Summary
The evaluation of professional educational support personnel has not received the same attention nor generated the same efforts as the evaluation of classroom teachers. There is not yet a system for professional support personnel comparable to “effective teaching behaviors,” an omission that unsettles both specialized support staff and the generalist supervisors responsible for evaluating them.
What we have presented here is a comprehensive approach applicable to professional support personnel. It begins with identifying district (student and community) needs, describing job responsibilities based on the goals of programs (clarified through the needs assessment), identifying staff behaviors as indicators of job performance, setting standards by which to measure staff performance, documenting the job performance, and using sound evaluation practices that incorporate all the necessary due process requirements for fairness. By involving the professional support personnel in each of these steps, evaluators will maximize the potential for growth as well as protect themselves and the evaluatees throughout the evaluation process.
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Stronge, J.H., Helm, V.M. Evaluating educational support personnel: A conceptual and legal framework. J Pers Eval Educ 4, 145–156 (1990). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00126123
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00126123