Case Studies: Overview | APEP | ISLLC | VAL-ED
The interests of all members of the school team should be aligned, so that administrators as well as teachers have an equal stake in the learning outcomes of the students in their classroom, school, or district. Districts should develop new approaches for evaluating school leaders and district personnel that promote professional growth. Although there is a growing consensus that a comprehensive system of administrator evaluation should be based on multiple measures of performance, including both inputs (what administrators do) and outputs (how much students learn), this page will focus primarily on the input side of administrator evaluation - that is, how administrators' behaviors can be evaluated through performance rubrics. Individual case studies offer examples of these principles in practice. To learn how student learning results could be incorporated into an administrator evaluation system, see the Choosing a Value-Added Model page.
Leadership has an important role to play in increasing student achievement. In fact, research indicates that high quality leadership is second only to classroom instruction among all school-related factors that contribute to the rate of student learning. However, there is little consensus as to what leadership standards should be used and how these standards should be applied as part of a rigorous administrator evaluation system. Further, the assessment process rarely provides leaders with the feedback they need to support teachers in improving practice.
Improving administrator evaluation systems would lead to the following benefits:
- Clear expectations. School administrators are bombarded with multiple sets of expectations. A clear definition of effective leadership can help administrators make sense of their role.
- Personnel management. Rigorous administrator evaluation systems identify administrators of various levels of effectiveness and ensure that only competent leaders remain in schools.
- Professional growth. Evaluations can serve as the basis of professional growth plans, which drive improvements in instructional practice.
- Lever for organizational change. Rigorous administrator evaluation can also assess the capacity of the entire school community and help determine how well the school and district is working as a cohesive whole.
Read this Wallace Foundation brief for a more in depth discussion of these benefits and uses.
Many states and districts have begun to rethink their administrator evaluation systems and experiment with new approaches. The following recommendations are based on current research and publications. For additional resources, see the websites and tools section.
- Create a clear vision for strong leadership. A common set of standards and rubrics should help clarify for principals what the expectations are, as well as what the various levels of performance look like. These standards should focus on behaviors that improve instruction and promote necessary school change. Leaders need to understand how to deploy, support, and evaluate teachers; create environments conducive to learning; and delegate responsibility to build the capacity of others. See the book section for more information on how to create a clear vision for strong leadership or the case study pages for various examples.
- Design reliable instruments of evaluation. Leaders should be assessed using instruments that meet tests of reliability and validity. These instruments should align with the standards above and be related to student achievement. In addition to indicating the level of mastery on specific skills, they must be able to capture progress as well. For more on how to design reliable instruments of evaluation, see the VAL-ED case study page.
- Focus on administrator growth. Administrator evaluation should promote professional growth. Administrator portfolios (discussed in more detail in the research and policy brief section) can be a valuable way to promote administrator learning. These systems have a positive effect on principal satisfaction by encouraging reflection and promoting communication and collaboration. To be effective, these systems require sufficient ongoing training and support. For additional guidance, read this article or refer to the APEP case study for a concrete example.
- Take context into account. The instruments used should be adaptable to multiple purposes. This means that districts should institute evaluation processes that are responsive to various contexts and flexible enough to take into account the different stages of a principal's career. To better understand how context can be taken into account, see the variations in administrator evaluation systems discussed on the case study comparison page.
To see how these recommendations have been implemented, refer to the case study pages.
The Wallace Foundation has focused much of its recent research on strengthening the performance of education leaders to improve student achievement, and their site includes a number of reports addressing this issue. Several of the studies highlighted below have been drawn from their work.
- Administrative Portfolios: The Development of a Portfolio System
(Genevieve Brown and Beverly J. Irby, Sam Houston State University, 1996)
The authors provide districts with key principles for developing an administrator portfolio and evaluation process. They suggest that districts establish clear criteria, that portfolios address all the dimensions of established criteria, and that administrators fill out reflections for specific artifacts they include in the portfolio. The paper also provides sample artifacts and rubrics for particular standards. - Assessing the Effectiveness of School Leaders: New Directions and New Processes
(The Wallace Foundation, March 2009)
Research on administrator evaluation suggests that districts should design systems that (1) focus squarely on the most important driver behaviors that improve instruction, (2) are anchored in accepted leader standards, (3) promote necessary school change rather than reinforce the status quo, (4) feature reliable and tested instruments, (5) are flexible enough to take different purposes and contexts into account, and (6) lead to appropriate professional development that addresses any weaknesses or concerns identified by the assessment process. - Key Insights of the Urban Excellence Framework: Defining an Urban Principalship to Drive Dramatic Achievement Gains
(New Leaders for New Schools, June 18, 2008)
New Leaders for New Schools has created an Urban Excellence Framework to document the best practices of urban public schools making dramatic gains in student achievement. The first two drivers are (1) a student achievement, data-driven model for continuous improvement of learning and teaching and (2) a school culture focused on results, high expectations, and personal responsibility. Effective principals achieve this vision by (3) modeling specific attributes of personal leadership, (4) building and managing a high-quality staff aligned to the vision, and (5) instituting operations and systems to put the vision into place. - Leading, Learning, Leadership Support: Overview
(Michael S. Knapp, et al., Center for the Study of Teaching and Policy, October 2006)
The Wallace Foundation convened six "Leadership Issue Groups" to address conditions that affect principal success and to identify what states, districts and schools can do to better support high quality leadership. They then compiled a set of reports, written by noted authorities on education leadership from the University of Washington's Center for the Study of Teaching and Policy, which provide practitioners and policy makers with recommendations on a range of issues related to school leadership such as using data, allocating resources, and redefining roles. - Performance Evaluation and Compensation for Public School Principals: Results From a National Survey
(Steven M. Kimball, Herbert G. Heneman III, and Anthony Milanowski, ERS Spectrum 25, no. 4, Fall 2007, 11-21)
This article reports findings from a national survey designed to learn how medium and large school districts use standards-based leadership evaluation and related human resource management practices, such as performance pay. Key findings include: (1) high usage of principal evaluation for multiple purposes; (2) a focus on multiple leadership competencies and outcomes; (3) few instances of standards-based types of principal evaluation; (4) modest usage of the competencies as the basis for human resource practices; (5) little usage, or intent to use, performance pay; and (6) unsystematic evaluation systems, based on analysis evaluation instruments. - Principal Development: Selection, Support & Evaluation
(NewSchools Venture Fund, June 2008)
The NewSchools Venture Fund conducted background research on Green Dot Public Schools, New Leaders for New Schools, and Achievement First and documented best practices for selecting, training, and evaluating principals. Specific recommendations for evaluation include (1) set performance criteria that are clear, explicit, and aligned with the mission and (2) combine informal observations with frequent detailed feedback and formal evaluations, which carry more rigor but also have higher stakes. - Purposes, Uses and Practices of Leadership Assessment in Education
(Bradley S. Portin, Sue Feldman, and Michael S. Knapp, Center for the Study of Teaching and Policy, October 2006)
This Wallace Foundation brief discusses the purposes, uses, and practices of leadership assessment. In their discussion, the authors emphasize the use of assessment as a formal tool for personnel management, a guide for professional learning, and a lever for organizational change. The authors demonstrate how assessment practices can improve learning and serve as an integral aspect of school improvement efforts.
The following websites highlight the work of various organizations and contain additional ideas and information about how administrators can be supported and evaluated through performance rubrics. For additional tools on developing standards and evaluation procedures, see the case study pages.
- The Leadership and Learning Center offers professional development services, research, and innovative solutions for educators and school leaders. Assessing Educational Leaders is a unique consultation service that assists districts in implementing standards-based evaluation instruments for school leaders. Dr. Douglas Reeves, founder of the Leadership and Learning Center, developed the Leadership Performance Matrix as an educational leadership evaluation tool. The matrix provides the tools to support effective administrator evaluations and coaching that is timely, constructive, and accurate.
- The following publications and resources on administrators have been developed by the American Association of School Administrators (AASA). AASA is a professional organization for more than 13,000 educational leaders across the United States. Their mission is to support and develop effective school leaders, and they do so by providing ongoing leadership development.
- This five step skills assessment was developed by the National Association of Secondary School Principals and can be used to assess the following behaviors: exploring instructional leadership, resolving complex problems, communicating, and developing self/others. NASSP conducts research on secondary school principal leadership and provides web resources for school leaders on specific topics of interest.
- Leading Learning Communities: Standards for What Principals Should Know and Be Able to Do was developed by the National Association of Elementary School Principals (NAESP). NAESP creates ongoing training and professional development for their constituency of elementary and middle school principals.
- New Leaders for New Schools is an organization driven to ensure high academic achievement for every student by attracting and preparing outstanding leaders and supporting the performance of the urban public schools they lead. The organization employs rigorous selection criteria and provides initial and ongoing support to their school leaders. The Effective Practice Incentive Community provides school leaders with the opportunity to learn from the effective practices of others.
- Assessing Educational Leaders: Evaluating Performance for Improved Individual and Organizational Results, 2nd ed.
(Douglas B. Reeves, Corwin Press, 2009)
In this book, Douglas Reeves provides leadership teams with guidance for how to capitalize on their strengths and reduce their weaknesses. He introduces the Leadership for Learning Framework, which examines results in education. It will helps leaders distinguish between "Lucky" educators, who achieve high results but don't understand their actions, and "Leading" educators, who achieve high results and understand how their actions influence their success. - Developing the Effective Principal: Hiring, Evaluation, and Retention Practices for the Superintendent
(Jamie Whaley, ed., Aspen Publishers, 2002)
School principals are asked nowadays to be a curriculum manager, staff motivator and evaluator, business manager, public-relations representative, safety expert, disciplinarian, site manager, and the list goes on. This resource discusses recruitment and hiring, as well as evaluation and retention practices. It contains a broad array of tools and information, including self-assessment tools and evaluation forms and handouts that can be used to maximize principal leadership and assess performance. - Measuring Leadership: A Guide to Assessment for Development of School Executives
(Larry Lashway, ERIC Clearinghouse on Educational Management, 1999)
This is a ‘how to' book for school-leader selection, appraisal, and development. It focuses on ways in which to measure components of leadership so that leadership evaluation can move beyond impressionistic opinions. It provides a rationale for leadership assessment, discusses various perspectives on leadership, and examines nearly 20 assessment instruments currently in use. - Qualities of Effective Principals
(James H. Stronge, Holly B. Richard, and Nancy Catano, ASCD, 2008)
This book is designed to serve as a resource and reference tool for school leaders and their supervisors. The first part synthesizes the research on school leadership and develops a profile for effective school leaders. The second part provides checklists for each of the skills, and details the relevant quality indicators and red flags. The third section is an annotated bibliography that documents the research base for each of the identified standards. - School Leadership that Works: From Research to Results
(Robert J. Marzano, Timothy Waters, and Brian A. McNulty, ASCD, 2005)
Marzano, Waters, and McNulty draw from 35 years of studies to identify the 21 leadership responsibilities that have a significant impact on student learning. They distinguish between first- and second-order change, highlight actions for developing an approach to improving student achievement, and outline a five-step plan for promoting effective school leadership.