Tougher principal reviews on tap in Dist. 204

A sampling of principals in Indian Prairie District 204 will get a taste of what future job reviews will look like as the district prepares to comply with the state’s new rigorous evaluation requirements that in part ties principal performance to student performance.

During the next school year, the district will implement a process for evaluations while taking part in a pilot program through Governors State University that uses a performance-based evaluation system.

“This is definitely the ground floor,” said Linda Rakestraw, assistant superintendent, secondary leadership services.

By 2012-2013, Illinois schools must evaluate principals using the new requirements Teacher reviews also will become more rigorous, but aren’t mandatory for all schools until 2016. State lawmakers approved the act, hoping it would boost Illinois’ chances of receiving up to $400 million in a competitive federal “Race to the Top” grant program for education. Despite the evaluation change, Illinois was not selected to receive the funds.

Now, the Illinois State Board of Education is working on a model for districts to use in the evaluations. Once the changes are in place, teachers and principals will be given one of four designations in their reviews — excellent, proficient, needs improvement or unsatisfactory. Teachers will be evaluated yearly if they don’t have tenure or if they don’t at least achieve a “proficient” review rating. Those with tenure and good reviews will receive biannual reviews. Principals will be reviewed yearly.

“Even a school with great teachers won’t be great without a great leader. So the principal is a key leader of the staff,” said Martha Baumann, assistant superintendent, elementary leadership services.

District 204 wants to implement its own evaluation plan that must be submitted to the state and follow Illinois requirements such as including student academic growth as 50 percent of a principal’s rating. Some growth measurements could include students’ standardized test scores. The requirements also call for all evaluators to be trained.

During the next school year, five principals in District 204 will be evaluated through the new program. Naperville Unit District 203 and several other school districts also are participating in the pilot program that will determine how to evaluate a principal based on students’ growth.

The program uses a prototype evaluation and seeks feedback from participating principals and school districts. Then, District 204 will use VAL-ED (Vanderbilt Assessment of Leadership in Education) — a research-based tool that includes assessments from the principal, teachers and the principal’s supervisor — for 25 percent of a principal’s review. The final 25 percent of the assessment will involve organizational and professional goals and progress toward them.

By being part of the planning process, District 204 officials hope to offer a leadership role in determining what the state model looks like.

“In this case, we’re very happy to be in the front of that kind of planning and not reacting,” Baumann said.