To receive an evaluation of less than satisfactory without prior knowledge of problems is, in our opinion, extremely unfair not only to the teacher who receives such a rating, but to that teacher’s students, as well.  Therefore, it is our belief that a negative evaluation should never be a surprise. 

Administrators have been charged by their school districts with the task of ensuring that students receive the best instruction possible.

Evaluators are told in their state training that they should conduct regular observations throughout the year.  After any observation, positive or negative, the evaluator should provide the teacher with feedback.

If evaluators see on-going problems, they should, with the teacher’s input, develop an intervention plan to correct any problems.  To do less than this is unfair not only to the teacher but to the students. In plain words, the teacher has been denied the opportunity to improve and/or change because the evaluator failed to do his/her job.

Any employee who is presented with an evaluation that is less than satisfactory should immediately call his/her association for guidance.  Please remember that teachers have only 10 days to seek a second appraisal after they receive their observation reports.  If prior knowledge of negative performance has not been shared before this time, the teacher should talk to his/her association about filing a complaint.

Time for this is limited.  In most cases, formal complaints must be filed within 15 working days (sometimes shorter, depending on your district) from the day you knew or should have known of the reason for the complaint.
Ask yourself, if you had failed to send out progress reports to a student who was failing, what would your evaluator say?  What would he/she do?