There is most certainly an aspect of subjectivity with this rating system. I would certainly upload your lesson plans as evidence of that particular strand and ask your evaluator for further clarification on your rating.

I would go to the teacher who was using your lesson plans and explain that your evaluations say you need improvement in the area of differentiated learning and instructional planning. I would ask what she did in those areas and if she had any suggestions for improvements. Maybe there is something she is doing in the classroom that is not mentioned in the lesson plan and you really could gain some insight. Outside of that, I would contact your evaluator and ask them for ideas on improvement- what exactly do you need to change? If you do this and still get back "needs improvement" I would take the issue to your principal and show the steps you have taken to improve and ask for more details on what they feel you need to change.

I would follow the"chain of command" in regards of who to contact. I am not sure if teachers are supposed to compare rating( even though most of us do), but since you have this knowledge I would definitely upload the lesson plans and first talk with the elevator. Did you both have the same elevator. This makes a huge difference unfortunately. If the issue was solely with the lesson plans and not the implementation, then I would have the issue looked into. If you have to contact the district to investigate so be it.

Was the needs development issued solely from looking at your lesson plans or was it issued through observation of your instruction? I would first speak to the other teacher who also used your lesson plans. I would find out if they were implemented in the classroom differently than you did. If it is solely based on lesson plans and not observations, I would directly contact the observer and address your concerns.

I would definitely ask for it to be reviewed again as that totally represents favoritism. I would go to the administration.

One issue that I have found within the school that I teach at is that evaluators measure effectiveness of teachers very differently. Therefore, I am not sure in your case if it was the same evaluator for you as it was for the other teacher, but it may be a case of two different evaluators having varying opinions on what is proficient and what is not proficient. However, one solution that has occurred at my school is that the first walkthrough's for teachers, all possible evaluators come in together, measure that teacher's effectiveness, and then discusses with one another how they measured the way they did. This solution has helped all evaluators be on the same level in terms of measuring teacher effectiveness.