BOARD TRAINING Evaluating Your Director By Kim Dohrer I have always had such admiration for people willing to serve on charter boards. Through the years, I have had the privilege of working with amazing individuals who have put personal agendas aside and worked together as a team to make their charter school the best. One of the hardest jobs a board has is hiring a director and then evaluating his/her performance. The director of a charter school is the person responsible for running a school. The director takes the school mission and makes this lofty vision happen in the real world. The board sets policies to give direction to the director, but day-to-day interaction with students, parents and the surrounding community is orchestrated by the director. Curriculum, facilities, teacher evaluation and hiring of personnel are all part of the director’s job. How does the charter board know the director is doing a good job? Let’s examine that. As the board prepares a process for evaluating their director, here are some questions that need to be addressed: • Why should the board evaluate their director? • How should the board choose an evaluation tool? • What does the board need or want to evaluate? • Who should be involved with the evaluation process? WHY SHOULD THE BOARD EVALUATE THEIR DIRECTOR? Your charter school authorizer expects you, as a board, to evaluate your director. Good human resources practice would expect a director evaluation. Most importantly, an evaluation sets a professional standard for respectful, good communication between the board and the director. HOW SHOULD THE BOARD CHOOSE AN EVALUATION TOOL? An evaluation tool is simply a useful way for the director and the board to clearly discuss the school’s progress and the director’s role in ensuring progress. The whole board and the director should have input into choosing an evaluation tool. An evaluation tool should: • Set guidelines for a good conversation about areas going well and areas of improvement. • Outline what is important to both the board and director. • Provide the director with mutually set goals so there are no surprises. • Use data, not just opinions, to evaluate the director’s performance. • Document the director’s performance discussion with representatives from the board. An evaluation tool should not: • Give unrealistic goals that set the director up for failure. • Sit on a desk until the end of the year, then be filled out and used to fire the director. • Have so many priorities or annual goals that the director does not know where to focus energy. There are lots of sample principal/administrator/director/ leadership evaluation tools online. The Utah State Board of Education has an administrative evaluation tool on their website. In addition, the Interstate School Leaders Licensure Consortium (ISLLC) has up to date standards for school leaders. Director evaluations should be held at minimum once a year; don’t skip an evaluation because things are good and then after three or so years, pull it out to “get” your director. An evaluation tool is not a “got you” tool. Rather, it is a basis for productive communication that moves your school forward, towards greater success. WHAT DOES THE BOARD NEED OR WANT TO EVALUATE? Financial stability, student outcomes, parent satisfaction, teacher retention, school culture, student attendance and enrollment numbers are some common areas that boards look at 22
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