Challenges were anticipated during this inaugural year for the RISE model, Indiana’s new educator evaluation and development system. The project purpose was to gain insight on how Indiana teachers and administrators were embracing and adapting to the teacher evaluation and development system. Administrators and educators (N = 3) were interviewed about their perceptions of the challenges and successes of the first year RISE implementation. Results revealed perspectives for the effectiveness of the system in the inaugural year and how resilient (i.e. long term use) educators and administrators believed the new evaluation system would be in regards to administrative feasibility and determining teacher effectiveness. Participants voiced concerns about the school climate of “every man for themselves” as reality for some schools in Indiana. The impact of merit-based evaluations is causing stress and concern amongst teachers. How Indiana advances with its educator evaluation system is still unknown.