Evaluating the Evaluation

The Warrior yearbook staff at the Christian Academy of Knoxville, Knoxville, Tenn., recently earned second place in a regional yearbook evaluation conducted by the Association of Christian Schools International.

Competing with 50 other yearbooks from Virginia, Tennessee, Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, North and South Carolina, the Warrior earned 211 points out of a possible 230, and was only seven points behind the first place book, which earned 218 points.

While the award is an accomplishment in itself, yearbook adviser Jimmy Jansen and her staff get additional mileage out of the evaluation by using it as a way to learn and improve their book each year.

“Creativity, consistency, and a dedicated staff all played major roles in this accomplishment,” Jansen said.

“But we also take time each year to ‘evaluate the evaluation.’ This was the fifth year we submitted a book, and we have pretty much done consistently better each year,” she said.

“I go over the shortcomings with the staff as a group and expect each of them to read the evaluation report on their own. We also spend time at the beginning of each year looking at yearbooks the beginning of each year looking at yearbooks from other schools with a critical eye.”

While the Warrior staff uses their evaluations as a guideline for improvement, they do not see them as a rulebook.

“There were things we did we knew would count against us, but we were committed to doing them anyway,” Jansen explained.

“For example, our front cover had only the name of the theme as part of the design, and we put the name of the school, book and year on the spine only, because we did not want to detract from the cover.”

Congratulations to the Warrior staff!