching Practice, with a four-level rating scale used for each Standard and overall. Districts can adopt the DESE Model System, adapt it, or use their own evaluation system as long as it is "comparably rigorous and comprehensive" — and because evaluation procedures are a mandatory subject of collective bargaining in Massachusetts, the specific rubric your district uses is often a locally-negotiated adaptation. EvalScribe is built around the four Standards structure exactly, with the four-level rating scale applied through rubric-aware logic.
Massachusetts Educator Evaluation Framework
The four Standards of Effective Teaching Practice are defined in 603 CMR 35.03 and translated into detailed rubrics through DESE's Model System. The DESE Model Classroom Teacher Rubric organizes the four Standards into twelve Indicators and twenty-five elements — but because Massachusetts districts adapt the Model Rubric through collective bargaining, many district rubrics use a subset of Indicators or add locally-negotiated elements. Each Standard receives a rating on the four-level scale, and evaluators use professional judgment across multiple evidence sources to arrive at an overall summative rating.
Massachusetts Educator Evaluation — quick facts
- Framework name
- Massachusetts Educator Evaluation Framework, implemented through the DESE Model System
- Governing body
- Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE)
- Statutory authority
- 603 CMR 35.00 (Evaluation of Educators); 603 CMR 35.03 defines the Standards of Effective Teaching Practice
- Adoption
- Districts may adopt the DESE Model System, adapt it, or use their own "comparably rigorous and comprehensive" system
- Structure
- 4 Standards of Effective Teaching Practice; DESE Model Rubric has 12 Indicators and 25 elements
- Rating scale
- 4 levels — Unsatisfactory, Needs Improvement, Proficient, Exemplary
- Collective bargaining
- Evaluation procedures are a mandatory subject of collective bargaining in Massachusetts
- Most recent update
- DESE Model System updated 2025; role-specific rubrics piloting 2025-26
Four Standards of Effective Teaching Practice.
Curriculum, Planning, and Assessment
4 IndicatorsTeaching All Students
4 IndicatorsFamily and Community Engagement
3 IndicatorsProfessional Culture
1 IndicatorThe four-level performance rating scale.
Unsatisfactory
Needs Improvement
Proficient
Exemplary
How EvalScribe handles Massachusetts
All four Massachusetts Standards of Effective Teaching Practice are built into the tool, with the four-level rating scale applied through rubric-aware logic that distinguishes between adjacent levels the way DESE's framework actually intends — particularly the Proficient-to-Exemplary distinction, where practice shifts from the rigorous expected standard to a level that could serve as a model for others. EvalScribe currently covers the core Indicators of each Standard — Curriculum and Planning, Assessment, Instruction, Learning Environment, Family Engagement, and Professional Culture. Expanded coverage of the full DESE Model Rubric (all twelve Indicators and twenty-five elements) is on our roadmap for a future update. For districts using a locally-adapted rubric negotiated through collective bargaining, the underlying engine accommodates that variation.
How EvalScribe works with the Massachusetts framework.
A five-step path from the back of the classroom to a finished evaluation aligned to your district's specific rubric.
Observe the classroom
Walkthrough or formal observation — capture what you see the way you always have.
Enter notes your way
Type, dictate, or snap a photo of your handwritten notes. Smart Scan converts handwriting to text.
Map evidence to Standards
EvalScribe identifies which of the four Massachusetts Standards each note supports and connects evidence to the relevant Indicators covered in the tool.
Suggested ratings & comments
Get draft performance-level ratings (Unsatisfactory through Exemplary) and professional feedback language in the voice of the Massachusetts framework.
Review & finalize
Edit anything you want, finalize the evaluation, and export a clean PDF for your records.
EvalScribe runs natively on iPhone, iPad, and Mac — work where you are.
Capture notes the way you already work.
No retraining required. Whatever your walkthrough style, EvalScribe accepts it.
Snap a photo
Photograph your handwritten notes mid-walkthrough. Smart Scan OCR converts handwriting to text — even messy handwriting, even pedagogical terms.
Dictate as you go
Speak observations directly into the app. Voice dictation captures what you saw without breaking your eye contact with the classroom.
Type directly
Prefer to type? Enter notes straight into the app — they flow into the same Massachusetts-aware drafting pipeline as scans and dictation.
Why generic AI falls short for Massachusetts.
Pasting your observation notes into a general-purpose chatbot might produce a paragraph that sounds polished — but for Massachusetts documentation, "sounds polished" isn't the bar. Defensible, framework-aligned evaluations are.
| Capability | Generic AI (ChatGPT, Claude, etc.) | EvalScribe |
|---|---|---|
| Framework awareness | ✕No built-in understanding of Massachusetts's Educator Evaluation Framework or how districts adapt the DESE Model Rubric. Treats every prompt as a generic teaching evaluation. | ✓Built around the Massachusetts framework specifically — four Standards of Effective Teaching Practice, four-level rating scale, with flexibility for district-adapted rubrics. |
| Indicator mapping | ✕Hallucinates Standard and Indicator labels (I-A, II-B, etc.) and invents rubric language that doesn't match Massachusetts's actual DESE Model Rubric. | ✓Maps evidence to the four Massachusetts Standards using the loaded rubric structure, adapting to district-specific Model Rubric variations. |
| Rubric scoring | ✕Inconsistent ratings between teachers — and between sessions on the same teacher. | ✓Suggests Massachusetts-appropriate Unsatisfactory / Needs Improvement / Proficient / Exemplary ratings based on captured evidence. |
| Level distinctions | ✕Defaults to generic "good/great" framing that misses the Proficient-to-Exemplary distinction Massachusetts's rubric actually requires. | ✓Rubric-aware scoring that meaningfully distinguishes between adjacent performance levels in Massachusetts's own terms. |
| Note input | ✕Requires you to retype everything before the AI can do anything with it. | ✓Accepts typed notes, dictation, or photos of handwritten notes via Smart Scan OCR. |
| Feedback language | ✕Vague, generic comments that could describe any teacher. | ✓Professional, evidence-anchored feedback written in the voice of the Massachusetts framework rubric. |
| Evaluator workflow | ✕No concept of walkthroughs, formal observations, or pre/post conferences. | ✓Built around the actual evaluator workflow, from capture to final exported PDF. |
| Data privacy | ✕Free tiers may use your inputs to train public models. | ✓Enterprise-grade Microsoft Azure. Transient processing. Zero retention. Never used for training. |
| Defensibility | ✕Output you can't trace back to evidence or rubric language. | ✓Every comment is tied to evidence pulled from your notes and the Massachusetts Standard it supports. |
How much Massachusetts evaluation time could you reclaim?
Tune the inputs to your reality. The numbers update as you go.
You could reclaim approximately
hours per year
Workdays reclaimed
Total evaluations
Based on early EvalScribe users saving an average of 35 minutes per evaluation. Individual results may vary based on your current workflow.
The best way to see it
is to watch it.
Reading about how EvalScribe drafts a Massachusetts evaluation isn't the same as watching it happen. The demo walks through a real observation — capture, mapping, scoring, and final export — start to finish.
The draft review screen — every comment, rating, and piece of mapped evidence is fully editable before export.
See an example EvalScribe report.
A real EvalScribe-generated evaluation, formatted exactly as it exports from the app. The workflow is the same across frameworks — useful to share with district stakeholders.
Download sample PDFWhat educational leaders are saying.
Real feedback from administrators across roles — from academic coaches to assistant superintendents.
EvalScribe is a tool that every public school principal should use. This resource literally makes multiple people out of administrators, allowing them to focus their energies on precise observation analysis and quality feedback while leaving EvalScribe to handle the mechanics. This tool will remove virtually all of the drudgery from the classroom evaluation process and would represent an excellent use of school funds.
Dr. Robert Stinson
Principal
After seeing a detailed demonstration of EvalScribe, I came away very impressed with both the concept and the execution. The platform provides administrators with a practical way to quickly capture classroom observations and generate high-quality, customized feedback that remains aligned to their evaluation framework and local expectations. What stood out most was the balance between efficiency and quality. EvalScribe has the potential to reduce administrative workload while helping school leaders provide more timely and meaningful feedback to teachers — a tool with considerable promise for schools and districts.
Glenn Brown
Director of Student Services
Game changer. Absolute game changer for school admin.
Tobin Davidson
Assistant Superintendent · 40+ years in education
This is amazing. I would pay lots of money for this. I’m serious — it’s crazy good. I look forward to using it on a regular basis next year.
Kittie Brown
Assistant Principal
Evaluators spend an inordinate amount of time recording and documenting evaluations. This app is easy to use, affordable, and incredibly efficient. It cuts the time spent recording and documenting evaluations down significantly and frees us up to handle other aspects of the job. Plus, the conference suggestions save on prep time when a conference is warranted.
Angie Brandt
Academic Coach
Built by educators, for educators.
EvalScribe was co-founded by a practicing classroom teacher and his wife — a husband-and-wife team with thirty years of combined classroom and business experience.
Anthony Neely, Ph.D.
Co-founder · Product
A tenured K–12 classroom teacher and Professional Learning Lead. District Teacher of the Year, with nearly 20 years in education and three published books.
Andrea Neely, Ph.D.
Co-founder · Business
Associate Professor of Management. Research and teaching in organizational management.
Your evaluation data stays yours.
Observation notes are processed transiently on Microsoft Azure and are not retained on our servers. Your evaluation records live locally on your device. Notes and evaluations are never used to train public AI models. For districts needing a Data Processing Agreement or FERPA attestation, those are available on request.
Simple, transparent pricing.
Try EvalScribe with three free evaluations. When you're ready to keep going, pick the plan that fits your role.
Individual
For a single evaluator on their own device.
Billed annually per user
- Unlimited evaluations
- All supported frameworks, including Massachusetts
- iOS & macOS access
- 3 free evaluations to start
School-wide
For a school with multiple evaluators.
3+ evaluators
- Everything in Individual
- 10% volume discount
- Unique access code issued to your school
- Easy distribution to your evaluators
District-wide
For districts deploying across every evaluator.
Best value for full deployments
- Everything in School-wide
- 20% volume discount
- Single access code for the entire district
- Direct support contact for rollout
All pricing shown is introductory and may change. For school and district plans, EvalScribe issues a unique access code that the buyer distributes to their evaluators.
Massachusetts Educator Evaluation & EvalScribe — common questions.
Does EvalScribe support the Massachusetts Educator Evaluation Framework?
Yes — the Massachusetts framework is built in natively. All four Standards of Effective Teaching Practice (Curriculum, Planning, and Assessment; Teaching All Students; Family and Community Engagement; Professional Culture) and the four-level rating scale (Unsatisfactory, Needs Improvement, Proficient, Exemplary) are loaded into the tool. EvalScribe maps observation evidence to the relevant Standards and suggests framework-aligned ratings and comments.
Where can I read the official Massachusetts Educator Evaluation regulations and rubric?
The official framework and Model System are maintained by the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE). Primary sources:
DESE Educator Evaluation home
603 CMR 35.00: Evaluation of Educators (full regulation)
Massachusetts Model System for Educator Evaluation
DESE Model Classroom Teacher Rubric
The DESE Model Rubric has 12 Indicators and 25 elements. Does EvalScribe cover all of them?
EvalScribe currently covers the four Standards through their core Indicators — Curriculum and Planning (I-A), Assessment (I-B), Instruction (II-A), Learning Environment (II-B), Family Engagement (Standard III), and Professional Culture (Standard IV). Expanded coverage of the full DESE Model Rubric (all twelve Indicators including Analysis, Cultural Proficiency, and Expectations, plus the twenty-five elements) is on our roadmap for a future update.
Because Massachusetts districts adapt the DESE Model Rubric through collective bargaining, many locally-negotiated rubrics use a subset of Indicators, and EvalScribe's current structure is a strong fit for those. If your district's rubric uses the full DESE Model or has Indicators outside the coverage above, reach out to [email protected] and we'll confirm fit.
My district negotiated a different rubric through collective bargaining. Will EvalScribe work for us?
Yes, in most cases. Evaluation procedures are a mandatory subject of collective bargaining in Massachusetts, and many districts operate with locally-adapted versions of the DESE Model Rubric — same four Standards, same four-level rating scale, adjusted Indicator language or weighting. EvalScribe's underlying rubric-aware engine accommodates that variation. If your district's rubric departs significantly from the DESE Model structure, email [email protected] and we'll walk through fit.
How does EvalScribe fit into the Massachusetts 5-step evaluation cycle?
Massachusetts's evaluation cycle runs from Self-Assessment through Goal Setting and Plan Development, Plan Implementation, Formative Assessment/Evaluation, and Summative Evaluation. EvalScribe supports the observation-driven pieces of this cycle: capturing walkthrough and formal observation evidence during Plan Implementation, mapping it to the four Standards, and drafting the formative and summative rubric documentation. The educator plan itself, the self-assessment, the student feedback collection, and the goal-setting conversations remain evaluator and educator work.
Does EvalScribe replace evaluator judgment?
No. EvalScribe drafts evidence-mapped evaluations and suggested performance-level ratings. The evaluator reviews, edits, and finalizes every document. Professional judgment — particularly the Proficient-to-Exemplary distinction, the integration of student feedback and MCAS SGP data, and any Educator Plan decisions — always stays with you.
Can the generated Massachusetts evaluations be edited?
Yes, fully. Every comment, every rating, and every piece of mapped evidence inside a draft evaluation can be edited before you export the final PDF. You are always the last set of eyes on the document.
Does EvalScribe support walkthroughs as well as formal announced observations?
Yes. Brief unannounced observations, longer announced observations, and summative evidence collection all flow through the same capture-and-draft pipeline, so the documentation across observation types stays consistent throughout the evaluation cycle.
Is observation data stored?
Your notes are processed transiently on Microsoft Azure and are not retained on EvalScribe's servers. Your evaluation records sit locally on your device under a local-first architecture. Your data is never used to train public AI models. For more detail, see our Privacy Policy.
How is EvalScribe different from ChatGPT or Claude?
Generic AI tools have no built-in understanding of the Massachusetts Educator Evaluation Framework, the DESE Model Rubric, or how Massachusetts districts adapt the rubric through collective bargaining. They invent Standard and Indicator labels that don't exist, score inconsistently, and produce vague comments that miss the Proficient-to-Exemplary distinction Massachusetts's rubric actually requires. EvalScribe is built around the four Standards structure and the four-level rating scale — and the evaluator workflow that surrounds it — from capture through final export.
Is EvalScribe available for iOS and macOS?
Yes. Individual evaluators can download EvalScribe from the Apple App Store on both iOS and macOS, with a free trial that includes three evaluations.
Can schools or districts purchase licenses for multiple evaluators?
Yes. School-wide licensing starts at three or more evaluators ($90/user/year), and district-wide licensing is $80/admin/year. When you order, EvalScribe issues a unique access code that you distribute to your evaluators — no separate provisioning required. Email [email protected] to get started.
Which other state frameworks are supported?
EvalScribe ships with frameworks from all 50 states and Washington D.C., plus general models such as Danielson, Marzano, Stronge, CEL 5D+, NIET, and Kim Marshall. The complete list is available at evalscribe.com/frameworks.
Don't see your question? Reach out via our contact page — we read every message personally.
Page maintained by Anthony D. Neely, Ph.D. — practicing K–12 educator with nearly 20 years in the classroom, 2025–2026 Walker County Distinguished Teacher of the Year, and co-founder of EvalScribe. Framework details verified against current Massachusetts DESE source documents.
Page last reviewed: July 1, 2026
Spend less time on paperwork.
Lead your building.
EvalScribe was built to help Massachusetts evaluators spend less time documenting educator evaluations and more time doing what matters: leading instruction, coaching teachers, and walking buildings.
Three evaluations free — no credit card · Available on iPhone, iPad, and Mac