Idaho school administrators over the past two years have had access to a new evaluation system built around a simple idea: treat teachers like learners, not just employees being measured.

The state in 2024 signed a two-year contract with online teacher evaluation platform 2gnoMe — pronounced “to know me.” Founder and CEO Ilya Zeldin said the idea began with a simple observation.

“Teachers are asked to personalize learning for the students in the classroom, but why not do the same thing for teachers themselves?” Zeldin said.

Supporting teachers, he said, is a design choice. The teacher evaluation process is often fragmented, with observations and learning happening in different places. He wanted to bring everything in one place. 

The system is built around the Danielson Framework for Teaching, Idaho’s standard evaluation rubric. Administrators can enter observation data and submit feedback, and teachers can find resources to help them improve their craft, Zeldin explained. Schools can use the system to create professional learning communities. If several teachers are struggling with questioning strategies, for example, they can team up with a teacher who excels in that area.

2gnoMe provides teacher evaluation software to schools in 18 states, he said, but Idaho is the first to sign a statewide contract with the company.

Idaho in 2024 ended a six-year relationship with Frontline Education Technologies Group and signed a two-year contract with 2gnoMe for a maximum cost of $740,000.

Frontline’s contract began at $245,000 per year in 2018 and increased to $317,537 by 2023. 2gnoMe’s two-year contract includes up to $80,000 in one-time costs and up to $330,000 in annual costs, according to contracts EdNews received through a records request.

School districts can choose to use 2gnoMe. Last year, the state paid $78,060 to 2gnoMe to cover 72 districts and charters and 5,800 users, according to Marissa Morrison, spokesperson for the Idaho State Board of Education. The contract amount is for up to $370,000 annually, but each year is slightly different.

The state has reserved funds to cover any district that wants to be included, Morrison stated in an email to EdNews.

Brenda Miner, human resources director for the Pocatello/Chubbuck School District, told EdNews that the district switched to 2gnoMe when the state’s contract changed.

“We changed just because that wasn’t a piece that was budgeted,” Miner said.

She said the first year with the new system was kind of bumpy and the district wasn’t able to unlock its full potential — and there’s still more to learn.

While Frontline was strictly a teacher evaluation program, Miner said 2gnoMe provides more opportunities for professional development and is more individualized. Districts can use it strictly to meet compliance standards or take it a step further with coaching and learning communities.

“The biggest difference, I would say, is that it’s more customized to the teacher,” Miner said.

Kelly Cross — a former teacher, administrator and retired Boise State professor of educational leadership — said she has reviewed teachers for more than eight years. She said she’s heard from administrators that formal evaluations sometimes feel like a “check the box” kind of thing.

She could see how 2gnoMe would have been helpful when she was an administrator. The platform keeps everything in one place.

“Rather than having a separate folder on each teacher, you would have it all right there in one view,” Cross said. “Yeah, I could see time savings, certainly, but also knowing that I could have resources.”

2gnoMe uses artificial intelligence to help administrators write teacher feedback.

Zeldin said it is “human led, AI supported.” The program gathers information administrators have entered into the system to write summative feedback, he said.

“It helps principals just write evidence-based feedback in a very consistent, structured way, grounded to the rubric in about 30 seconds,” Zeldin said.

Evaluations can determine state funding

In Idaho, teacher evaluations can affect educators’ ability to maintain a certificate, get raises and can impact the level of state funding for districts.

As EdNews reported in November, nearly 99% of Idaho’s public school teachers last school year earned at least “proficient” grades in performance evaluations.

In 2016, the Idaho Professional Standards Commission reprimanded two past superintendents for submitting inaccurate evaluation data. The following year, Charlotte Danielson, author of “Framework for Teaching,” which inspired the state’s standards for evaluations, said that Idaho’s ratings will likely be inflated as long as raises are tied to evaluations.

The state’s contract with 2gnoMe ends June 30.