Role-Based Evaluation of Principals: Developing an Appraisal System

Abstract

Over the past decade, the perception that the public schools are failing has stimulated political debate over school reform in many nations. Much of this attention involves shifting decision-making power from state and district educational bureaucracies to the local school as the place where decisions about educational change are best made and implemented. Current policies to promote local school management, provide increased parent choice, or develop charter schools emphasize policymakers' beliefs that schools may be manipulated and evaluated in terms of their effectiveness in educating students. Moreover, with fewer dollars in many state or national economies during the past several years, accountability has become a driving force in the process of allocating scarce economic resources to education.