According to the PDE, the following individuals are considered teachers with unique roles:
Autistic, MDS and Life Skills
Career and Technical Education Teachers
Teachers of Students Who are Blind or Visually Impaired
Early Childhood Teachers
Emotional Support Teachers
English as a Second Language Teachers
Gifted Education Teachers
Instructional Coaches
Learning Support Teachers
Reading Specialists
School Librarians
Speech and Language Pathologist Teachers*
Teachers of Students Who Are Deaf or Hard of Hearing
The PDE provides documents (rubric language and guiding questions) on the SAS portal for these unique teaching roles. To access these resources, please go to http://www.pdesas.org/Instruction/Frameworks. In terms of the observation process for these individuals, it is our understanding that these teachers with unique roles should go through the same process as regular classroom teachers. That is you can use the Formal Observation or Differentiated Supervision process to facilitate observations. When using the Formal Observation or Differentiated Supervision process in PA-ETEP, please have these individuals refer to the documents provided on the SAS portal.
According to PDE, teacher with unique roles would be given an 82-1 form unless they meet the two-pronged test. For more information about the two-pronged test, see the attached document.
*Note - Under certain circumstances a certified teacher may be working as a Speech Language Pathologist without a Speech Language Pathologist certificate from the state. In those instances, it is recommended that the individual should be evaluated as a Teacher with a unique role.