Case Studies: Overview | APEP | ISLLC | VAL-ED
The Administrator Portfolio Evaluation Process (APEP) modifies the Interstate School Leaders Licensure Consortium (ISLLC) leadership standards and applies the concept of a performance-based rubric. APEP was developed in Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District in California. Subsequently, its principles were applied to the performance evaluation for FIRST, a pay for performance program funded by the Federal Teacher Incentive Fund Grant and used to evaluate administrators in Prince George's County, Maryland. The process provides evaluation and self-reflection tools that support administrator growth, school improvement, and student achievement.
The APEP system clearly defines administrator performance, aligns expectations to strategic plans, includes procedures and instruments for portfolio evaluation, and offers ongoing support through professional learning communities. These key elements are discussed in more detail below.
Definition of Good Performance
An administrator evaluation system should clearly define expectations by developing rubrics for each performance standard. The first four standards of APEP are identical to the ISLLC standards, while the final two have been modified to represent local district needs.
- Standard 1: Instructional Leadership. A school administrator is an educational leader who promotes the success of every student by facilitating the development, articulation, implementation, and stewardship of a vision of learning that is shared and supported by all stakeholders.
- Standard 2: Assessment and Supervision. A school administrator is an educational leader who promotes the success of every student by advocating, nurturing, and sustaining a school culture and instructional program conducive to student learning and staff professional growth.
- Standard 3: Management and Organizational Skills. A school administrator is an educational leader who promotes the success of every student by ensuring management of the organization, operation, and resources for a safe, efficient, and effective learning environment.
- Standard 4: Community/Parent Partnerships. A school administrator is an educational leader who promotes the success of every student by collaborating with faculty and community members, responding to diverse community interests and needs, and mobilizing community resources.
- Standard 5: Multicultural Awareness and Appreciation. A school administrator is an educational leader who promotes the success of all students by insisting on respect of all members of the school community, acceptance of different points of view, a socially just community, fairness, and equity.
- Standard 6: Effective Communication. A school administrator is an educational leader who promotes the success of every student by understanding, responding to, and influencing the political, social, economic, legal, and cultural context.
Alignment to Strategic Plans
Districts should ensure that these standards align with both system and school strategic plans. They should not just adopt a pre-existing set of standards, but rather, map expectations onto district priorities. For example, in Santa Monica the school system opted to align with the ISLLC with some modifications while in Prince George's County the planning team selected to use existing roles which also align with ISLLC but were locally developed.
Procedures and Instruments
All administrators develop a portfolio through the following process:
- Self-Assessment. In the first stage of the APEP process, administrators complete a self-assessment, where they rate how they believe they have performed on the standards and cite evidence. The results from this assessment help determine what will then become the focus of the portfolio evaluation process.
- Choosing Artifacts. Instead of being evaluated on all standards, administrators and their evaluators use the self-assessment to select a maximum of four standards as the basis of their portfolio. They then choose artifacts for the portfolio that demonstrate their mastery of these standards. They are not encouraged to provide an excessive number of artifacts, but rather, to select a maximum of five artifacts - one of which must be a growth artifact demonstrating progress.
- Timeline and Process. Administrators meet with their evaluators at the beginning of the school year and then ongoing throughout the year to monitor progress.
Professional Development and Peer Learning Communities
The evaluation system must also support administrator professional growth. As part of APEP, principals meet regularly - ideally once a month - in small learning communities to discuss the artifacts they have chosen to use in the portfolio process. Their conversations are guided by a consultancy protocol, which prompts them to reflect on their performance and determine strategic next steps.
The APEP summary document provides an overview of the entire administrator evaluation process and includes a variety of concrete tools, such as standards, rubrics, evaluation procedures and instruments.