AI-powered teacher evaluations
for Ohio educators.
Cut evaluation documentation from hours to minutes. EvalScribe is built around the OTES 2.0 Teacher Performance Evaluation Rubric natively — all six domains and the Ineffective to Accomplished scale, in the rubric's own language.
Saved per evaluation
OTES 2.0 rubric, built in
Ineffective to Accomplished
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.
Ohio-specific
All six OTES 2.0 rubric domains and the four ratings, built in natively.
Privacy-first
Transient processing on Microsoft Azure. Never used for AI training.
Built for workflow
Designed around the realities of being an Ohio evaluator.
The OTES 2.0 rubric. EvalScribe is built around all six domains.
The Ohio Teacher Evaluation System (OTES 2.0) is the statewide professional-growth model, aligned to the Ohio Standards for the Teaching Profession. A teacher's Final Holistic Rating combines the Teacher Performance Evaluation Rubric with high-quality student data. EvalScribe is built around the rubric — all six domains and its own language.
The OTES 2.0 Teacher Performance Evaluation Rubric
The rubric is used holistically across six domains, each described from Ineffective to Accomplished and grounded in the Ohio Standards for the Teaching Profession. It is the observation-based core of an OTES 2.0 evaluation. EvalScribe maps your observation evidence to the domain and component it supports and drafts a rating and evidence-anchored feedback in the rubric's own language.
The six rubric domains.
Focus for Learning
PlanningHigh-quality student data, connections to prior and future learning, and alignment to Ohio's Learning Standards and district priorities.
Knowledge of Students
PlanningPlanning instruction for the whole child — using students' development, backgrounds, strengths, and social-emotional needs.
Lesson Delivery
InstructionCommunication with students, monitoring student understanding, and student-centered learning.
Classroom Environment
InstructionClassroom routines and procedures, and a climate that reflects fairness, respect, and cultural competency.
Assessment of Student Learning
InstructionUse of assessments throughout instruction and clear evidence of student learning.
Professional Responsibilities
ProfessionalismCommunication and collaboration with families and colleagues, district policies and responsibilities, and professional learning.
The four OTES 2.0 ratings.
Ineffective
Developing
Skilled
The professional standardAccomplished
Skilled is the expected professional standard — effective, consistent practice. Accomplished reflects exemplary practice with strong student ownership, and EvalScribe drafts to each level's own criteria.
The Final Holistic Rating and observation cadence
A full OTES 2.0 evaluation requires at least two formal observations of at least 30 minutes each and at least two classroom walkthroughs by a credentialed evaluator, completed by May 1 with a written report by May 10. Teachers rated Skilled or Accomplished may move to a less-frequent cycle with a Professional Growth Plan.
The Final Holistic Rating combines the performance rubric with at least two measures of high-quality student data (HQSD). EvalScribe drafts the rubric-based write-up; the HQSD measures and the final holistic determination are handled by the district, outside the app.
How EvalScribe handles OTES 2.0
All six domains of the Teacher Performance Evaluation Rubric are built into the tool, each with the rubric's own language across the four levels and the look-fors and distinctions that separate adjacent ratings. EvalScribe maps the evidence from your observation notes to the domain and component it supports and drafts best-fit ratings and evidence-anchored feedback — so the write-up is defensible, traceable back to what you observed, and ready to inform the performance rating.
Scope of the score. EvalScribe drafts the observation-based performance rubric. High-quality student data and the Final Holistic Rating are determined by the district under the OTES 2.0 framework, not the app.
Current with Ohio's system. EvalScribe uses the OTES 2.0 rubric as adopted under Ohio Revised Code and overseen by the Ohio State Board of Education. If your district layers additional local guidance onto OTES 2.0 and you'd like to see it reflected, email [email protected].
How EvalScribe works with OTES 2.0.
A five-step path from the back of the classroom to a finished, standards-aligned evaluation.
Observe the classroom
Formal observation or walkthrough — 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 domains
EvalScribe identifies which OTES 2.0 domain and component each note supports, across all six domains.
Suggested ratings & comments
Get draft ratings and feedback language in the rubric's own voice, across the four-level scale.
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 DC-aware drafting pipeline as scans and dictation.
Why generic AI falls short for OTES 2.0.
Pasting your walkthrough notes into a general-purpose chatbot might produce a paragraph that sounds polished — but for OTES 2.0 documentation, "sounds polished" isn't the bar. Defensible, rubric-aligned evaluations are.
| Capability | Generic AI (ChatGPT, Claude, etc.) | EvalScribe |
|---|---|---|
| Framework awareness | ✕No concept of OTES 2.0, its six domains, or its four-level scale. Treats every prompt the same. | ✓Built around the OTES 2.0 rubric's actual six domains, component language, and Ineffective to Accomplished scale. |
| Domain mapping | ✕Invents domain and component labels and rubric language that don't match the OTES 2.0 rubric. | ✓Maps evidence to the real OTES 2.0 domains and components using the actual rubric loaded into the app. |
| The Skilled standard | ✕Treats the scale as generic good-to-bad, missing that Skilled — not Accomplished — is the professional standard. | ✓Drafts to the real OTES 2.0 bar — Skilled is effective, consistent practice; Accomplished requires exemplary evidence. |
| Rubric vs. student data | ✕Blurs the performance rubric together with high-quality student data and the holistic rating. | ✓Drafts the rubric write-up and leaves HQSD and the Final Holistic Rating to the district. |
| Professional Responsibilities depth | ✕Collapses the sixth domain's family, colleague, policy, and learning components into vague generalities. | ✓Handles each Professional Responsibilities component individually. |
| 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 language of the OTES 2.0 rubric. |
| 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 component it supports. |
How much Ohio 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 an OTES 2.0 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 OTES 2.0
- 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.
OTES 2.0 & EvalScribe — common questions.
Does EvalScribe support OTES 2.0?
Yes, for the observation-based component. EvalScribe is built around all six domains of the OTES 2.0 Teacher Performance Evaluation Rubric — Focus for Learning, Knowledge of Students, Lesson Delivery, Classroom Environment, Assessment of Student Learning, and Professional Responsibilities — with the rubric's own language. It maps your observation evidence to the domain it supports and drafts a rating and feedback across the four levels: Ineffective, Developing, Skilled, Accomplished.
How many observations does Ohio require?
A full OTES 2.0 evaluation requires at least two formal observations of at least 30 minutes each and at least two classroom walkthroughs by a credentialed evaluator, completed by May 1 with a written report by May 10. Teachers rated Skilled or Accomplished may qualify for a less-frequent cycle with a Professional Growth Plan. EvalScribe drafts the written record for each observation.
What is High-Quality Student Data, and does EvalScribe handle it?
OTES 2.0 requires at least two measures of high-quality student data (HQSD) that provide evidence of student learning attributable to the teacher. HQSD is combined with the performance rubric to produce the Final Holistic Rating. EvalScribe drafts the rubric-based observation write-up; the HQSD measures and the final holistic determination are handled by the district, outside the app.
What do the OTES 2.0 ratings mean?
The scale runs Ineffective, Developing, Skilled, Accomplished. Skilled is the expected professional standard — effective, consistent practice appropriate for students and content. Accomplished reflects exemplary practice with strong student ownership. EvalScribe drafts toward these levels using each domain's own criteria.
Does EvalScribe produce the Final Holistic Rating?
No. EvalScribe drafts the observation write-up and best-fit ratings on the performance rubric. The Final Holistic Rating combines that performance evidence with high-quality student data and is determined by the district under the OTES 2.0 framework, not the app.
Does EvalScribe replace evaluator judgment?
No. EvalScribe drafts evidence-mapped evaluations and suggested ratings. The evaluator reviews, edits, and finalizes every document. The professional judgment is always yours — EvalScribe just removes the typing.
Can the generated 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.
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 OTES 2.0. They invent domains and components, blur the performance rubric together with high-quality student data, hand out Accomplished freely, and produce vague comments that miss the level distinctions the rubric requires. EvalScribe is built around the OTES 2.0 rubric's actual six domains and scale — and the evaluator workflow that surrounds it — from capture through final export.
Where can I read the official OTES 2.0 sources?
The Ohio State Board of Education publishes the OTES 2.0 framework, model, and rubric on its Educator Evaluations page. The system is aligned to the Ohio Standards for the Teaching Profession and adopted under Ohio Revised Code.
Which other 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.
Spend less time on paperwork.
Lead your building.
EvalScribe was built to help Ohio evaluators spend less time documenting 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