Designing a personnel management system for school psychologists

Conclusion

The development of the personnel evaluation system for special services personnel in North Carolina exists as a case model for the implementation of the Personnel Evaluation Standards (Joint Committee on Standards for Educational Evaluation, 1988). Reliance on expertise from both those to be evaluated as well as those with expertise in the development of personnel evaluation systems, the consideration of the needs of individuals and of educational organizations, and the emphasis on the collection of data in naturalistic settings all tend toward the development of comprehensive systems of personnel management, of which performance evaluation is but one part, albeit an important part. In this way, of course, many of the cautions enumerated by Stronge and Helm (1991) have been accounted for and a strong system of personnel evaluation is the result.

In any case, the development of personnel evaluation systems in North Carolina, of which the school psychologist is only one example, have made it clear that a performance evaluation system cannot be successfully built in isolation. The other components of a fully articulated personnel management system, complete with job description, methods and forms for data collection and analysis, training for both evaluators and evaluatees, and procedures for performance improvement and enhancement, are essential if the evaluation of performance is to be seen as anything other than a bureaucratic ritual in which organizations compel our participation.