Principals' portfolios: a reflective process for displaying professional competencies, personal qualities and job accomplishments.

The current emphasis on high-stakes testing is leaving an unmistakable imprint on all aspects of education. Our curriculum, our instructional methods and materials and even our understanding of the purpose of public education are being reshaped by the standardized tests.

Another area where the impact of high-stakes testing can be felt is in the way we evaluate principals. Whatever methods a school district might be using, everyone knows that the bottom line is the bottom line. Of course, like any debate that is held in the public square, high-stakes testing has its advocates and its critics. In this case, at least, both sides can agree on one point: With high-stakes testing, the locus of control for education reform is external. Someone other than the teacher is setting the bar for the class, and someone other than the principal is setting the bar for the school.

Regrettably, this carrot-and-stick approach to education reform misses a key point about how to motivate people to change. Change is an interior process. It is an inside job. Education reform will happen, if it is to happen at all, one teacher at a time and one principal at a time. And the way to better teachers and better principals is to recognize that change occurs when individual teachers and principals take personal responsibility for their individual professional growth. For the most part, people change when they set their minds to change. School principals are no exception.

Even with the obvious connection between motivation theory, professional growth and performance evaluation, we have seen little change in the way that school principals are evaluated. Evaluation is still a process that is imposed. The annual performance review conference, which usually is based on a form that a supervising administrator completes, remains the prevailing method.

Alternative methods, such as 360-degree evaluation and management-by-objective, are being used with greater frequency, but even they are something that is done to principals rather than something that principals do for themselves. Only the professional portfolio gives principals impetus to reflect personally upon the jobs they are doing and how they can do them better.

Professional portfolios, though not as common as the other methods of evaluation, have become a valid way for educators to display their professional competencies, personal qualities, and on-the-job accomplishments.

The main reason for using portfolios in the evaluation of principals is that they allow the principal to play a key role in the process. Personal reflection by the principal and professional dialogue with other administrators on the meaning and evidence of effective leadership are essential to the preparation of a portfolio. The outcome is self-assessment.

A Portfolio's Purpose

The principal's portfolio has many uses. Foremost among them is that the principal's portfolio encourages self-assessment as a guide to professional growth. The premise of a portfolio is that professional growth is an interior process--an inside job--and professional growth can occur only if the individual is willing to change.

Other methods of evaluation begin with someone else judging the principal's work, but the portfolio starts with the principal reflecting upon the meaning of effective leadership in a school community, then it continues with the principal considering the actual evidence of that leadership.

Simple definitions help, so here is one to help frame a brief explanation of the principal's portfolio: A principal's portfolio is a self-assessment of attributes, skills and goals resulting from personal reflection and professional dialogue. It uses authentic evidence to communicate a portrait of leadership and a plan for growth.

When we look carefully at this definition we will find several key words and phrases that become the portfolio's essence--self-assessment, reflection, dialogue, evidence and plan.

* Self-Assessment. Principals take the first step toward an effective professional development program when they find out for themselves what they need to learn and how they need to change.

The reason that self-evaluation is so important is because principals are no different from teachers when it comes to performance evaluation. They are likely to become defensive if they are told about their shortcomings. But if they are allowed to identify the places where they need to improve on their own, they are more willing to make a plan for action. Essentially, the principal's portfolio is based on the premise that the best knowledge is self-knowledge.

* Reflection. The preparation of a principal's portfolio begins with the principal reflecting upon the meaning of effective leadership in a school community. The principal then considers what might be the evidence of effective leadership. The gap between what a principal thinks effective leadership should look like and what actual evidence can be found forms the basis for the professional development plan.

The heart of personal reflection can be found in several questions that the principal asks: What are my core values as a leader? What are my goals as a leader? Where is the evidence that the way I work reflects my core values? Where is the evidence that I am accomplishing my goals? Based on the evidence, what are my strengths and my weaknesses? How do my strengths and weaknesses compare to the kind of school leader I am trying to become? What are my professional goals and what is my plan for working toward them?

* Dialogue. While most states now have mentoring programs for beginning principals, veteran principals still can find themselves without anyone to talk to about the meaning and evidence of effective leadership in their school--talk, that is, in a conversation unhindered by either supervisory or subordinate roles.

The portfolio process is designed to let a principal have professional dialogue with a peer on the meaning of school leadership and the evidence of school leadership. In reference to teacher portfolios, Lee Shulman, writing in Educational Leadership in 1988, maintains a valuable outcome of portfolios is the professional dialogue among teachers. The same is true for principal portfolios.

* Evidence. The essential difference between a principal's portfolio and other forms of performance evaluation is that the evidence is authentic. Actual documents are the basis for the self-evaluation.

For example, if a principal wants to show how implementing a new activities program has improved schoolwide discipline, then a brief description of the implementation process coupled with a summary of trend lines for various discipline data would be the appropriate evidence. Or, if the principal wishes to depict how restructuring parent and faculty councils has improved school climate, then a data summary from school climate surveys would be appropriate evidence.

The most important characteristic of a principal's portfolio is that every aspect of the self-evaluation is backed up with authentic evidence.

* Growth Plans. It is more accurate to refer to the principal's portfolio as a process rather than a product. In other words, the portfolio is a process a principal follows for devising and continually revising a plan for professional development that is grounded in evidence.

Most importantly, since the principal has collected and evaluated the evidence she or he is more apt to accept personal responsibility for following through with the plan. The professional development plan typically is the last part of the portfolio that the principal creates since it follows the self-assessment that is based upon personal values and professional goals.

Creating a Portfolio

No formula exists for creating a principal's portfolio. Each portfolio will be unique because each principal is unique. A few tips are helpful for getting started, however.

First is the organization of the portfolio. Typically, a principal's portfolio will be organized around a set of recognized professional standards such as the state's or those adopted by the National Association of Elementary School Principals.

In addition, at the beginning the portfolio will include a section on personal information and at the end will be a section on the principal's plan for professional development. Each of the sections for the standards will include a reflective statement. The reflective statement is the place where the principal interprets the standard and conducts the self-assessment, and it will list the evidence that the principal chooses to include to back up the self-assessment. Normally, a reflective statement will be a page or two of written text, including the list of artifacts.

Another issue in the construction of the portfolio is the format. It can be a three-ring binder, a CD, a portable file box or a web page. The form should be chosen for the convenience of the reviewer.

The central purpose of the portfolio, a principal should remember, is to engage in personal reflection, self-assessment and professional dialogue. Skill in constructing an intricate website, however valuable that skill might be elsewhere, is not the task. Most principals prefer the three-ring binder option because of the ease of updating the artifacts and the simplicity of the organization for the reviewer.

Evaluating Performance

The primary use of a principal's portfolio is professional development, and to that end portfolios need to be based on personal reflection, dialogue with peers and self-assessment. They should not be the primary method by which a district evaluates principals for the purpose of personnel decisions--whether for retention, promotion or merit pay. Nevertheless, portfolios can be one of the components in the evaluation process for principals. When they are, several guidelines need to be established.

First, make certain that it is the principal and not the portfolio that is being evaluated. Second, establish the purpose of the portfolio. Third, develop rubrics for the evaluation. Fourth, train portfolio evaluators in the use of the rubrics. Unless these guidelines are in place, the evaluation process will lose its credibility with its most important constituents--the principals.

When reviewing portfolios, it is a common error to be taken in by the slickness of the presentation and fail to observe the qualities and accomplishments of the person who is being portrayed.

Evaluators will find that two questions will help them stay focused. First, do the exhibits that the principal included in the portfolio have substance? That is, do they reveal leadership qualities through actual accomplishments or is it fluff?

Second, has the principal included other observations of administrative competence, such as ratings by the principal's supervisor or surveys of teachers and parents? Portfolios are not intended to be a substitute for evaluation by supervisors. Rather, they should complement the supervisor's evaluation by giving it context. In fact, portfolios can be combined with both the rating scale method and the 360-degree method.

Pomona's Portfolios

The most common use of portfolio assessment for administrators is still found in universities that prepare administrators. However, more school districts are beginning to use portfolios to complement their evaluation systems.

In the Pomona, Calif., Unified School District, the portfolio is just one piece in a comprehensive evaluation system that is ongoing. As principals prepare their portfolios they focus their self-assessment on four quadrants--student achievement, school climate, personnel and resources. While the school district allows principals to create their own format for organizing the information in the portfolio, personal reflection is always a component. In addition, the portfolio includes an academic plan for the principal's school.

In Pomona, portfolios are reviewed annually by a panel consisting of a peer, a team of administrators from the district office and the superintendent. The rubrics for the review come from the state's standards for school administrators, as well as indicators of performance that were developed by the principals themselves.

The district has used portfolios as part of its annual review of principals since 2002. All 38 building principals complete portfolios, but no one in the central office is using them yet.

Pomona Superintendent Patrick Leier sees merit in his district's early experiences. "Our principals are becoming more focused on outcomes rather than compliance," he says, adding the process of preparing portfolios helps to "close the gap between self-knowledge and action by the self."

As a consequence, Leier observes that the portfolio has become an important tool for guiding the professional development for Pomona's principals.

Personalized Advantages

The professional portfolio can be a very effective component in a comprehensive system for evaluating principals. The primary value is professional development. Since principals are less than satisfied with business as usual when it comes to their evaluation, superintendents need to look for alternative strategies.

The professional portfolio has the advantage of allowing a wide variety of evaluative data to be included. Of course, the real benefit is that the principal reflects upon the data to devise a personalized plan for professional growth.

Additional Reading

Books

Evaluating Principals: Issues and Practices by J.E. Green, Phi Delta Kappa.

Teacher Portfolio: A Tool for Professional Development and Evaluation by J.E. Green and S.O. Smyser, ScarecrowEducation

The Principal Portfolio by Genevieve Brown and Beverly J. Irby, Corwin Press

Articles

"A Union of Insufficiencies: Strategies for Teacher Assessment in a Period of Educational Reform" by Lee S. Shulman, Educational Leadership, November 1988

"Evaluation of Administrators: Analysis of Current Practices" by J.E. Green, Educational Leadership and Administration, Fall 2002

"Holding Principals Accountable: Seven Considerations for Effectively Evaluating Your Site Administrators" by Douglas B. Reeves, The School Administrator, October 1998

"Three Models for Portfolio Evaluation of Principals" by Catherine E. Hackney, The School Administrator, May 1999

James Green is a professor of advanced studies in education at Azusa Pacific University, P.O. Box 7000, Azusa, CA 91702. E-mail: [e-mail]