How performance assessment for leaders (PAL) influences preparation program quality and effectiveness

ABSTRACT

The Performance Assessment for Leaders (PAL) is a four-task evaluation system designed to improve the quality of initial school leaders in Massachusetts by evaluating candidate readiness using a rigorous, standard assessment system. By design, it is signalling leadership quality expectations to preparation programmes. Through two years of survey research with leadership preparation faculty (n = 12) and candidates (n = 53) who completed PAL, we explored faculty understanding the PAL assessment, assessment alignment task to programme content, candidate preparedness, and impact on programmes. Results show that faculty used PAL to improve their preparation programmes and provide high-quality learning experiences for candidates.

KEYWORDS:

• Performance assessment
• leadership preparation
• programme improvement

Acknowledgements

The research presented in this article was informed by input from the other members of the Performance Assessment for Leaders development team: Ray Pecheone, Jon Snyder, Joseph Murphy, and Barbara Beaudin; state officials; and the faculty and programme directors of the Massachusetts leadership preparation programmes.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 Massachusetts requirements for preparation programmes were most recently amended in 2015; see http://www.doe.mass.edu/lawsregs/603cmr7.html?section=04.

2 The assessment development consultants were national leadership and assessment experts, including the authors here, from Bank Street College of Education, University of Iowa, Stanford University, and Vanderbilt University. The team was coordinated by the project director, who was then from Bank Street College of Education. Information on the assessment development is available in technical reports to DESE (Orr, Hollingworth, and Beaudin 2016; Orr et al. 2016).

3 The PAL assessment asks candidates to focus their tasks around improving learning for a student learning priority area, based on student performance indicators for one or more student groups. A priority student group could be defined as one or more of the federally-designated priority student groups (students with disabilities, English language learners, African American, Hispanic, and Native American students, low-income students, and students performing below state proficiency levels) or other groups that are a priority in your school.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by four years of funding from the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (ESE), through its federal Race to the Top grant, to Bank Street College of Education.