As more districts tie principal evaluations to student achievement, some researchers and district leaders are examining how to ensure that the same tools are fair and accurate for all school leaders.
Work on differentiating principal evaluations is in the early stages, but researchers say it could be a useful way to improve methods for using test scores to grade principals.
A working paper released last fall by Mathematica Policy Research of Princeton, N.J., indicates that school-level, value-added鈥攐r growth鈥攎easures used to determine whether student test scores meet, exceed, or fall short of expectations,
For more on districts are re-creating principal evaluations, see 鈥淒istricts Tying Principal Reviews to Test Scores,鈥� March 6, 2013.
Likewise, the Washington-based American Institutes for Research is working with the 18,000-student district in Hazelwood, Mo., to develop a strategy that reflects differences in principals鈥� tenure, according to Matthew Clifford, a Chicago-based senior research scientist with the AIR.
There is no consensus鈥攁nd little research鈥攐n the best way to use scores to assess principals. 鈥淚 think most of the policymakers overlooked the fact that it鈥檚 analytically a different problem than measuring a teacher鈥檚 performance,鈥� said Mathematica鈥檚 Mr. Gill. Much of principals鈥� impact on students is mediated by teachers, he said.
Accounting for Time
Since principals who are early in their career may have had less time to exert influence over teachers and performance in the school, 鈥渋t wouldn鈥檛 be fair to use the same measure for new and established principals,鈥� Mr. Gill said. Wedding scores to evaluations without allowing a principal time to make a difference, he said, could potentially lead principals to be less interested in leading low-performing schools.
鈥淚f the principal鈥檚 been in the school for a long time, it might make sense to say, OK, they鈥檝e had enough time to influence both the composition of the teaching force and the skills of the teaching force such that maybe it鈥檚 fair to judge the principal based on a school鈥檚 value-added,鈥� he said. 鈥淏ut nobody really knows how long that takes.鈥�
In Pittsburgh, it is unclear how the evaluations will account for time on the job. 鈥淲e might want to weight principal practice more heavily [than test scores],鈥� said Jerri Lynn Lippert, the district鈥檚 chief academic officer. In Missouri, Mr. Clifford said both student-growth components and the part of the evaluation that focuses on principal behaviors and practices would likely be adjusted to account for experience.
That kind of nuance is still rare, however, said Benjamin Fenton, a co-founder of New Leaders, a leadership-training organization with programs in 12 cities. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a good thing for states to be thoughtful about,鈥� he said. 鈥淚f their statutes demand that principals be treated exactly the same no matter what, it can cause issues for first-year principals,鈥� who might have lower scores on ratings, Mr. Fenton said. But he said he believes that first-year principals should still be evaluated by the same standards: 鈥淓ven in the first year, consistently ineffective practice should be an important flag.鈥�
