Article Link: http://exchangepress.com/article/program-evaluation-for-child-care-professionals-guidelines-for-self-and-program-improvement/5014075/
An evaluation can sound like an unexciting or even an intimidating event, but evaluation is an ongoing and necessary process in the life of a child care professional who has mastered child development or early childhood education, and then keeps up with any new developments.Consider the case of another professional, your family pediatrician. Wouldn't you expect your doctor to be up to date? If your pediatrician finished her training in, say, 1970, and then never read another journal article or took another course, she could not be current with new drug therapies or diagnostic technology. You probably wouldn't trust her with your children's health because the field of medicine has changed so much in the last 30 years.
Parents have the right to expect that caregivers entrusted with the future of their children be professionals who are current in the knowledge base of their field. Ongoing evaluations of the child care program and the child care staff ensure that the program and the people involved remain current.
Any evaluation is easier when the process starts with thoughtful planning. The Evaluation Planning Worksheet (Figure 1) can be filled out by individual teachers or directors or used as a tool to help program staff ...