Self-Assessment
Introduction:
The Self Assessment process for the School Executive is the most powerful means for an educational organization to understand and improve its educational and personal performance. Self-Assessment is a systematic process of data-driven self-reflection. It is directed towards coherent and clearly articulated goals to inform decision-making and operational practices.
The self-assessment will help you determine where you are strong, and where you may need additional development. It is very important that you be reflective and honest about your experiences, actions and behaviors. It is important to reflect on whether you consistently demonstrate each behavior, and in what situations or circumstances you do or do not. You may also want to review your self-assessment with another mentor or colleague and ask for their feedback on how they observe you in a leadership role.
This document is intended as a self-assessment of your own knowledge, skills and abilities against the NC School Executive Standards. The standards and elements represent the knowledge, skills, and abilities required for to be a principal on day one.
Before you complete your self-assessment and rate yourself consider this:
The self assessment allows the person being evaluated the opportunity to engage in a self-reflection so that he or she can enter the evaluation process with some control over what the process contains. It should make you look at yourself and be honest and see what you can do to improve. The process by which the North Carolina principal or assistant principal has his or her performance evaluated by a supervisor begins with a period of self-reflection, gathering in his or her own mind, what the performance strengths are and what possible performance areas need additional support. The most important part of the self-assessment will be to understand the North Carolina School Executive Standards. You can access the standards by clicking this link: http://ncees.ncdpi.wikispaces.net/file/view/NC%20Standards%20for%20School%20Executives.pdf/253336600/NC%20Standards%20for%20School%20Executives.pdf
After you read and understand the standards and competencies you will be ready to start systematically gathering data and looking at artifacts and evidence. The self-assessment process should start with a review of artifacts. The following list is not exclusive but may give you some ideas to review before completing your annual self-assessment. If you are new to the role of principal or assistant principal you need to gather the data that you think is relevant. Principals and assistant principals that have been practicing for several years will have these artifacts organized and available for review at any time during the school year.
Activity
Keeping track of the data you need is very important. Checklists are the most popular form of collecting data and knowing how you want to use the information. Using the list below create a form that lists specific desired criteria for a specific artifact that you want to use. You may also want to include a “sources of evidence” component that you can use to justify your assessment for each artifact that you choose to use on your checklist. For example, if you checked off Personal Professional Development Activities, and you completed collegiate-level course work in supervisory/managerial skills, you may want to supply a copy of your transcript as a “source of evidence”.
(Need to create some sort of document to list these artifacts/data source examples possibly categorize the list into five main sections and create icons so that it can be used later in the goal setting and data collection section)
Board Policy Manual
School Report Card
Letters and memoranda
Notes/minutes from School Improvement meetings
School improvement plan
System level strategic plan
Accountability data
Faculty and student handbooks
Faculty meeting agendas
Lesson plan books and notations
Personal planning book/calendar
Curriculum documents (pacing guides)
Goal summary data (EVAAS)
Management/monitoring system reports
Records from parent meetings/surveys
School master schedule
School level/district technology plans
State accreditation documents
Surveys of students
State curriculum documents
Classroom observation data
Dropout data
Professional development data/plans
School safety records
State compliance documents
Internal reviews of testing data
School district and school level testing data reports
Newsletters
Award data
Samples of correspondence
Public relations brochures/pamphlets
Press releases and news articles
Budget documents
Facility plans/needs
Enrollment projections
Demographic data
Climate studies
Evidence of business relationships
PTA agendas and minutes
School-level achievement reports
Agendas from recognition ceremonies
Letters of commendation to students and faculty
Notes from speeches
Personal professional development activities
Feedback from faculty (Teacher Working Condition Survey)
Feedback from the community
Parent emails
Instructional improvement reports to the public/school board
Longitudinal studies of student achievement
Disaggregated reports of student progress
Records of parent and community meetings
Relevant external reviews of the school programs (financial audits)
Hiring and employment records
Job descriptions
Budget documents
Personal work attendance records
Compliance documents
Grant applications
School board minutes
Mentor records
Personal evaluations
Exit interviews
Teacher evaluation documentation
Copies of submitted reports
Anecdotal records
Suspension and other disciplinary reports
Teacher discipline records and trends
The list seems daunting; however, the more data you review the closer you can look at your strengths and areas of improvement. This section needs to be linked to the data collection section)
Principal Self-Assessment Tool: Standards-Based Guiding Questions Activity
One way to consider your strengths and weaknesses as a principal is to respond to focused, guiding questions related to effective instructional and leadership practices. Any questions to which you respond at not demonstrated, developing or proficient may be areas for growth. Remember that this tool is confidential – it is not intended as an external tool for evaluation. This is an opportunity to be personal and honest in your assessment for self-improvement. You may wish to do this activity with a trusted peer or colleague to allow for additional discussion and reflection.
Essential questions for reflection:
Do you lead the change process for continuous improvement?
Are you the instructional leader for the school?
Do you act to create and ensure a nurturing, safe school environment?
Do you share leadership and promote a collaborative learning culture?
Do you involve parents and community in the school?
The intent of the self-assessment process is neither to render a score or rating nor to label an individual or a school. Rather, it is intended to provide a snapshot as to where an individual is at a particular point in time. Results should be used to strategically plan long- and short- term objectives to enhance the schools capacity to deliver purposeful and competent instruction and services at all levels within the school.
The self-assessment process can yield a wealth of information about individual and organizational strengths and areas for growth. Careful consideration should be given to:
· establishing personal priorities
· developing a strategic plan with goals and objectives to sustain strengths and address growth areas
· allocating necessary resources to accomplish strategic plan goals
· sustaining and maintaining partnerships with community stakeholders
· incorporating self-assessment results into the goal setting process
The self assessment process may lead to changes in: organizational mission, policies, structures and procedures; staffing patterns; position descriptions, personnel performance measures; delivery of service; outreach and dissemination approaches; composition of advisory boards and committees; professional development, in-service training activities; management, information systems and telecommunication systems. The self-assessment process is what you have achieved. Completing the self-assessment will lead to actual, worthwhile improvements for the school and its stakeholders. It will allow you an opportunity to make personal and school improvements that will help you develop an environment that encourages innovation and creativity. Effective self-assessment is integrated into the daily operation of the school so that informed understanding of what is being achieved directly influences organizational decision-making, planning and actions. It is the first step to gaining a deep level of understanding, identifying and clarifying your personal beliefs and challenging assumptions and knowledge for total school improvement and success. Remember that it is accomplished one step at a time.
Pause to Practice:
What will your systematic process of data gathering include? How will you analyze and make sense of this data to enable better decision making in your school? What data will help you make coherent and clearly articulated goals that inform decision-making and strong operational practices?
Reflective Question:
What will you share with your evaluator to convince them that your self-assessment process was comprehensive, authentic, transparent, and robust?
Reflective Question:
After you have reviewed all of the artifacts, how do you know that the improvements you will consider for the next year are relevant and worthwhile? In other words what evidence-based conclusions and decision making will you do that impacts learner achievement?
Journal Response:
How will you personally gain new knowledge that leads to actual, worthwhile improvements for your school and its stakeholders including the students?
How will you identify your strengths, areas for improvement, and opportunities for innovation?
Completing the Rubric for Self-Assessment
The principal or assistant principal will complete a self-assessment by checking performance descriptors of each of the elements of the rubric. The self-assessment is a personal reflection about one’s professional practice to identify strengths and areas for improvement conducted without input from others. Purposes of the self-assessment are to clarify performance expectations, to guide discussions about goal-setting and professional development and program needs, and to provide input to the final, end-of-year ratings. The principal or assistant principal should complete the rubric by checking descriptors that characterize strengths and consider descriptors that have not been checked as areas of improvement. The principal or assistant principal shall measure his or her own performance at the beginning of the year and reflect on his or her performance throughout the year.
Complete your self assessment using the attached form. This needs to be a fill-able form that can be transferred later to the NEW on-line tool (cut and paste). Once they have completed the Self Assessment they will then use it to complete their SMART Goal Setting activities.
Final Reflection Question: What did you learn from this process?
Created by Dianne Meiggs, NCDPI 2013Page 6