by Plainenglish

Created on: February 27, 2009

Managing the paperwork is one of the toughest things a new teacher has to learn the first couple of years in the classroom. Memos, directives, staff development forms, student forms, work requests, and general FYI papers can really accumulate if they are not organized and handled with efficiency. This doesn't even take into account the additional student work that must be graded, recorded, and passed back to students. According to some surveys, during the course of just one school year, the average teacher will have to handle more than ten thousand student papers.

The educational reforms of the past twenty years have been blamed for placing an intolerable burden on teachers, and it is no wonder that this is cited as one of the main reasons for quitting. Record keeping and administration is often time-consuming and repetitive and many see it as detracting from the teacher's real purpose to teach.

The fact remains however, that like other professionals, teachers have to document progress, write plans, and keep accurate records, as well as keep up to date with educational policy.

There are informational requirements at various levels. Parents want to know how well a school is performing and that can only be measured by gathering statistics. Ofsted inspect and regulate schools and colleges and share their results with the public to allow parents to make informed decisions. They also identify good practice in specific areas of provision in those institutions that achieve a good or outstanding rating. This good practice can then be taken on board by poorer performing institutions to help them improve. The taxpayer also wants reassurance that their money is being properly invested in education. Oftsed use the Common Inspection Framework to judge how effectively and efficiently a provision meets learner's needs and how this can be improved further. Their judgements are based on evidence, part of which is taken from documentation relating to training, assessment, verification and qualifications. It is therefore essential that all teachers maintain accurate records to evidence the teaching and assessment process.

The College or school itself places record keeping requirements on the teacher. Attendance records must be maintained. These will take the form of registers for classroom based courses or contact logs for work-based learning. The importance of these records is two-fold. Firstly, to ensure that students are not skipping classes and if they are why this is also a

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