New evaluation system for district principals

The Kenai Peninsula Borough School District’s Board of Education approved a new building administrator evaluation system and handbook which, pending approval from the Alaska Department of Education and Early Development, would make the district the first in the state to adopt the latest Professional Standards for Educational Leaders.

The evaluation system utilizes the 10 standards, which were created by a national committee in 2015, in order to analyze a principal’s performance.

“We contacted the department to ask if there were any other districts who had embedded the new standards,” said Assistant Superintendent John O’Brien. “They said no, and they are very interested in looking at ours now and we suspect the state will be asking us to help other districts.”

Next year, the district will also be including charter schools in principal evaluations for the first time, O’Brien.

“It’s good practice to, after a few years, make sure that your system is based on the most recent standards,” he said. ” I think the new standards are more student-centered in terms of how a principal’s performance and leadership abilities improve student performance and overall school performance and this is kind of a trend in education in general.”

The standards include guidelines on mission, ethics, cultural responsiveness, operations and management among others. The Effective Leadership Committee took these standards and organized them into four domains, attaching a rubric for each domain.

“The biggest issue our committee members had to wrestle with was taking these 10 standards and then deciding which domain they appropriately fit under,” O’Brien said. “It was a really cool dialogue.”

The first domain is “Vision, Culture and Climate.” Domain two is “Teaching and Learning,” which O’Brien said is the “meat and potatoes” of principal evaluations.

Domain three is called “People, Systems and Operations.”

“(The principal) can be great as an instructional leader but if you can’t manage your budget, can’t manage disciplinary issues or have poor connections with community resources … if that domain is missing, then the school won’t function” O’Brien said.

The fourth domain is titled “Professional Responsibilities,” which can be shown as a principal’s desire to improve their craft, to have accountability paired with aspirations, O’Brien said.

“And each of these four components has a very detailed and expansive rubric,” O’Brien said. “That drives the evaluation process and is helpful to the principal when they’re trying to get to the next level. They can look at the specifics in the rubric and think, ‘Alright, if I do this, then I can get to that distinguished level.’”

The evaluation system has been approved by the Board of Education and will be submitted to the Department of Education and Early Development by the end of this week, O’Brien said. He is not expecting any delays in approval.

The committee to create the new standards was composed of district principals, a parent representative and board members, in addition to O’Brien.

“I was more of an observer,” Board of Education member Lynn Hohl said during June’s meeting. “I don’t have the expertise that the principals and administration has, but even the part of the process that I understood, I fully appreciate the efforts and I think it is a good document.”

O’Brien expects for state approval to turnaround quickly, with professional development and training on the new system for principals to begin in August.

Reach Kat Sorensen at kat.sorensen@peninsulaclarion.com

More in News

Snow coats an eroding bluff near the mouth of the Kenai River on Friday, March 3, 2023, in Kenai, Alaska. (Ashlyn O’Hara/Peninsula Clarion)
Kenai accepting bids on bluff stabilization project

The announcement means that contractors can start submitting their proposals for how they’d complete the work and how much it would cost to do so

A stack of the Seward Journal is pictured. The town’s only daily newspaper published its last edition Nov. 27. (Photo via Seward Journal Facebook page)
‘A thing of the past’

Seward Journal calls it quits after struggle to keep newspaper afloat

Tim Navarre and Dana Cannava discuss a preliminary Soldotna route for the Kahtnu Area Transit with Planner Bryant Wright at the Challenger Learning Center of Alaska in Kenai, Alaska, on Wednesday, Nov. 29, 2023. (Jake Dye/Peninsula Clarion)
Getting people where they need to go

Plans for Kenaitze Indian Tribe’s Kahtnu Area Transit move forward

A state plow truck clears snow from the Kenai Spur Highway on Wednesday, Nov. 2, 2022, in Kenai, Alaska. (Jake Dye/Peninsula Clarion)
DOT identifies roads included in brine reduction plan

The department said its goal is to reduce brine use overall in the region by 40%

Soldotna High School senior Josiah Burton testifies in opposition to the proposed cut of Kenai Peninsula Borough School District theater technicians while audience members look on during a board of education meeting on Monday, March 6, 2023 in Soldotna, Alaska. (Ashlyn O’Hara/Peninsula Clarion)
School board finance group reviews expenditures ahead of upcoming budget cycle

As the Kenai Peninsula Borough School District prepares to grapple with another… Continue reading

Members of the Kenai/Soldotna Fish and Game Advisory Committee raise hands to vote in favor of a proposal during a meeting at Cook Inlet Aquaculture Association in Kenai, Alaska, on Monday, Nov. 20, 2023. (Jake Dye/Peninsula Clarion)
Silver salmon, personal use fishing discussed by advisory committee

The group set their recommendations on a variety of proposals to the State Board of Fisheries

Hoses pump water along Patrick Drive to help mitigate flooding near Kalifornsky Beach Road on Friday, July 21, 2023, near Kenai, Alaska. (Ashlyn O’Hara/Peninsula Clarion)
Borough spent almost $78k responding to flood events during disaster declaration

Most of the funds were spend in the northwest area of Kalifornsky Beach Road

The National Weather Service’s map shows a winter weather advisory, in orange, effective for much of the eastern Kenai Peninsula. (Screenshot)
Heavy snow, blowing winds forecast for Turnagain Pass on Wednesday

Snow accumulations of up to 16 inches are expected

The Kenai Courthouse is seen on Monday, July 3, 2023, in Kenai, Alaska. (Ashlyn O’Hara/Peninsula Clarion)
Grand jury adds charges in October killing of Homer woman

The indictment was delivered on Nov. 8

Most Read