Requesting a Score Confirmation

PAL Scoring Process

All PAL tasks are scored according to standardized procedures by a minimum of two qualified scorers. Scorers include educational leaders, leadership preparation faculty (including clinical faculty) or educational professionals with administrative credentials or recent experience in school leadership, professional development, or technical support with schools in Massachusetts. Each scorer participates in rigorous task-specific training to become qualified as a PAL scorer. The scorers are carefully monitored during scoring activities to maintain high quality and consistency in scoring across tasks.

Score Confirmation Service

If you believe your score on one or more indicators was reported in error, you may request a score confirmation. The score confirmation service is available only for scores reported on or after 1/12/2017. There is a fee for this service. You may request a score confirmation within 60 calendar days of the receipt of your score.

Score confirmations are completed by scoring supervisors—experienced scorers who have completed task-specific training and successfully passed scorer qualification assessments. Upon review of the scores initially assigned to your work, the scoring supervisor will confirm that the appropriate scores were applied.

If the score confirmation process results in a score alteration (either higher or lower than originally reported), you will be issued a corrected score report, the score confirmation fee will be refunded, and your records will be updated.

If the original score is confirmed as a result of the score confirmation process, you will be sent a letter indicating that your score has been confirmed, and the score confirmation fee will not be refunded.

Note: Score confirmation can be requested only when a numeric score has been assigned to all indicators. If any of your PAL materials do not meet the PAL submission requirements as defined in the PAL Submission Requirements and Condition Codes , your score report will include an associated condition code(s) on one or more indicators. A condition code on your score report indicates that the designated task(s) are unscorable and, therefore, are not eligible for score confirmation.

Requesting a Score Confirmation

A request to confirm the scoring of a PAL task can be submitted online using the Score Confirmation Request Form. You must submit your request for this service within 60 calendar days of the task’s score reporting date. The score confirmation service fee is $200 and must be paid using a credit card (VISA or MasterCard only) or a debit or check card that carries the VISA or MasterCard logo and that can be used without the entry of a personal identification number (PIN).