Evaluating administrators with portfolios: principals report mostly positive experiences when used as part of a performance review

School Administrator, Oct, 2004 by Alexander Russo

Seven years ago when Andy Dotson became principal of Phelps High School in Pike County, Ky., the school was the lowest-performing high school in the district and the fifth lowest in the state. As of last spring, Phelps is the second-highest performing high school in the district and close to being in the top third of all high schools in Kentucky.

All along the way, Dotson has used a portfolio of his work to help guide his own professional development and ensure his superintendent had a complete understanding of the work he was doing.

"Originally I kept a portfolio when I went through the principal internship program," Dotson says. "Since then it's been pretty much a continual process. As I meet the standards, I document it. At the end of the year I can look at what I've done and see if there is anything I need to work on."

Great Possibilities

Dotson's notable experience notwithstanding, the use of portfolios to evaluate the performance of administrators lags far behind their use among classroom teachers. In most parts of the country, evaluation of principals and administrators remains largely the same as it has been for decades--which is to say minimal.

Simple checklists, one-shot interviews, brief site visits and narrative evaluations remain widespread as the tools of assessment. In many school districts, the evaluation includes little or no face-to-face contact, and the principal simply gets his or her evaluation in the mail, leading one researcher to describe them as "infrequent, late, unhelpful and largely a source of administrative bother." In most cases, the performance reviews fail to result in improved leadership. "Little is learned and not much happens," according to a 2003 ERIC report on the evaluation of administrators.

To proponents, the use of portfolios for evaluating administrators offers the promise of a more valid, reliable and authentic form of assessing professional performance. In theory, portfolios promise a much more comprehensive, nuanced and effective evaluation process and offer the possibility of showcasing a broad range of skills and accomplishments that have been demonstrated throughout an entire year or more. In addition, portfolios provide an opportunity for ongoing reflection and continuous improvement, the elusive goal of nearly all school improvement efforts.

Portfolios probably are used most commonly for career advancement by administrators, a distinctly different purpose, according to portfolio expert Genevieve Brown, dean of the college of education at Sam Houston State University in Huntsville, Texas. Brown cites Louisiana, New York, Nevada, North Carolina, Texas and Virginia as states where principals regularly develop portfolios on their own as part of the job search process. In such places, Brown says, "They don't interview people if they do not have a portfolio with them."

Portfolios also are used for professional development purposes and principal training. For example, portfolios are a key part of the Principal Leadership Institute at University of California at Berkeley, where they are used to help candidates reflect on what they have learned and applied while going through the courses and training. Aspiring principals in Chicago now have to develop portfolios to demonstrate their leadership capabilities before they can be hired.

The least common use of portfolios is for evaluation, according to Brown and other authorities, who say a few districts adopted portfolio-based evaluations on their own. Districts in New York, Pennsylvania and Texas have implemented portfolio-based evaluations for a wide range of administrators, including assistant principals and directors of transportation, according to Brown.

In some districts, even the superintendent is evaluated in part through a portfolio. This is happening in Texas, Brown says, largely at the request of the superintendents. "It gives them ownership over their own evaluation," she says. "So many of our superintendents have asked their boards to please let them use a portfolio evaluation process because it enables them to have more of a formative evaluation."

For this reason, the impact of using portfolios to evaluate school administrators is not yet entirely clear, and their relatively recent appearance on the education scene makes them as yet unproven. Those who have experienced and studied the trend suggest that portfolios are a promising, if difficult, approach to improving performance. Their findings and experience offer helpful insights and guidance for others who are searching for better ways to evaluate principals and administrators.

In most cases, administrator portfolios are housed in three-ring, loose-leaf binders, though some are contained on CD-ROMS or on the Internet. Like the more common teacher portfolio, their organization and contents vary widely by school district and individual, but they often contain reference letters, resumes, copies of certifications, articles written by or about the principal, memos and other forms of written communication. Lists of conferences, PowerPoint presentations and awards, if any, also would be included.