Katie Howlin ’12
The Episcopal Academy administration has made many changes to the school following the development of a new strategic plan. With these changes has come a new evaluation system for teachers and, now, coaches alike. In the strategic plan, strategy number five states that “because the quality of education is a direct result of the quality of teaching, we will work to make Episcopal a place where excellent teachers can be their best professional selves.” Gina Buggy, Athletic Director, said that because sports can be considered a part of the curriculum at Episcopal, this strategy should apply to coaches as well as teachers. Coaches, just like teachers, can affect the performance of students through the quality of instruction and care, and the Strategic Planning Committee and Athletic Department hoped that the feedback could have a positive effect on the quality of coaching at Episcopal. With the first athletic season of the 2011-2012 school year finished, the students have evaluated not only their fall coaches, but also the new system. Barbara Langfitt ’12 said, “I really liked it; it is like evaluating a teacher. At EA, sports are treated like a class, so why not evaluate coaches?” However, not all students felt the same way as Langfitt. A student who wished to remain anonymous said that she did not understand why Episcopal adopted the new policy. This student was not a fall athlete, though she was a member of the winter and spring track teams. Buggy, who is the Head Field Hockey Coach as well as Athletic Director, said that she found her own evaluations very useful, as she believes that there is always something for coaches to improve upon. She found that the evaluations can help coaches better themselves professionally. Buggy said that she, along with other coaches, found the evaluations to be “informative and productive.” Though this is the first year that students formally evaluate their coaches, in the past, Buggy has met with the head coaches before and after each season to discuss their goals for the season and how the goals were executed. They also discuss what went well, their thoughts for next year, and ways they could improve. Though Buggy acknowledged that this new system is a lot of work, for the athletes, coaches, and administrators, she noted that the feedback from student-athletes is invaluable. As long as the students take their evaluations seriously, it can lead to constructive feedback for the coaches. Katie O’Reilly ’14, a member of the cross country team, noted that while she thought the new coach evaluations were good, she did not like that she had to come in after the season had ended to complete her evaluation. “For teacher evaluations, we get to complete them in class, but for cross country we had to come back after the end of the season to do it, which was inconvenient.” Buggy said, “Our goal was to fit it into the last two weeks of the season, but that was difficult to schedule because it was the first year.” For the most part, students have seemed to agree with the new system of evaluation, as they are happy to have input and have their opinions matter regarding the way their teams are run. Mohammed Toure ’12 said that he liked the new system, as he felt he was able to help the team by giving feedback.