Early Childhood Teacher Assessment: Observation, Feedback, and Self-Assessment

Abstract

Early childhood education has changed over the years, especially with the additional focus on teacher accountability and student success. Policymakers believe teacher accountability will improve student achievement beginning in early childhood. President Obama is actively promoting his Early Learning proposal, which outlines the President’s goal for providing high quality early learning environments for all four year olds (www.ed.gov/early-learning). As part of this proposal, states are required to increase workforce accountability, which is directly related to teacher evaluations. There are three teacher evaluation methods that are discussed in this article, including observation, feedback, and self-assessment.