Evaluating Principals.

WHAT ARE THE FIRST STEPS IN DESIGNING A PRINCIPAL EVALUATION SYSTEM?

校長評鑑設計的第一步為何？

Principal evaluation works best when it is not simply imposed from above. Richard Manatt (1989) suggests starting with a stakeholder's meeting of no more than twenty-five people. Jerry Valentine (1987) proposes a committee of about a dozen people, one half of them principals. That committee assesses other principal evaluation programs with the aid of a consultant, drafts a plan and submits it to the principals for amendment, and then sends the revised plan to the school board. An inservice session can familiarize principals with the evaluation process and defuse their anxiety over it.

校長評鑑的運作最好時是在於它不是單純地自上而下。Richard Manatt（1989）建議與利害關係人的會議不超過25人。Jerry Valentine（1987）提出了一個委員會成員大約十幾人，其中有一半是校長。委員會主要的目的在擬定評鑑計畫並給校長修訂，接著將修訂後的計劃交給學校董事會。校長可經由制訂過程的參與和瞭解，以減低在評鑑的過程中產生的焦慮。

Principal evaluation does not exist in a vacuum. It relates to the statements of purpose, long-range plans, goals, and job descriptions that districts and schools may have already formulated. The urban school district described by Lindahl (1986) created precise job descriptions that "became the format for the summative evaluation instrument." The district incorporated individualized or formative goals by requiring each school to develop annual campus improvement plans and by requiring each principal to establish annual personal growth plans. Evaluation, then, is linked to both organizational and personal goals. Principals should be intimately involved in the goal-setting process, and they should certainly be fully informed of how the various goals will be weighted and assessed. This knowledge encourages principals to focus on the aspects of their job deemed most important. George Redfern (1986) describes a school district that bases its assessment of principals entirely on how well they attain mutually established goals.

校長評鑑並不是脫離實際地。它涉及到地區和學校可能已經制定的目的的陳述、長期計劃、目標和工作表現。Lindahl（1986）建立一套精確的工作職責成為總結性評價工具的準則。評鑑要包含個人及組織的目標，校長應密切參與目標的制定過程中，他們應該充分了解如何加權各項目標和評估。

Although it cannot substitute for on-the-job evaluation, assessment centers can offer principals intensive observation and feedback. The National Association of Secondary School Principals sponsors several such centers (Anderson 1989).

這樣的評鑑雖然不能代替校長實際的表現，但可以提供校長觀察和回饋的意見。國家中學校長協會贊助好幾個這樣的評鑑中心（Anderson 1989）。