How about an opinion:

[yawetag]

Originally Posted by JRutledge

Ratings in my area are only used for varsity contests and are to help rate officials for a small part of playoff consideration. In those ratings we never get information about positioning or mechanics, they simply give an opinion as to what we can do in 5 different categories. The top level being a State Final, the lowest level only able to work a lower-level game. That is only to give some input to our playoff assigning which means theoretically you can get so many of those ratings that one rating means little to nothing. And we never know for sure what they gave us and the coaches must clarify the score of the game.

Sounds exactly like Missouri. Each head coach in a Varsity-level game must rate each official in the following categories: Verbal Communication Skills, Physical Appearance, Effort, Control, Consistency, Professionalism. When evaluating, they give a score between 1 (State-Level Tournament Caliber) to 5 (Sub-Varsity Caliber). These scores are used to determine post-season assignments. It's obviously not the only criteria, but it's used.

Originally Posted by JRutledge

But we do have an observers program where we try to watch newer officials as to help them get better. In a sport like baseball there is not the man power to evaluate that many in a year. Baseball is one of the least officiated sports in the state and definitely that case in the major sports.

And that's my point. There are days in the High School season, especially after rain-outs are being rescheduled, that every available umpire is needed to do a game. For most of the season, I'd guarantee that no umpire would be turned away from a game if they were available -- the open spots are there. In these cases, it would be almost impossible for the organization to have the ability to send another umpire to a game solely to evaluate the umpires on the field.