Wallace Foundation Releases Report on Principal Evaluation

 

About three-quarters of school principals are evaluated annually—but evidence suggests that those performance appraisals don’t always help principals sharpen the skills they need to improve student achievement. For example, a 2007 Vanderbilt study found that one-third of evaluations didn’t measure the culture of learning and professional behavior.

 

But what if principal evaluation were truly meaningful—a way to help new principals fully develop their leadership skills so that they could improve teaching and learning in their schools? 

 

A new study, Building a Stronger Principalship, Volume 4: Evaluating and Supporting Principals, documents efforts by six large school districts to do just that.

 

The report, by Policy Studies Associates, details how the districts revamped their approach to performance evaluation in the hope that new rating systems and procedures would “produce sound data and feedback that could be used to help novice principals succeed” rather than penalize them for shortcomings. The districts also sought to change the role of those who evaluate principals to focus more on guidance than regulatory compliance. The idea was to use the job evaluations and evaluation procedures to promote a year-long, two-way discussion between principal supervisor and principal.  

 

Across the six districts, a majority of new principals said that the evaluation systems were fair, accurate and useful. Indeed, 85 percent generally agreed that the evaluation “provided results that were worth the effort.” At the same time, the study pointed to areas of needed improvement for the districts. New principals expressed limited satisfaction with the districts’ professional development, for example, and in focus groups they indicated that some supervisors still lacked the capacity to help them.  The report notes each district is continuing to refine its approach to principal evaluation, including training supervisors to deliver feedback, structure school visits, and provide coaching and support.

 

The report is the fourth in a series of studies documenting the districts’ experiences in The Wallace Foundation’s Principal Pipeline Initiative, a six-year effort designed to help the districts build larger pools of strong principals. The districts are: Charlotte-Mecklenburg (N.C.), Denver, Gwinnett County (Ga.), Hillsborough County (Fla.), New York City and Prince George’s County (Md.).

 

The report sheds light on how principal evaluations can be carried out as part of a broader effort to develop and support principals that has four key features: leader standards that help align job descriptions, preparation, selection, evaluation and support; pre-service preparation that includes selective admission to high-quality programs; selective hiring and job placement based on a match between the candidate and school; and forging a connection between performance evaluations of principals and on-the-job support, so that support is focused on needs identified by the evaluation.