In 2011, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) received 99,947 charges of employment discrimination. In any given year, as many as 25% of schools might experience an employment-related claim against their Directors and Officers/Employment Practices Liability (D&O/EPL) insurance policy. An individual claim might result in judgments of hundreds of thousands of dollars, or more.
Numbers such as these make it imperative that schools protect themselves as strongly as possible. One key protection that schools often drastically under-utilized is the annual performance evaluation, which can go a long way toward proving that the school acted legally in addressing faculty or staff performance issues—thus, mitigating against EPL-related judgments against you.
Evaluation as Protection
ISM recently published its new faculty development model and evaluation template for 21st Century schools. While the primary purpose of this approach is to enhance the ability of faculty members to deliver the school’s mission with excellence through coaching and mentoring from academic administrators, it also serves as a key measure of EPL protection.
We recommend that schools:
- Identify “Characteristics of Professional Excellence” that are central to teaching at the school.
- Use these characteristics as the basis for hiring, coaching, evaluating, developing, and disciplining faculty.
If a teacher is let go during the school year, or if his/her contract is not renewed at the end of the year, it should be on the basis of the formal evaluation/corrective action of their performance. In this way, the school is able to demonstrate that the termination was based solely on job-related criteria—thus, it is not discriminatory and is not likely to result in a successful discrimination (EPL) claim.
Training
All of the above requires the school administrators to be trained on the evaluation, coaching, and mentoring of faculty. As Business Manager, you can play a key role in promoting and securing this training for the school’s administrative team. In doing so, you will be significantly reducing the school’s D&O/EPL risks.
Additional ISM resources of interest
ISM Monthly Update for Business Managers Vol. 10 No. 5 Why Business Managers Need to Care About Teacher Evaluation
Private School News Vol. 11 No. 1 Evaluation Reforms Are Changing Schools Nationwide—Public and Private Alike
ISM Monthly Update Vol.9 No. 6 Can Evaluation Really Drive Faculty (and Student) Performance?
Additional ISM resources of interest for Consortium Gold Members
I&P Vol. 37 No. 2 A 21st Century Teacher Evaluation Model
I&P Vol. 37 No. 2 Comparing and Contrasting Evaluation Approaches
