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:
Create your Framework Roles
Build your Domains
Add your Standards (Components)
Review your Rating Scale
Set your School Year Dates
Customize Growth Plan Naming (optional)
Create your Pathways
Assign Pathways, Evaluators, and Roles
Note: A few settings in this guide (Evaluation type, the Scoring & weights section, and score ranges on ratings) only appear if your organization uses State Reporting. If you don't see them, you can skip those details.
Steps 1–4 all happen on one page: Settings → Ascend → Framework. Your framework roles are listed in the left sidebar, and everything about the selected role — its rubric and, for State Reporting districts, its scoring — appears on the right. The rating scale, which every role shares, sits above the role list under Shared settings.
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.
Note: A person can hold up to two framework roles — a primary and an optional secondary — and each role runs its own evaluation cycle with its own pathway and evaluator. See Staff Who Hold Two Framework Roles.
How to create roles:
Navigate to Settings → Ascend → Framework
In the left sidebar, under Framework roles, click Add role
Enter the Role name (e.g., "Elementary Teacher", "School Counselor", "Building Principal")
Under Start with, keep Blank framework — or choose Copy from an existing role to reuse its domains, components, and rating descriptions as a starting point (see the tips below)
Click Create role & open (or Copy & open role). The new role opens on the right, ready for its domains
If your organization uses State Reporting, click Edit role at the top of the role's page, select an Evaluation type, and click Save changes. Choose Does not apply for roles your state doesn't require you to report
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
Copying a role creates an independent framework — later edits to one role never affect the other. Staff assignments aren't copied, and the rating scale stays shared by all roles. Districts with State Reporting can also tick Copy scoring weights and rules; Copy group defaults carries over each component's Default for groups setting
A warning triangle next to a role in the sidebar means its setup is incomplete — for example, it has no domains yet. Hover over the triangle to see why. It clears as you finish the steps below
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:
Navigate to Settings → Ascend → Framework
Select the role in the left sidebar. Its Rubric section opens on the right
Click Add domain at the bottom of the Rubric section
Enter the number label (e.g., "1") and name (e.g., "Planning and Preparation")
Click Add Domain
Repeat for all domains in that role
Tip: Already have your full framework written out? Click Import JSON at the top of the Rubric section to import a role's domains, components, and rating descriptions all at once — the dialog shows the exact format to use.
To rename or delete a domain later, click the domain to expand it and open the ⋮ menu on its Components / indicators row.
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:
Navigate to Settings → Ascend → Framework and select the role in the left sidebar
In the Rubric section, click a domain to expand it, then click Add component at the bottom of that domain. The component editor opens beside the list
Fill in the editor:
Domain — pre-filled with the domain you clicked; change it if needed
Number label — pre-filled with the next number in the domain (e.g., "1" for the first component; the domain number is added automatically, so it displays as "1.1"). Change it if your framework numbers differently
Name — the standard's title (e.g., "Knowledge of Content")
District goal — check 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). If you paste text that arrives with hard line breaks, click Unwrap lines to join them back into paragraphs
Rating descriptions (optional) — describe what each score level looks like for this component. These appear to evaluators when scoring
Click Save — or Save & add another to start the next component in the same domain right away, or Save & next to move on to the next existing component
Repeat for all standards in that domain
Tip: The editor reads "Unsaved changes" until you save, and Lebra asks before discarding edits if you switch to another component or role. To change a component later, click its name in the list, or open its ⋮ menu and choose Edit component.
Step 4: Review Your Rating Scale
Review and customize the rating levels used to score staff. The rating scale is shared by every framework role.
How to customize ratings:
Navigate to Settings → Ascend → Framework and select Rating scale under Shared settings at the top of the left sidebar
You'll see your organization's rating levels (most organizations start with a default 4-level scale)
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
Click Save changes
Caution: Deleting a rating level also removes its descriptions from every component, in every role. 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.
If your organization uses State Reporting and any score couldn't be given a rating (a gap or overlap between score ranges), a warning banner at the top of the Rating scale page lists exactly what to fix.
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:
Navigate to Settings → Ascend → General
Find the School year dates section
Click Edit
Select the Start date and End date for the current school year
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:
Navigate to Settings → Ascend → General
Find the "PDP naming convention" section
Select the Edit button
Enter your preferred:
Short name (default: "PDP")
Long name (default: "Professional Development Plan")
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:
Navigate to Settings → Pathways
Click Add Pathway
Enter a Pathway name (e.g., "Tenured Teacher" or "New / Probationary Teacher")
Select the Start date of Pathway and End date of Pathway (they must fall within the school year dates from Step 5)
Under Timeline, click Add Milestone and set each milestone's type, due date, and quantity
Click Add Pathway
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.
Two things to know before you start:
Pathways and evaluators are assigned per framework role. Each role a person holds gets its own pathway and its own evaluator. For staff with a single role (most people), this makes no practical difference — assign as you always have.
Reviewers are per person, not per role, and a person can have more than one.
How to assign staff:
Navigate to Settings → Pathways → Assignments
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
Click Bulk Assign in the toolbar
Choose which role slot the assignment targets: Primary role (the default) or Secondary role. The pathway and evaluator go to that role for each selected person; when Secondary is selected, people without a secondary role are skipped
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 observations and evaluations for the targeted role
Reviewer — one or more additional people who review their evaluations (per person, regardless of role)
Click Assign
To set Framework Roles, use the separate Bulk Assign Roles action in the same toolbar. Its Primary role field reassigns each person's primary role (from Step 1), and its Secondary role field gives people an optional second role
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, a pathway, or a framework role — click a card to filter to just those people. When the 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
If some staff hold two roles, run the assignment twice — once targeting the Primary role slot and once targeting the Secondary — so both roles have a pathway and an evaluator. See Staff Who Hold Two Framework Roles
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: