My Self Assessment

I just completed my self-assessment as part of working at Discovery Education. Every employee, I believe has to complete them. Essentially, I develop my own goals, and my own measures and then complete my own assessment. My boss consults with me, helps me decide what’s reasonable, has conversations with me about them and supports me to achieve them. 

I could stop right now and leave you with that thought as you consider both how you assess your students and how you as a professional are assessed. 

I looked back at a few related posts so I don’t repeat myself. These provide more detail on my thoughts about professionals, accountability, and assessment. As you might see, I’m fairly passionate about this topic. 

Should Teachers Own Their Learning?

Keeping the Professionalism in the Profession

We Have to Stop Doing this to Teachers

Follow Up to a Rant

I figured that Discovery hired me because they think I can do good work. I work with many talented people who inspire me to be better and offer me feedback on ways I can improve. Much of the work I do is public and available to the world. This seems like a simple formula that could easily be applied to any organization. 

So what’s the problem?

Is it that you didn’t hire the right people? That seems odd. If so, that’s a HR problem. 

Is it that you don’t work with enough talented people? I doubt it. Schools are filled with talent. 

Is it that we don’t trust people to create worthy or relevant goals? Yes, as a division we have larger goals but I know if I do the job I was hired to do, those things will take care of themselves.

Is it that we don’t trust people to work on their goals? Again, these are my goals, of course, I’m motivated. 

Is it that we don’t trust people to accurately assess their goals? Perhaps. But I value the perspective of trusted colleagues who will let me know if there are areas I might think differently about as well they often let me know of strengths or successes I didn’t even recognize. Now that’s a bonus. 

As long as we continue to own the assessment process for professionals, the longer they’ll be playing a game and even hating the idea of self-assessment as opposed to owning their own learning and seeing the process as valuable.