Teacher of Record (TOR)

The Teacher of Record definition framework is the starting point for a dialogue within and between state education agencies (SEA), local education agencies/school districts (LEA), and schools about the purposes, characteristics, and data elements required for effective, reliable teacher-student data links (TSDL). These discussions should include near-term uses of the TSDL, as well as longer-term uses that leverage emerging teaching practices and technologies. The framework provides the structure for a common understanding of the TOR concepts along with the flexibility to customize a TOR definition to reflect a state's education policies and priorities.

The CELT framework begins with this definitional template: a teacher of record is an "educator” who is responsible for a "specified proportion” of a student's "learning activities” that are within a "subject or course” and are aligned to "performance measures”. From this starting point, the SEA, the LEAs or school districts, and individual schools select the appropriate words to replace or modify those in quotation marks depending on how they intend to use the term. They identify the data elements required to support their specific TOR definition and whether these can be gathered in a cost-effective manner. If the data cannot be gathered to support the definition, the term needs to be redefined.