ExchangeEveryDay Past Issues

I agree with everything Kay said, except that evaluation shouldn't be limited to top down. Assistants should evaluate their teachers, teachers should evaluate each other and their administrators. As a teacher-director, I got some of my most valuable feedback from the people I worked with every day.

Wayne & Terry Kelly, I agree with you both. It's very hard to evaluate co-workers. And in my case, unfortunately, we don't have administrators with background in early childhood or an understanding of developmentally appropriate practice, so we don't get useful or meaningful feedback from them, either. Providing meaningful feedback for professional growth and/or for evaluative purposes is tricky business. This is especially true when you throw the idea of performance-based pay into the mix. There is no simple answer. However, I think that staff members should be involved in the process of finding a system that works for their program.

The nature of early childhood education is that the work is often seen as babysitting and many caregivers suffer low self esteem. These and other issues presents a challenge with the evaluation process no matter who the evaluators may be. I believe sharing the job of evaluation will create problems among staff who are not trained how to accept the feedback or how to present feedback. Staff will need to be open and ready for these feedback opportunities and somewhat secure in their competencies for the process to bear a positive outcome. Ironically, we need to take baby steps when we embrace ideas we believe in so that the tumbles we are sure to experience will not hurt us too badly. We need to care for our staff as we would our children. With love and attention to the individual idiosyncrasies of each one.

While I agree with twice a year feedback being insufficient in child care, (which I've rarely seen in reality), I have to disagree with the suggestions for how to go about it. An environment with mostly women working very closely, with little structural room for growth, I see problems with coworkers evaluating each other in this matter. In my experience a team approach works better, as does self-reflection built into the program. I think the phrase, "celebrate what you want to see more of" should also apply. Otherwise, resentments and pettiness could arise, instead of professional growth.