Post 341: Is it better to have One Annual Faculty Performance Review or Multiple Semester Reviews?

Is it better to have one annual faculty performance review or multiple semester reviews?

The faculty performance evaluation (FPE) is intended to recognize accomplishments and foster future plans of faculty members who are contributing to the mission of the College and University and, in rare cases, to provide guidance to those not contributing meaningfully to the well-being of the College or University.

At the places where I worked, I have had the once a year annual faculty performance evaluation,  semester reviews, weekly reviews and daily reviews.  When I was student teaching to get my teaching credential, I was reviewed every day by the Master Teacher on my teaching, class lessons, classroom discipline and teaching style among many other criteria.

Because I was reviewed every day, I developed a strong bond/relationship/friendship with my Master Teacher whom I trusted. She gave me really good advice on how to teach an engaging lesson, how to save time grading, and most importantly, how to keep students engaged. She said I had to enforce classroom rules evenly among all students and show no favoritism because as soon as a teacher shows favoritism the teacher loses all credibility.

It was hard having daily reviews, but I was really able to grow as a teacher. When I had semester reviews, my boss and I worked together to improve my online teaching. If I made any mistakes, she would tell me about it. Mostly, they were teaching preferences. Some bosses wanted me to talk more in the forums, while other bosses wanted me to talk less in the forums. All bosses found better ways for me to better bond with students, communicate with students, give engaging lessons (just like my face to face mentor did). And as a result of these semester visits, I grew as an online teacher.

For me, having more frequent reviews like semester reviews helped me more in the long run to improve my teaching to that bosses' liking than just a yearly review. I like getting constant feedback from my boss--even negative feedback--to improve my teaching. Even an award winning Teacher of the Year teacher like me is continuously learning how to improve my craft.

It is always disconcerting to get a negative yearly review. I heard colleagues complain that the drawback to the yearly review is you hear about your drawbacks only once a year. Then the boss evaluates your salary raise, promotion, tenure prospects or even staying hired based on that once a year evaluation and if the boss finds a lot wrong, I have had colleagues fired.  For me, if I am doing something to displease the boss, I would like to know right away during my weekly or semester reviews so I can fix the problem right away rather than hear about it in the yearly review when it can be too late.

For me, personally, the more I am reviewed, the better. In that way, I know that I am constantly on the same page as my boss, my colleagues and my school. The newer I am to the school, the more reviews and feedback I think I should get so that I learn that school's culture faster than if I just had yearly reviews. 

I also know that senior staff dislike being reviewed constantly because they feel they have earned the right to be left alone--not a good attitude--I think that no matter how long you have been at a school, the more frequent the review, the better the teacher performance. Just like with students, the more teachers give students feedback, the better the students improve--same goes for teacher's teaching performance.  I think the more I get reviewed, the better, and the faster I can improve and teach the way the boss and the school wants me to teach.

Also with frequent reviews, I get to develop a better relationship with the boss as we get to learn what each other likes and dislikes in teaching. I also get to develop a close trusting relationship with the boss and  learn how to behave around that boss. Hopefully, the boss and the employee can form a trusting relationship that leads to life long friendship. I am still friends with the boss who used to give me daily reviews when I was student teaching for instance.

What do you think? Would you prefer a semester review or a yearly review for old and new teachers?