Students used them first, then teachers. Now school leaders are finding portfolios to be a helpful tool in assessing performance—and none too soon, said Genevieve Brown, chair of Educational Leadership and Counseling at Sam Houston State University in Huntsville, Tex. "The current system for evaluating administrators is not appropriate," she declared, because no evaluation system used today can accurately assess a principal's performance. What's more, few school leaders think their evaluations result in professional growth—which is necessary if student performance is to be enhanced, Brown said.
Using portfolios to assess a school leader's performance can reflect the multidimensional nature of a principal's job, and can also help school leaders become more reflective about their practice, said Brown. "We all know the value of reflective practice," she observed. "But reflection is very challenging for principals." They not only have no time, but they also aren't always certain how they should reflect on their practice.
Luckily, reflection is a skill that can be taught, as can the process for developing a portfolio, said Brown. What's most important for portfolios to show, she added, is both a leader's action and the impact of that action on teacher effectiveness and student learning.
Brown cautioned that it isn't easy to implement a portfolio evaluation system. "There can be a lot of storming in a district" when it moves to this system, she said. A major sticking point is that many principals have not reached an agreement about what constitutes good leadership.
Still, once principals do decide on some general standards of leadership, Brown said, "the portfolio gives school leaders a wonderful opportunity to document expertise and progress toward those standards."