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

School Administrator, Oct, 2004 by Alexander Russo

Some portfolios also contain school report cards and student achievement data and evidence of work not visible in a school walkthrough. What's most important, say Brown and other experts, are the written explanations and reflections composed by the administrators to highlight their thought process and analyze the impact of their actions.

Positive Experiences

Those who have used portfolios for evaluation or have been evaluated in part through a portfolio generally report positive experiences.

For those being evaluated with portfolios, the portfolio element can provide an opportunity to document achievements, make sure that nothing important is missed, highlight accomplishments that might not otherwise come to light and even promote a certain amount of self-reflection.

For principals like Dotson, the main value of the portfolio is that it documented what he had actually accomplished and ensured there was no doubt about what he said he did on behalf of the school, which enrolls 453 students in grades 7-12.

"If I told you I was 6-foot-tall, blond and blue-eyed, you'd have to believe me," says Dotson. "If a person was going to evaluate me based on talking to me, I could sell myself to them rather easily. The evaluation wouldn't be a true evaluation of what I've done. I can say I had an open house with 200 people there, but it's another thing if I can show him that with the sign-in sheet and with the agenda or with a picture."

Initially, Doston's portfolio was required as part of his participation in Kentucky's statewide principal internship program for newcomers. "It basically included everything that I did," says Dotson. His mentor, his teachers and the program coordinators all reviewed the portfolio during his internship, using it as a way to monitor his progress. Since then, he has maintained a portfolio that he has submitted as part of his yearly evaluation even though it's not required.

Dotson says his portfolio now serves mainly "as a reflection piece." When he notices he doesn't have much to include in a section of the portfolio, he says it makes him reconsider some responsibility or assignment he's been ignoring or overlooking. "Maybe I'm not doing a lot in that area and I should do more."

Frank Buck, principal of Graham Elementary School in Talladega, Ala., has gone through two portfolio-based evaluation cycles. Overall, he considers his experiences to be positive.

Buck believes the portfolio tends to bring to the surface little-noticed success. "These are not things that would have come up during the course of a normal conversation or been naturally observed from being around," he says, citing his use of a memo to replace weekly faculty meetings as one example. The portfolio gives his superintendent a more wholistic view of his performance, Buck says. "This gives him the whole ball of wax."

In fact, Buck believes that portfolios are much more fair than interviews. "A lot of people talk a good game," he says, "but this portfolio is not just talk, it's not just fluff. You have to put your hands on examples of what you claim," he says. "If your student handbook is full of errors or incomplete, that is clear."