Make Your Rating and Assessment a Time to Shine

The latest Sector Newsletter includes some research from the University of New England highlighting the impact the Rating and Assessment process can have on Educators.  Some Educators reported feeling nervous, stressed, anxious, criticised, and undervalued.  This research is really concerning, as I have found our EarlyWorks Educators to be overwhelmingly dedicated, hardworking, caring and professional.  To think that they would experience these levels of angst over a process that is supposed to be supportive, affirming and constructive, is just wrong.

Then I started thinking about EarlyWorks, and how when used well, much of that angst can be replaced with a sense of pride and satisfaction in all that has been achieved.  How? EarlyWorks takes the documentation and brings it all together to make visible the quality of the work being done by each educator in the service.

Collaborative QIP: Administrators and Educators can contribute to the service’s QIP Evidence List with a click of a button. Ease of access and simple input design enable the QIP to be a living document that continuously evolves over time, showing the service’s road to continuous improvement.

Visible Planning Cycles: EarlyWorks can detect whether there are evident planning cycles for every child and every room! Individual and Room planning cycle reports can be generated with the click of a button.

Ongoing Assessment of Children’s Learning: Every child’s learning and development can be easily monitored and assessed at any time with learning journeys and learning profiles and planning cycles being updated by EarlyWorks every time documentation is added.

Evidence of Family Engagement: Families can comment on observations, journals, images, as well as adding spontaneous comments at any time. Educators can also see when families have accessed EarlyWorks, and what documentation has been read.

Evidence of Critical Reflection: Educators can record individual critical reflections, using EarlyWorks’ Reflection of Pedagogy. Educators can engage in collaborative reflection using Program Comments and Evaluations of Experiences. Educational Leaders can provide feedback on Reflections of Pedagogy and can also contribute to each Room’s discussions in Program Comments.

While it is normal to feel anxious when you care deeply about something, we believe the Ratings and Assessment process should be every service’s time to shine.

Recent Posts