Childcare staff evaluations, done well, are one of the most effective tools a director has for building teacher trust and improving retention: hold a formal review at least once a year, prepare independent feedback ahead of the meeting, and use the conversation to set clear, growth-focused goals.
Staff retention is challenging for many childcare providers and preschools—federal data from the 2019 National Survey of Early Care and Education found that one-third of childcare centers experienced high teacher turnover, meaning more than 20% of their teaching staff left within a year. Gallup's 2024 employee retention research also found that four times as many people leave a job over workplace culture and management issues—including limited career development—than for pay alone. This means that investing more heavily in your staff's career development can make a major impact on your retention rates!
Staff evaluations are one of the best tools you have to help your teachers with their professional development. Unfortunately, many evaluations feel like a dreaded chore for both the director and the employee. However, when done with the right amount of planning and thoughtfulness, staff evaluations can actually be a valuable tool for building genuine relationships with your staff and helping them achieve their career goals.
In this article, you’ll learn how to turn staff evaluations into positive experiences that help you develop happier, more productive, and more skilled teachers.
Jump to:
- Step 1: Schedule the evaluation and set expectations
- Step 2: Give each staff member plenty of time for self-reflection
- Step 3: Prepare thoughtful and growth-focused feedback
- Step 4: Gather feedback from peers
- Step 5: Host a positive and productive conversation
- FAQ: Childcare staff evaluations
Step 1: Schedule the evaluation and set expectations
For consistency and accountability, it’s best to hold staff evaluations at least once a year at your program. Choose a cadence that works best for your program’s operating schedule, such as yearly performance reviews or quarterly informal check-ins with one formal annual review. Whichever format you choose, remember to schedule your evaluations well in advance (a minimum of two weeks is best) so both you and your team have ample time to prepare for the meeting.
Ideally, you should also schedule all your staff evaluations for similar times of the year, so you can be as efficient as possible with your time and energy. You might find that preparing for evaluations requires a different mindset than other parts of your job do, so holding your meetings close to one another can certainly help keep you focused. By scheduling your evaluations at set times every year, you’ll also help your staff remember when they occur so they’re not caught off guard when it’s time for their next review.
Regardless of how often you have staff evaluations, remember that you should also provide feedback for your teachers regularly, such as during weekly check-ins. Don’t save all your feedback to give once or twice a year, which could be overwhelming for your staff and unhelpful for their professional growth! Instead, consistently share your input and advice with teachers as it comes up so they can learn from you and improve in real-time.
Step 2: Give each staff member plenty of time for self-reflection
One of the most useful tools for staff evaluations is the self-evaluation form, which each teacher should use to reflect on their strengths and areas for improvement. By filling out the form before they meet with you, your staff will be better prepared to have a productive, thoughtful conversation about what they’ve accomplished and how they hope to grow as an early educator.
Whichever self-evaluation form you use, make sure it includes both quantitative (measured using numbers) and qualitative (open-ended) questions. Quantitative feedback will help your teachers think about their performance based on a set scale and provides a big-picture view of what they’re doing well and how they could improve. On the other hand, qualitative questions will help you and your teachers delve deeper into areas that numbers alone can’t fully explain, such as obstacles they’re encountering or any assistance they need to meet their goals. Including both types of questions will help your teachers think more holistically about their work and how they can continue to get better.
Remember to share the self-evaluation form with your teachers at least a week in advance so they have enough time to complete it and send it back to you ahead of the evaluation. This way, you can read their responses and check for any misalignments between their assessments and your own before the meeting.
At a glance: who's involved in a childcare staff evaluation
| Evaluation type | Completed by | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| Self-evaluation | The teacher | Reflect on personal strengths and growth areas before the meeting |
| Director evaluation | The program director or manager | Compare independent observations against the teacher’s self-assessment |
| Peer feedback (optional) | 2-3 fellow teachers, kept anonymous | Add a holistic, team-level view the director may not see on their own |
Step 3: Prepare thoughtful and growth-focused feedback
While your teachers work on their self-evaluation forms, you should independently fill out the same evaluation forms for each staff member before reading what they write about themselves. When you have their form in hand, compare the responses. Are there any areas that aren’t aligned? If so, what’s causing that? If you observe a lack of awareness in your teacher’s responses—for example, if they believe they’re worse or better in a certain skill than you find them to be—make note of this so you can explore this area more in person during the evaluation. Remember to prepare any relevant observations you can share that might help them grow in their awareness as well.
For any areas of improvement that you see, you should also make a note of how severe it is. Is it something that they need to improve on as quickly as possible to keep their job? Or is it something you’d address by planning a professional development day or another training opportunity to help them advance to the next level of their career or become a more effective educator? What will happen if they don’t make progress in this area? Decide if the area of improvement is a serious concern or an inspiring challenge they can grow in, and prepare for your conversation accordingly.
Free Childcare Staff Evaluation Forms
Free staff and self evaluation form templates to support your childcare staff.
Step 4 (optional, but encouraged): Gather feedback from peers
Depending on your team and your bandwidth, another great way to prepare for staff evaluations is to gather feedback from other teachers. Invite 2-3 other staff members to share one thing they think the teacher is doing well, and one thing they would like to challenge the teacher to work toward. Oftentimes, your staff team may have insights into each other’s work that you don’t have at the director level, so this can be a helpful way to gather more holistic information about your teachers’ performance. Remember to keep these responses anonymous, and feel free to filter out any irrelevant or unhelpful feedback as well.
Step 5: Host a positive and productive conversation
The staff evaluation is a chance to have an honest, two-way conversation. Talk through the teacher’s self-evaluation, and ask open-ended questions anywhere your responses didn’t align. Cover these five areas:
1. Recognize their strengths
Call out specific examples of what the teacher is doing well. Celebrating good work matters as much as coaching on weak spots.
Example: “You have been doing a fantastic job of communicating with parents when there’s a behavioral issue in the classroom. I know it’s not the most fun part of the job, but I can always count on you to be clear, helpful, and professional. Please keep up the gentle but direct approach you take with these challenging conversations!”
2. Address serious concerns directly
Don’t soften issues that could lead to termination, such as inappropriate behavior or safety violations. Set a clear timeline for improvement and say what happens if it isn’t met.
Example: “I’ve noticed that the way you speak to your fellow teachers has become disrespectful and inappropriate lately. Can you share with me why this may be going on? We need to fix this as soon as possible in order for you to continue working here. Starting today, I am expecting to hear zero complaints from teachers about your behavior within the next week. Let’s meet in one week to discuss progress on this. Do you have any questions?”
3. Frame growth areas as challenges, not failures
Explain why you believe the teacher can grow in this area, then offer a specific, actionable way to practice it.
Example: “Your lesson plans are always so strong and organized. I think the rest of our team could really benefit from learning your methods. I’d like to challenge you to stretch your leadership skills by sharing a 5-minute presentation on how you plan your weekly lessons in next month’s all-staff meeting. Since I know you want to become a lead teacher someday, getting outside of your comfort zone and practicing public speaking will help you build those leadership muscles. I’m here to help if you’d like feedback or if you’d like to practice your presentation ahead of time!”
4. Ask about career goals
If it wasn’t already on their self-evaluation form, ask how the teacher wants to grow before their next review. Break long-term goals, like becoming a director, into smaller next steps.
5. Set next steps and a check-in date
Write down what you agreed on and schedule a time to check progress together. This keeps you both accountable to the goal.
FAQ: Childcare staff evaluations
How often should you conduct childcare staff evaluations?
Most childcare programs hold a formal staff evaluation at least once a year, often paired with quarterly informal check-ins so teachers get feedback more regularly than an annual review alone allows. NAEYC accreditation standards also call for at least two staff performance evaluations within the past year, according to the Virtual Lab School.
What should be included in a childcare staff evaluation?
A childcare staff evaluation should include a self-evaluation form completed by the teacher, an independent evaluation completed by the director using the same form, and open dialogue about strengths, areas for growth, and career goals for the coming year.
Who should be involved in a childcare staff evaluation?
The teacher and their director each complete an evaluation form independently, and many centers also gather brief, anonymous feedback from 2-3 peer teachers to add a more holistic view of performance.
What is the difference between quantitative and qualitative feedback in a staff evaluation?
Quantitative feedback uses a numeric scale to show a big-picture view of strengths and weaknesses, while qualitative feedback is open-ended and helps explain the obstacles behind those scores and what support a teacher needs to improve.
Conclusion
A structured evaluation process gives directors a consistent way to recognize strong performance, address concerns early, and support each teacher's growth. Programs that invest in this process tend to see the return in stronger retention and a more capable, engaged staff over time.
Evaluations often surface a training gap — Brightwheel Professional Development makes it easy to close it, with self-paced, state-accepted courses your team can complete right from brightwheel.
