Skip to main content

Setting Up Ascend: A Step-by-Step Guide

Ready to get Ascend configured for your district? Follow these eight steps in order — from building your evaluation framework to assigning pathways and evaluators.

K
Written by Kevin Sun

Before You Begin

Make sure:

  • You have administrator access to Settings. To open Settings, click your profile picture in the top-right corner and select Settings

  • Your organization has Ascend and Pathways enabled — you should see both sections in the Settings sidebar. If you don't, contact Lebra support

You'll complete these steps in order:

  1. Create your Framework Roles

  2. Build your Domains

  3. Add your Standards (Components)

  4. Review your Rating Scale

  5. Set your School Year Dates

  6. Customize Growth Plan Naming (optional)

  7. Create your Pathways

  8. Assign Pathways, Evaluators, and Roles

Note: A few settings in this guide (Evaluation type, the Scoring tab, and score ranges on ratings) only appear if your organization uses State Reporting. If you don't see them, you can skip those details.

Step 1: Create Your Roles

Why start here? Everything else (domains, standards, rubrics) connects to roles. You need roles first.

Framework Roles are separate from job titles: a person's Framework Role determines which evaluation framework (domains, standards, and rating descriptions) is used to evaluate them.

How to create roles:

  1. Navigate to Settings → Ascend → Framework → Framework Roles tab

  2. Click Add Framework Role

  3. Enter the Role name (e.g., "Elementary Teacher", "School Counselor", "Building Principal"). If your organization uses State Reporting, also select an Evaluation type

  4. Click Add Framework Role

  5. Repeat for all positions that need evaluations

Tips:

  • Be specific: "Elementary Teacher" and "Secondary Teacher" might need separate roles if they have different evaluation frameworks

  • Think about all staff: Don't forget counselors, social workers, paraprofessionals, custodians — anyone who gets evaluated

Step 2: Build Your Domains

For each role, create the domain structure. Domains are the broad categories of practice that your standards are grouped under.

How to create domains:

  1. Navigate to Settings → Ascend → Framework → Rubrics tab

  2. Select a role from the dropdown at the top-left corner

  3. Click Add Domain in the top-right corner

  4. Enter the number label (e.g., "1") and name (e.g., "Planning and Preparation")

  5. Click Add Domain

  6. Repeat for all domains in that role

Tip: Already have your full framework written out? Click Add with JSON (next to Add Domain) to import a role's domains, components, and rating descriptions all at once — the dialog shows the exact format to use.

Example domain structure for a Teacher role:

  • Domain 1: Planning and Preparation

  • Domain 2: Classroom Environment

  • Domain 3: Instruction

  • Domain 4: Professional Responsibilities

Example domain structure for a Counselor role:

  • Domain 1: Student Support and Development

  • Domain 2: Responsive Services

  • Domain 3: Program Management

  • Domain 4: Professional Standards

Step 3: Add Your Standards (Components)

For each domain, add the specific standards you'll evaluate. In Ascend these are called components (or indicators).

How to create components:

  1. Navigate to Settings → Ascend → Framework → Rubrics tab

  2. Select a role from the dropdown at the top-left corner

  3. Find the domain you wish to add a component to and click Add Component on its Components/Indicators row

  4. Fill in the Add Component/Indicator window:

    • Domain — pre-filled with the domain you clicked; change it if needed

    • Number Label — enter the component's number within the domain (e.g., enter "1" for the first component; the domain number is added automatically, so it displays as "1.1")

    • Name — the standard's title (e.g., "Knowledge of Content")

    • Is District Goal — select this box to make the component mandatory for everyone in the role

    • Default for groups (optional) — everyone in a selected group gets this component pre-selected in their plan

    • Description — explain what this standard means (required)

    • Rating descriptions (optional) — describe what each score level looks like for this component. These appear to evaluators when scoring

  5. Click Add

  6. Repeat for all standards in that domain

Step 4: Review Your Rating Scale

Review and customize the rating levels used to score staff.

How to customize ratings:

  1. Navigate to Settings → Ascend → Framework → Ratings tab

  2. You'll see your organization's rating levels (most organizations start with a default 4-level scale)

  3. Click the Edit button on any level to edit:

    • Change the name (e.g., "Developing" → "Basic")

    • Change the rating number of each level

    • If your organization uses State Reporting, you'll also see Score Range and SAI Percentage Range fields here — these control how calculated scores map to each rating level

  4. Click Save changes

Caution: Deleting a rating level also removes its descriptions from every component. Only delete a level if you're sure your district doesn't use it. If you need a different number of rating levels, contact Lebra support.

For different scales per role: If you need teachers on a 4-point scale and administrators on a 3-point scale, the rating levels themselves are org-wide, but you control which levels apply to each role's standards through the component-level rating descriptions.

Step 5: Set Your School Year Dates

Pathways and timeline calculations depend on your school year.

Note: Only administrators can change the school year dates. If you don't see an Edit button in this section, ask an administrator to set them.

How to set school year dates:

  1. Navigate to Settings → Ascend → General

  2. Find the School year dates section

  3. Click Edit

  4. Select the Start date and End date for the current school year

  5. Click Save

Note: The Pathways you create in Step 7 must fall within this date range.

Step 6: Customize Growth Plan Naming (Optional)

If your district uses different terminology:

  1. Navigate to Settings → Ascend → General

  2. Find the "PDP naming convention" section

  3. Select the Edit button

  4. Enter your preferred:

    • Short name (default: "PDP")

    • Long name (default: "Professional Development Plan")

  5. Click Save

Note: Your custom name (e.g., "Professional Learning Plan") appears throughout the platform, including in milestone names.

Step 7: Create Your Pathways

Pathways define each staff group's evaluation timeline for the year — which activities (observations, self-evaluations, growth plans, summative evaluations) are required, how many, and when they're due.

How to create a pathway:

  1. Navigate to Settings → Pathways

  2. Click Add Pathway

  3. Enter a Pathway name (e.g., "Tenured Teacher" or "New / Probationary Teacher")

  4. Select the Start date of Pathway and End date of Pathway (they must fall within the school year dates from Step 5)

  5. Under Timeline, click Add Milestone and set each milestone's type, due date, and quantity

  6. Click Add Pathway

  7. Repeat for each staff group with a different evaluation timeline

For milestone types, editing, duplicating pathways year over year, and tracking progress, see the Pathways article.

Step 8: Assign Pathways, Evaluators, and Roles

Now define who evaluates whom. Pathways, Evaluators, Reviewers, and Framework Roles are all assigned from a single place: the Assignments page.

How to assign staff:

  1. Navigate to Settings → Pathways → Assignments

  2. Select the checkbox next to each person you want to assign. Use search, sorting, and filters to narrow the list, or use the checkbox in the table header to select everyone on the page

  3. Click Bulk Assign in the toolbar

  4. In the Bulk Assign window, fill in any of the following (leave a field empty to skip it):

    • Pathway — the evaluation timeline the selected staff will follow (from Step 7)

    • Evaluator — the person who conducts their observations and evaluations

    • Reviewer — one or more additional people who review their evaluations

    • Framework Role — the role (from Step 1) that determines which rubric applies

  5. Click Assign

  6. Repeat for each group of staff that shares the same assignments

Tips:

  • The summary cards at the top of the page show how many people are still missing an evaluator or a pathway — click a card to filter to just those people. When both cards reach zero, everyone is covered and your setup is complete

  • The toolbar also includes Unassign Pathway, Unassign Evaluator, Unassign Reviewer, and Add to Group actions for the selected people

  • To change a single person's assignments, use the three-dot menu at the end of their row

Note: How often observations occur and when they are due is defined by the milestones in each Pathway. See Pathways to learn how to create and manage them.

You're Done — What's Next?

Once every staff member has a pathway, an evaluator, and a framework role, your Ascend setup is complete. From here:

  • Evaluators can track their assigned staff and upcoming milestones from Ascend → Evaluator Dashboard and begin scheduling observations

  • Staff will see their assigned milestones, such as self-evaluations and growth plans, as they come due

To learn the day-to-day workflows, see:

Did this answer your question?