Evaluating Teachers’ Performances: Travails of School Heads in the New Normal

This study explored the lived experiences, challenges encountered, coping mechanisms and insights of public elementary school heads on evaluating teachers in schools using the RPMS-IPCRF in the new normal. The participants were coming from DepEd Region XI, Division of Davao City, specifically in the schools of Paquibato District. There were eight (8) school heads who participated in the study, and were purposely selected. This study made use of a phenomenological approach to extract the ideas from the participants. The virtual in- depth interview was employed to gather significant information with regard to their respective lived experiences. Using the thematic analysis, the following themes emerged pertaining to their lived experiences: evaluation for performance improvement, evaluation as a difficult task, teachers providing outstanding educational services, and hurdling evaluation challenges. Further, there were also three (3) subthemes that emerged on the challenges experienced by the participants. These are the lack of RPMS-IPCRF orientations, unattainable key results areas, and rater-ratee relationship issues. The coping mechanisms of participants on the challenges they experienced were: RPMS-IPCRF re-orientations, team building for strengthening relationships, and regular coaching and monitoring. The educational management insights drawn from the participants were the importance of LAC sessions in schools and the value of rater-ratee collaborations. Thus, it is crucial to provide effective evaluation strategy training to school heads with additional support and continual professional development endeavors to boost their effectiveness and foster desirable management and evaluation skills amidst the pandemic.