Vanderbilt Assessment of Leadership in Education (VAL-ED)

Transcription

1 Vanderbilt Assessment of Leadership in Education (VAL-ED) Ellen Goldring, Vanderbilt University June 2011

2 The Need for a Valid and Reliable Principal Leadership Assessment Tool Virtually every school district in the United States requires some form of evaluation of its principals. A review suggests: Various levels of specificity, and wide list of assessed areas Limited depth Locally designed procedures, rubrics for growth and development More on knowledge and dispositions, less on behaviors and practices Lack of consistent focus on behaviors associated with school performance and few include measures of student achievement No psychometric development or reporting or scoring No 360 degree feedback (teaches, self and supervisors) Limited feedback, use and consequences

3 Purpose To develop an assessment instrument to measure the actions and practices of principals that are associated with school improvement and student achievement. To guide improvement and professional development To make high stakes decisions; pay for performance, contractual deicisons, accountability (Support from Wallace Foundation, Institute of Education Sciences

4 What is the VALED? Built on the ISLLC standards and the research base that undergirds those standards. Collects the judgments of teachers, principals, supervisors about the actions/practices of the principal on the six most critical factors that are related to student learning (e.g., quality of instruction). It also provides feedback on the behaviors of the principal across six processes (e.g., communicating) that are used to engage the six factors. Provides three sets of scores that can be used to assess performance: (1) measures of how the three parties judge the instructional leadership skills of the principal; (2) a nationally benchmarked proficiency (criterion) score (below basic, basic, proficient, or distinguished); and (3) nationally normed percentile rankings

5 What does it Measure? Leadership Behavior Framework

6 The VAL-ED Instrument The instrument consists of 72 items defining six core component subscales and six key process subscales. Principal, Teachers, & Supervisor provide a 360-degree, evidenced-based assessment of leadership behaviors. Respondents rate effectiveness of 72 behaviors on scale 1=Ineffective to 5=Outstandingly effective. Each respondent rates the principal s effectiveness after indicating the sources of evidence on which the effectiveness is rated. Two parallel forms of the assessment facilitate measuring growth over time. The instrument is available in both paper and online versions.

7 Figure 3.5. Summary matrix identifying relative strengths and areas for improvement. Which areas of leadership behavior represent areas of relative strength and areas for possible improvement? This matrix provides an integrated summary of the principal s relative strengths and areas for possible growth. Cells with BB indicate skill areas in the greatest need of attention. These cells represent leadership behaviors where the mean item scores for the intersection of the Core Components and Key Processes across all three respondent groups fell in the Below Basic Performance Level.

8 Assessing Learning-Centered Leadership: The VAL-ED vision A leadership assessment system that has the following properties: Works well in a variety of settings and circumstances, Is construct valid and reliable, Is transparent, Is feasible and manageable for widespread use, Provides accurate and useful reporting of results and feedback, Is unbiased, Yields a diagnostic profile for summative and formative purposes, Can be used to measure progress over time in the development of leadership, Part of a comprehensive assessment system of the effectiveness of a leader's behaviors

9 Various Uses of the VAL-ED Instrument: Evaluation purposes (Hillsborough, FL) Professional development (Districts across country) Performance based compensation systems (The TAP System) Gauge in determining the effectiveness of principal professional development initiatives (Mississippi Leads & Miami-Dade) Succession planning & aspiring principal programs (Wallace Foundation Principal Pipeline grantees) Use in turnaround schools to track progress with culture shifts and faculty engagement (State of Louisiana) Program evaluations (Allentown, PA / Lehigh University) Combinations of these uses

10 Evaluation Hillsborough County, Florida Models 30% VAL-ED 40% Value Added Student Achievement 30% Local Measures - 10% - Student/Teacher Attendance & Discipline - 10% School Operations (finance and facilities) - 5% teacher retention - 5% principal evaluation of teachers

11 Conditions for Success Articulate purpose and use: transparency Take context into account (turn around situation) Share with teachers include them in process and results Create Individual PD plans and coaching Articulate accountability expectations and benchmarks Use multiple indicators for high stakes decisions