AI-powered teacher evaluations
for Pennsylvania educators.
Cut Educator Effectiveness documentation from hours to minutes. EvalScribe is built around Pennsylvania's Act 13 system natively — the four Danielson-based Observation and Practice domains and the Unsatisfactory-to-Distinguished scale, in the framework's own language.
Saved per evaluation
Observation & Practice, built in
Current PA system, aligned
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.
Pennsylvania-specific
The four Act 13 Observation and Practice domains, built in natively.
Privacy-first
Transient processing on Microsoft Azure. Never used for AI training.
Built for workflow
Designed around the realities of being a Pennsylvania evaluator.
Pennsylvania's Act 13 Educator Effectiveness system. EvalScribe is built around all four domains.
Act 13 of 2020 revised Pennsylvania's Educator Effectiveness system (the former Act 82 process), effective 2021–22. For classroom teachers, the Observation and Practice component uses a Danielson-based framework of four domains, and it counts for 70% of a tenured teacher's summative rating, with building-level and teacher-specific data making up the other 30%. EvalScribe is built around the four Observation and Practice domains.
Four Observation and Practice domains
Pennsylvania's Framework for the Evaluation of Classroom Teachers is adapted by the Department of Education from Charlotte Danielson's Framework for Teaching, with additions for trauma-informed practice, cultural relevance, remote teaching, equity, and social-emotional wellness. Evaluators record a single rating in each of the four domains, informed by classroom observation and evidence. EvalScribe maps your observation evidence to the right domain and drafts ratings and feedback in the framework's own language.
The four domains.
Planning and Preparation
Before students arriveKnowledge of content and students, coherent instructional design, and assessment planning aligned to standards.
Classroom Environment
Conditions for learningA culture of respect and rapport, clear expectations, managed routines, and space that supports learning.
Instruction
Teaching in actionClear communication, questioning and discussion, engaging students in learning, and using assessment to adjust in the moment.
Professional Responsibilities
Beyond the lessonReflection, accurate records, communication with families, professional growth, and contribution to the school community.
Two four-level scales — and it's easy to confuse them.
Pennsylvania uses two different sets of four-level labels. The Observation and Practice domains draw on Danielson's descriptors, while the overall rating a teacher receives uses different labels. Both run on the same 0-to-3 numeric scale, and the top two names match — but the bottom two don't.
Observation & Practice components Danielson
Unsatisfactory
Basic
Proficient
Distinguished
Overall summative rating Act 13
Failing
Needs Improvement
Proficient
Distinguished
How EvalScribe handles Act 13
EvalScribe is built around the four Observation and Practice domains and drafts a rating and evidence-anchored feedback for each, using the framework's Danielson-based descriptors — Unsatisfactory, Basic, Proficient, Distinguished. It maps the evidence from your notes to the domain it supports, so the write-up is defensible and traceable.
Mind the two scales. The domain-level descriptors above (Unsatisfactory to Distinguished) are not the same labels as the overall summative rating, which comes out as Distinguished, Proficient, Needs Improvement, or Failing. Both run 0–3, and the top two names match, but at the bottom "Basic" corresponds to "Needs Improvement" and "Unsatisfactory" to "Failing." EvalScribe drafts the Observation and Practice piece; the overall summative rating combines that 70% observation score with the 30% building-level and teacher-specific data in your district's rating tool — not in the app.
On local rating tools: Pennsylvania districts, IUs, and CTCs may use PDE's published practice models or adopt their own alternative rating tool approved by PDE (24 P.S. §11-1138.6). EvalScribe drafts against the four state domains and the Danielson descriptors; confirm your LEA's adopted rating tool and forms. If it would help to see your district's specific tool supported, email [email protected].
How EvalScribe works with Act 13.
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 of the four Observation and Practice domains each note supports.
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 Act 13.
Pasting your walkthrough notes into a general-purpose chatbot might produce a paragraph that sounds polished — but for Act 13 documentation, "sounds polished" isn't the bar. Defensible, framework-aligned evaluations are.
| Capability | Generic AI (ChatGPT, Claude, etc.) | EvalScribe |
|---|---|---|
| Framework awareness | ✕No concept of Act 13, the four Observation and Practice domains, or the Danielson descriptors. Treats every prompt the same. | ✓Built around Pennsylvania's four Act 13 domains and the Unsatisfactory-to-Distinguished descriptors. |
| Domain mapping | ✕Invents domain labels and rubric language that doesn't match the PA framework. | ✓Maps evidence to the four state domains using the actual Danielson-based framework loaded into the app. |
| Two-scale confusion | ✕No idea PA uses one label set for components (Unsat/Basic/Proficient/Distinguished) and another for the overall rating (Distinguished/Proficient/Needs Improvement/Failing). | ✓Drafts domain ratings in the Danielson descriptors and keeps the summative labels distinct — no conflating the two. |
| Scope of the score | ✕Assumes the observation is the whole rating, ignoring the 70/30 split with data measures. | ✓Drafts the Observation and Practice piece (the 70%); leaves the summative roll-up to your district's rating tool. |
| Local rating tools | ✕Assumes one statewide form, missing that LEAs may adopt PDE-approved alternative tools. | ✓Built on the four state domains and Danielson descriptors, so it fits whether you use PDE's models or an approved alternative. |
| 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 PA framework. |
| 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 Pennsylvania 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 Act 13 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 Act 13
- 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.
Act 13 & EvalScribe — common questions.
Does EvalScribe support Pennsylvania's Act 13 framework?
Yes. EvalScribe is built around the four Observation and Practice domains of Pennsylvania's Act 13 Educator Effectiveness system — Planning and Preparation, Classroom Environment, Instruction, and Professional Responsibilities. It maps your observation evidence to the right domain and drafts a rating and feedback for each, using the framework's Danielson-based descriptors (Unsatisfactory, Basic, Proficient, Distinguished).
What are the two rating scales in Pennsylvania, and why do they differ?
Pennsylvania uses two sets of four-level labels that are easy to confuse. The Observation and Practice domains use Danielson's descriptors — Unsatisfactory, Basic, Proficient, Distinguished. The overall summative rating a teacher receives uses different labels — Distinguished, Proficient, Needs Improvement, Failing. Both run on the same 0-to-3 numeric scale, and the top two names match, but at the bottom "Basic" corresponds to "Needs Improvement" and "Unsatisfactory" to "Failing." EvalScribe drafts the domain ratings in the Danielson descriptors and keeps the summative labels distinct.
Does EvalScribe calculate my overall Act 13 summative rating?
No. EvalScribe drafts the Observation and Practice piece — the domain ratings and evidence-anchored feedback. For a tenured classroom teacher, that observation score is 70% of the summative rating; the other 30% comes from building-level and teacher-specific data. That final roll-up into Distinguished, Proficient, Needs Improvement, or Failing happens in your district's rating tool, not in the app.
Can I use EvalScribe with my district's own rating tool?
Yes. Under 24 P.S. §11-1138.6, Pennsylvania LEAs may use PDE's published practice models or adopt their own PDE-approved alternative rating tool. EvalScribe is built on the four state domains and the Danielson descriptors that both approaches share, so it fits either way. Confirm your LEA's adopted forms, and if you'd like to see your specific tool supported, email [email protected].
Is this Act 13 or Act 82?
Act 13 of 2020 revised the earlier Act 82 of 2012 Educator Effectiveness process, effective the 2021–22 school year. The current system — the four Observation and Practice domains, the 70/30 weighting for tenured classroom teachers, and the Distinguished-to-Failing summative rating — is the Act 13 system. EvalScribe is aligned to Act 13.
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 Pennsylvania's Act 13 framework. They invent domains that don't exist, conflate the component descriptors with the summative labels, and produce vague comments that miss the distinctions the framework requires. EvalScribe is built around the four Act 13 domains and the Danielson descriptors — and the evaluator workflow that surrounds them — from capture through final export.
Where can I read the official Act 13 sources?
The Pennsylvania Department of Education maintains the Educator Effectiveness page, and the frameworks and rating tools live on the SAS Educator Effectiveness site. The governing rules are Act 13 of 2020 and Chapter 19 of Title 22 of the Pa. 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 Pennsylvania 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