What 3012-d Was, and Why It Is Ending
Education Law 3012-d, enacted in 2015, governed New York’s Annual Professional Performance Review system for nearly a decade. It established a state-prescribed weighting matrix — 60 percent observations, with student growth and SLO data weighted according to state-defined formulas — and required districts to rate educators on the HEDI scale: Highly Effective, Effective, Developing, or Ineffective. Every tenured educator received a full observation cycle and an annual overall rating, every year, without exception.
The 3012-d framework was designed to bring consistency and accountability to educator evaluation. Over time, the costs of that consistency became apparent. The annual observation requirement created an unsustainable workload for building administrators. The reliance on standardized assessment data for SLOs disadvantaged educators in non-tested subjects and raised legitimate equity concerns. The state-prescribed weighting left districts with little room to design evaluation systems that reflected local instructional priorities.
These concerns were not fringe critiques. They were documented extensively and reflected in the broad coalition — spanning educator unions, administrator associations, and district leadership — that supported the transition to 3012-e.
What NYS-STEPS Structurally Changes
Chapter 143 of the Laws of 2024 — signed June 28, 2024 — established Education Law 3012-e and the NYS Standards-based Educator Evaluation and Professional Support framework, known as NYS-STEPS. The Board of Regents finalized implementing regulations under 8 NYCRR Subpart 30-4.2 in March 2025. The shift from 3012-d to NYS-STEPS is not cosmetic. It is a structural redesign of how educator evaluation works in New York, affecting observation cycles, rating scales, additional measures, component weighting, and documentation requirements.
Observation Cycles. Under 3012-d, every educator — tenured or not — required a full annual observation cycle. Under 3012-e, tenured educators rated at the two higher performance levels may be placed on multi-year observation cycles of up to three years. Probationary educators and those rated at the two lower performance levels remain on annual cycles. This single change has meaningful implications for administrator workload and for how evaluation platforms must manage scheduling, cycle tracking, and rating generation.
Rating Scale. The HEDI four-category rating scale is replaced by a 1–4 numeric scale: Level 1 (significantly below expectations), Level 2 (below expectations), Level 3 (meets expectations), Level 4 (exceeds expectations). Overall ratings are no longer generated annually for tenured educators on multi-year cycles — they are generated at cycle end. Platforms that generate annual overall ratings for all educators by default are not aligned with the 3012-e structure.
Additional Measures. Student Learning Objectives, as defined under 3012-d, are replaced by a broader category of “other measures” under 3012-e. Districts may select from NYSED’s sample measures menu — which includes goal setting and attainment, student outcome data, portfolios of student work, teacher and principal projects, LEA-developed measures, and peer observation — or may develop their own locally designed instruments. Each measure must be explicitly aligned to NYS Teaching Standards or the Professional Standards for Educational Leaders (PSELs).
Component Weighting. The state-prescribed weighting matrix is eliminated. Under 3012-e, component weights are locally negotiated through collective bargaining. Districts have meaningful flexibility to design evaluation systems that reflect local priorities — but that flexibility is only valuable if the platform can execute the weighting structure the district negotiates.
Standards Alignment Documentation. 3012-e requires that every element of a district’s evaluation plan — measures, rubrics, cycle design — be documented against NYS Teaching Standards or PSELs. This is not a reporting formality. It is a plan requirement, and it has direct implications for how evaluation platforms must store and surface documentation.
Worth knowing Under 3012-d, every educator received a single composite HEDI rating. Under 3012-e, each educator receives a 1–4 score on every NYS Teaching Standard or leadership standard. That’s a fundamentally more granular data set — and a fundamentally more useful picture of educator practice, if your platform is built to surface it that way.
The Sequencing Problem Most Districts Are Making
The natural instinct in district planning is to design the evaluation framework first, bargain it second, and then determine whether the software can support it. This is the wrong order, and it creates real risk.
Collective bargaining agreements are durable. Once a district has bargained a STEPS plan — specifying cycle structures, measure selections, weighting, and documentation requirements — the terms of that agreement govern implementation. If the platform cannot execute the bargained plan, the district faces a constrained set of difficult options: seek to reopen bargaining, implement workarounds that compromise the integrity of the evaluation process, or replace the platform under time pressure.
The correct sequencing is platform assessment first, plan design second, bargaining third. The platform determines what is operationally possible. Knowing the platform’s capabilities — and its limitations — before plan design ensures that what a district bargains is what it can actually run.
What Platform Readiness Means Under 3012-e
Not all platforms that claim 3012-e compliance are equally capable. Readiness means more than technical support for the new rating scale. It means genuine operational capacity to run the framework as designed. These are the questions that matter:
Not just annually — can it track individual educators on 1-, 2-, or 3-year cycles simultaneously, flag who is due when, and manage exceptions for probationary staff and those rated at the two lower performance levels?
3012-e requires per-standard 1–4 scoring. Platforms built around 3012-d’s component structure will struggle to retrofit this cleanly. The underlying data architecture is different.
Observations are table stakes. Can it also manage peer observation workflows, portfolio evidence, goal-setting documentation, student outcome data, and locally developed measures — all mapped to NYS Teaching Standards?
A tenured educator on a three-year cycle doesn’t receive an annual overall rating. The platform must accumulate evidence across all three years and produce a compliant overall rating and NYSED report at cycle completion — not at the end of each school year.
3012-e requires that every measure and rubric be documented against NYS Teaching Standards or PSELs. This isn’t a reporting afterthought — it’s a plan requirement your platform needs to support structurally.
Many districts are looking to consolidate. A platform that handles only certified staff leaves transportation, nutrition, clerical, technology, nursing, and security personnel without a comparable solution — and leaves your district managing two separate systems.
The platform-first test Before your district begins STEPS plan design, ask your current vendor to walk you through — in the actual product — how it handles a three-year observation cycle, per-standard scoring, and cycle-end overall rating generation. If the answer involves workarounds, exports to spreadsheets, or “that’s on our roadmap,” you have your answer.
RightPath™ and the 3012-e Framework
RightPath™ was built to support the structural requirements of NYS-STEPS from the ground up. The platform manages multi-year observation cycles with per-cycle overall rating generation, supports per-standard 1–4 scoring across all NYS Teaching Standards, accommodates the full 3012-e additional measures menu, and stores plan-level standards alignment documentation. NYSED reporting is organized by standard. Locally negotiated weighting structures are supported.
RightPath™ also evaluates non-educator staff — transportation, nursing, clerical, nutrition, technology, and security personnel — on the same platform, using role-appropriate rubrics districts design. For districts seeking a single evaluation system that covers every employee, this is a meaningful operational advantage.
The Path Forward
All New York districts must adopt a compliant NYS-STEPS plan by June 30, 2032. The districts that benefit most from the transition will not be the ones that wait. They will be the ones that assess their platform early, design a thoughtful plan around its capabilities, and bargain an agreement they can actually implement.
NY State Education STEPS (3012-e) Guidance Documents →
Read our plain-language guide to 3012-e APPR changes →
RightPath™ is ready for 3012-e — and ready to help you get there
Our evaluation platform supports multi-year observation cycle scheduling, per-standard 1–4 scoring across all selected measures, overall rating generation at cycle end, the full range of NYSED sample additional measures, and complete STEPS-compliant NYSED reporting. We also support evaluation of non-educator staff — transportation, nursing, clerical, nutrition, technology, security, and more — on the same platform.
We’ve been supporting New York districts through every evolution of APPR. We’re ready for STEPS.
