First of a two-part series: turning the tables on assessment: assessing and evaluating school boards and superintendents are vital to meeting district goals.

First of a two-part series: turning the tables on assessment: assessing and evaluating school boards and superintendents are vital to meeting district goals. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] FORMATIVE ASSESSMENTS Formative assessment is a self-reflective process that intends to promote student attainment [1]. Cowie and Bell [2] define it as the bidirectional process between teacher and student to enhance, recognise and respond to the learning. ARE CRUCIAL FOR MANAGING ALL areas of adistrict--and not just for students but even for the leaders themselves.A school district leadership team is comprised of the school board,forming the governance Governance makes decisions that define expectations, grant power, or verify performance. It consists either of a separate process or of a specific part of management or leadership processes. Sometimes people set up a government to administer these processes and systems. team, and the superintendent, who is the leaderof the management team. But how does the school board track progresstoward goals? How does the public know whether the board andsuperintendent are fulfilling their roles effectively? As a child, mymother would let me throw boiled boiled?adj. SlangIntoxicated; drunk.Adj. 1. boiled - cooked in hot waterpoached, stewedcooked - having been prepared for eating by the application of heat spaghetti spaghetti:see pasta. noodles noo��dle?1?n.A narrow, ribbonlike strip of dried dough, usually made of flour, eggs, and water.[German Nudel. on the refrigeratordoor to see if they would stick a sign that the noodles were cooked.Unfortunately, school boards and administrators often throw upself-assessment and evaluation instruments in a similar fashion, to seewhat sticks or what's effective. But there's another way. One Model One method of assessing the effectiveness of district leaders is anevaluation process. In 1996, Strategem started its work on one. Theapproach is unique in that many school board and school administratorassociations, such as those in Washington, Oregon Oregon, city, United StatesOregon,city (1990 pop. 18,334), Lucas co., NW Ohio, a suburb adjacent to Toledo, on Lake Erie; inc. 1958. It is a port with railroad-owned and -operated docks. The city has industries producing oil, chemicals, and metal products. , Minnesota, Iowa andColorado, have developed assessment and evaluation instruments, but fewhave developed a comprehensive assessment and evaluation process. Therehas not been an integrated model that guides the leadership team togovern better, while being fully accountable to the public for educatingstudents. A growing number of state association trainers have taken thisnew model and applied it to their work with school boards and schoolsuperintendents Noun 1. school superintendent - the superintendent of a school systemoverseer, superintendent - a person who directs and manages an organization . Self-assessment of the board and evaluation of thesuperintendent's performance is fundamental to the success of aschool district. Without self-assessment and evaluation, progress andgoal achievement cannot be measured. These tools provide the leadershipteam with the best opportunity to identify strengths and weaknesses. Through the self-assessment and the evaluation processes, goals arerevised and improvement is facilitated. Before putting an evaluationprocess in place, the board must answer some questions, such as: Whatare the legal requirements of superintendent evaluation? What is thepurpose of the evaluation? Parallel leadership roles in the publicschool governance structure exist so that the "chief operatingofficer Chief Operating Officer (COO)The officer of a firm responsible for day-to-day management, usually the president or an executive vice-president. " is the superintendent, who also serves as leader of themanagement team, and the "chief governance officer" is boardchairman or president, or governance team leader. The parallelleadership of the board and the superintendent is enhanced when theboard self-assesses its governance of the school district, monitors thedistrict's performance as measured against established goals, andevaluates the superintendent's performance. These elements are partof the accountability measures that the board must put in place toassure the public that the school district is providing an excellenteducation for its students. Evaluation versus Assessment It is important to differentiate between assessment and evaluationto more precisely define the function of each instrument. KenO'Connor, author of How to Grade for Learning, has provided somehelp. Although O'Connor's concepts for the assessment andevaluation come from a grading frame of reference, I've adapted hisconcepts and applied them to the board self-assessment andsuperintendent evaluation process. So an assessment is "the processof gathering information" about the school board's performanceas it relates to the governance process and board-superintendentrelations. It answers the question "How is it going?" An evaluation is "the process of integrating information frommany sources and using it to make judgments" about the performanceof the superintendent. It answers the question "How good isit?" In effect, the board self-assesses its governance performance,while evaluating the superintendent's performance in leading theschool district. Ultimately, the public holds individual board membersaccountable for student success at election time. Other Standards Since superintendents look to the American Association of SchoolAdministrators The American Association of School Administrators (AASA), founded in 1865, is the professional organization for more than 13,000 educational leaders across the United States. as their professional organization, its standards canhelp a board establish guidelines guidelines,n.pl a set of standards, criteria, or specifications to be used or followed in the performance of certain tasks. for a superintendent evaluation. AASA AASA American Association of School AdministratorsAASA Asian American Student AssociationAASA Association of Academies of Sciences in AsiaAASA Aging and Adult Services AdministrationAASA Administrative Assistant to the Secretary of the Army has developed eight professional standards, or criteria, for thesuperintendent performance. At least two states use AASA standards. Oregon School BoardsAssociation (OSBA OSBA Ohio School Boards AssociationOSBA Ohio State Bar Association (Columbus, Ohio)OSBA Oregon School Boards AssociationOSBA Ontario School Bus AssociationOSBA Office of Small Business Assistance ) has adopted those standards and added a few more toevaluate the performance of the superintendent. And the Iowa SchoolBoards Association (ISBA ISBA Illinois State Bar AssociationISBA International Society for Bayesian AnalysisISBA Incorporated Society of British AdvertisersISBA Iowa State Bar AssociationISBA International Sea-Bed AuthorityISBA Illinois State Beekeepers Association ) and school administrators have addedperformance indicators/targets to give evidence as to the degree ofaccomplished goals. Iowa, which includes AASA standards and is congruent con��gru��ent?adj.1. Corresponding; congruous.2. Mathematicsa. Coinciding exactly when superimposed: congruent triangles.b. with the integrated Strategem model, is one of the few states where thestate school board and the state school administrator organizations havecome together to form a common instrument for school boards andsuperintendents to use in evaluations. The Process Regardless of what criteria or standards districts choose to use,Strategem proposes districts undergo its model of board self-assessmentand superintendent evaluation, which has school boards reviewing theirown governmental process and considering how much their superintendentachieves and how he or she leads. The board self-assessment and superintendent evaluation cyclebegins on or about July I whenever a new superintendent has been hired.The board needs to adopt a policy on selecting the superintendent,develop a superintendent evaluation instrument, and formalize anevaluation process, including the procedures and the timing. The boardin successive steps reviews the school district's strategic plan,establishes goals for the superintendent, defines the limits of thesuperintendent's authority, establishes the budget and setsparameters, and monitors the superintendent's implementation ofpolicies. Around January, the board conducts a midyear mid��year?n.1. The middle of the calendar or academic year.2. a. An examination given in the middle of a school year.b. midyears A series of such examinations. evaluation of thesuperintendent, which gives the superintendent a chance to apprise theboard on progress toward meeting goals that were established for him orher at the beginning of the school year. There is an old business schooladage that applies: Never allow your boss to be surprised. In March or April, the board undergoes a self-assessment. Theboard's goal in its self-assessment is to examine its governanceprocess and practices, as well as review the board-superintendentrelationship. Another part of the self-assessment process is to reviewthe progress toward achieving the district's goals for the currentyear and to plan for next year's goals. This portion of the process prepares the board for the finalsuperintendent evaluation meeting, which occurs in May or June. Theboard evaluates the superintendent's performance based on goalsestablished before the school year. The board also discusses the goalsfor the next school year. The contractual status of the superintendentis based upon the performance review. The question should be: Should thecontract be extended, held in abeyance A lapse in succession during which there is no person in whom title is vested. In the law of estates, the condition of a freehold when there is no person in whom it is vested. In such cases the freehold has been said to be in nubibus (in the clouds), in pendenti or terminated? Superintendent Joel Aune of the Snoqualmie Valley The Snoqualmie Valley is a farming and timber-producing region located along the Snoqualmie River in Western Washington, United States. The valley stretches from the confluence of the three forks of the river at North Bend to the confluence of the Snoqualmie River and the Skykomish (Wash.) SchoolDistrict, which uses the Strategem model, finds it helpful. "Iappreciated the thoughtful reflection, deep thinking, and meaningfuldialogue in which the board members engaged throughout the boardself-assessment process," he says. Avoiding Common Pitfalls The National School Boards Association has identified someshortcomings A shortcoming is a character flaw.Shortcomings may also be: Shortcomings (SATC episode), an episode of the television series Sex and the City when evaluating a superintendent: failing to understandwhat the superintendent should be doing; evaluating in a vacuum;considering evaluation only in terms of correcting deficiencies; failingto acknowledge and reward good work; measuring performance withoutcarefully constructed standards; "posturing posturingNeurology The positioning of the body and limbs. See Decerebrate posturing, Decorticate posturing, Postural fixation Psychology1. The adoption of a rationalized mental stance 2. The making of gestures as psychologists This list includes notable psychologists and contributors to psychology, some of whom may not have thought of themselves primarily as psychologists but are included here because of their important contributions to the discipline. ";not giving the superintendent time to correct deficiencies before actingon them; and not giving the superintendent due time or place to respondto the board's evaluation or concerns. Members should avoid personal issues, such as grudges against thesuperintendent. They should be fully engaged in the process and focusmore on a global view of performance than a recent event that might warp warp:see weaving. (1) See OS/2 Warp.(2) A parallel processor developed at Carnegie-Mellon University that was the predecessor of iWARP. Warp - OS/2 the evaluation. Superintendent Evaluation As CEO (1) (Chief Executive Officer) The highest individual in command of an organization. Typically the president of the company, the CEO reports to the Chairman of the Board. , the superintendent is responsible for the district'soverall performance. As the district leader, the superintendent affectsnot only the work of principals but also the teachers' work, whichin turn affects student achievement. Typical elements of asuperintendent evaluation process clarify the relationship andcommunication between the board and the superintendent; document theperformance of the superintendent; highlight the superintendent'sstrengths and weaknesses; determine whether district goals and boarddesires have been met; provide board direction for professional growthfor the superintendent; and meet legal requirements where applicable. "The processes of board self-assessment and superintendentevaluation allow the board and the superintendent to stop and take amoment to ensure that everyone is on the same page and working in thesame direction," says Kathryn Lerner, board member of theSnoqualmie district. "Is this still the best plan for kids? Do we need to revisit re��vis��it?tr.v. re��vis��it��ed, re��vis��it��ing, re��vis��itsTo visit again.n.A second or repeated visit.re our priorities based on changes in funding, student needs, communitypreferences? Is this the best way to spend our money? The tools shouldbe directly tied to the district's mission, vision, andgoals," she adds. "By taking the time to have thisconversation and do this work, school board members and thesuperintendent can ensure that they are working in concert with oneanother on behalf of the students and taxpayers of theircommunity." Building Effective Leadership As a way of measuring the effectiveness of the board,self-assessment is an important tool. The board self-assessment processholds the board accountable for its governance practices; engages eachboard member in self-reflection; fosters open communication amongmembers and the superintendent; provides insight into thedecision-making process; improves conflict resolution skills; highlightsstrengths and weaknesses of board members; assists in goal setting; andaids in long-range and strategic planning Strategic planning is an organization's process of defining its strategy, or direction, and making decisions on allocating its resources to pursue this strategy, including its capital and people. . Elements of Self-Assessment and Evaluation ELEMENTS OF A BOARD SELF-ASSESSMENT INSTRUMENT * Board-Superintendent Relations (Develops and maintains arelationship with superintendent) * Board Meeting Effectiveness and Efficiency (Encouragesinitiatives to improve the conduct and productivity of the school boardmeeting) * Board-Community Relations (Supports open dialogue with thecommunity, local and state governmental leaders) * Board Qualities (These include knowledge, independence, andrespect for one another and for decisions by the full board) * Personnel Relations (Provides appropriate staffing for the needsof the school system) * Board-Instructional Programs Relations (Provides oversight For Oversight in Wikipedia, see Wikipedia:Oversight.Oversight may refer to: Government regulation — The role of an official authority in regulating a separate authority. torevise, update and monitor the instructional programs to improve studentlearning) * Financial Management Monitoring (Provides oversight for thedistrict's financial condition) * Policy Development (Develops timely and appropriate policies togovern the school district) * Goal Setting and Planning (Plans, develops, and implementsappropriate goals) * Media Relations (Develops effective strategies for communicatingvia media) ELEMENTS OF A SUPERINTENDENT EVALUATION * Leadership and school district culture (Develops a professionallearning community through continuous improvement, team identity andhigh expectations) * Policy implementation and governance as part of the leadershipteam (Implements board policies while dealing with means issues) * Communication and community relations 1. The relationship between military and civilian communities.2. Those public affairs programs that address issues of interest to the general public, business, academia, veterans, Service organizations, military-related associations, and other non-news media entities. (Proactively engages andlearns the community's expectations for the public schools) * Organization management (Manages the day-to-day districtoperations) * Financial management (Stewards the district's finances) * Curriculum planning and development (Systematically develops andimplements curriculum to improve student learning) * Instructional leadership (Demonstrates role as thedistrict's instructional leader) * Human resource leadership (Develops and efficiently uses thedistrict's human resources The fancy word for "people." The human resources department within an organization, years ago known as the "personnel department," manages the administrative aspects of the employees. ) * Values and ethical leadership (Demonstrates ethical behavior inleading the school district) * District goals (Evaluates and implements the global, board anddistrict- operational goals) WWW WWWor W3:see World Wide Web. (World Wide Web) The common host name for a Web server. The "www-dot" prefix on Web addresses is widely used to provide a recognizable way of identifying a Web site. .DISTRICTADMINISTRATION.COM (1) (Computer Output Microfilm) Creating microfilm or microfiche from the computer. A COM machine receives print-image output from the computer either online or via tape or disk and creates a film image of each page. Read more on and review sample superintendent evaluations and boardself-assessments. Chuck Namit is president of Strategem LLC (Logical Link Control) See "LANs" under data link protocol. LLC - Logical Link Control and member of NorthThurston (Wash.) Public Schools Board of Directors. He's trainedboards and superintendents for 28 years.