Join us next Wednesday, May 29, at 3pm E.T. for a webinar about principal evaluation systems that incorporate student achievement. I’ll be moderating a conversation about the new evaluation systems with Alicia Winckler, the chief talent officer in Chicago, Paulette Poncelet, executive director of education effectiveness for Chicago Public Schools, and Ronn Nozoe, deputy superintendent in Hawaii.
Chicago and Hawaii are in their first year with new evaluation systems. In both districts, student performance now accounts for about half of a principal’s evaluation. You can read this Education Week story on principal evaluation for some more background.
During the webinar, we’ll talk about what prompted the creation of the new systems, how they were developed, what they look like, how the districts have gotten principal buy-in, what they’ve learned so far—and whatever other questions you suggest.
You can register for the free webinar and submit questions for our panelists now.
Just how to evaluate principals has been increasingly in the spotlight: Federal and state policies have pushed districts to tie principals’ evaluations “significantly” to student growth, and policymakers point to the importance of a principal in a student’s academic performance. The principals’ associations put out recommendations for evaluation systems late last year in which they say that the systems should be used to help encourage professional growth. The Institute for Educational Leadership in Washington suggests that school leaders’ evaluations not rely too heavily on test scores. (IEL’s S. Kwesi Rollins pointed me to Oakland as a school district that’s looking at creating a new system that does not directly use test scores; meanwhile, the principals’ associations pointed me to Minnesota and Washington State as places where new principal evaluations did use student test scores, but as only 35 percent of the total evaluation.)
In Dallas, a new principal evaluation system promoted by superintendent Mike Miles has led to protests.
I also wrote about how some districts are beginning to explore how to make sure that leadership evaluation systems are fair to new principals.