Rethinking superintendent evaluation

Abstract

This Education Leadership Portfolio (ELP) examines the research linking superintendent leadership to student achievement, reviews the current superintendent evaluation practices in Delaware’s public school districts as well as other states, and proposes a more standardized superintendent evaluation process in the state of Delaware. ☐ This ELP involved conducting interviews with board members from eleven of Delaware’s nineteen public school districts to determine the current goal-setting and evaluation practices. Subsequently, interviews were held with key educational leaders from other states to gain valuable insight into their superintendent goal-setting and evaluation processes. The results of these two sets of interviews were used to create a framework and training materials for use by local school boards in the state of Delaware. The final part of this ELP was obtaining feedback from school board members who reviewed the framework and training program. Their feedback was then used to make improvements to the process. ☐ The Superintendent Goal-Setting and Evaluation Handbook and related training materials that were created during this ELP will serve as a resource to Delaware’s local school boards in their efforts to maximize student achievement through continuous monitoring of their superintendent’s leadership performance.