The Value of Evaluation Week

It’s a fun week at Gem City because it’s evaluation week. All this means is that during class instructors will use a standardized list to see what your child has accomplished this session. Should your child meet all the skill standards they will move up to the next level class.

Evaluations are important for a number of reasons. The most important one being that evaluations give your child concrete goals to work toward. The list of skill standards an instructor uses during evaluation week is the same list they use all session to guide their coaching. This means children are very familiar with each skill before evaluation week arrives.

The other reason Gem City uses evaluations is that it allows us to place children in the appropriate class. Nothing is more frustrating than being in a class this is either too difficult or too easy. (This is frustrating for coaches too!) A coach can better emphasize needed skills and efficiently use time if the children in a class all have the same approximate skill level.

Sometimes skills are really close, or a child may “basically” do a skill. Coaches will often comment “Almost” or “Getting close!” on the evaluation sheets in these cases. Some may wonder why we don’t just move the child up a level when this happens and it’s because what coaches are looking for is a mastery of the skills. This means coaches want fluidity, confidence, and consistency when a child does a skill.

If you have questions about your child’s evaluation please feel free to speak with your child’s coach.