VERMONT The self-evaluation on effectiveness of the job is carried out through five different devices. One is the Superintendent's Monthly Report in which he records his visits to each school, his professional meetings and conferences, and special projects or other endeavors contributing to educational progress in his district. These reports of visits and activities have often been a very great help to the State Department when critical school directors, lay public, or legislators have attacked some school administrator or local school system. Secondary schools have carefully studied the cooperative study of secondary school standards and have adopted some of the procedures suggested for evaluating their programs. The rating of high schools through the standardization of the schools is definitely participated in by the high school principals and sometimes the superintendents. The State Supervisor, the principal, and the teachers work together in rating their own schools. Thus it becomes an instrument of self-evaluation of the school, the teacher, and the administrator. Another device for self evaluation has been the guidance program questionnaire and a study of high school graduates of 1940. Thus the principal has two opportunities to evaluate his own guidance program and in a broader sense, the effectiveness of his student personnel policies generally. In addition to the use of techniques developed through the Cooperative Study of Secondary Schools Standards, apparently so generally in use in the States reporting, two of the techniques or approaches referred to in these statements seem to be especially promising, as reported by Connecticut and Michigan. The writer has had an opportunity to make some first-hand observations and inquiries with respect to both of these programs. No attempt will be made here to describe these programs in detail. They are cited only as promising approaches in relation to their possibilities as stimulants for objective self-evaluation on the part of superintendents and principals. The Connecticut statement refers to "regional planning committee" activities. These activities are a part of a total program of evaluation and redirection of the Connecticut school system. The broader implications of this program will be discussed later in relation to State-wide programs for educational study and planning. Its importance at this point in the discussion is that the plan involves a large number of administrators, superintendents, and principals systematically and continuously engaged in evaluation studies which inevitably stimulate and encourage objective self-evaluation of individual effectiveness on the job. 5 The activities reported from Michigan relate themselves more directly to the question raised in this inquiry. In Michigan each superintendent files annually with the State department a Self-Survey of Instructional Progress as "a basis of cooperation between (each) public school district and the Department of Public Instruction." This is a most interesting and stimulating document which has been developed cooperatively. Among the major areas covered in this Connecticut State Department of Education. Re-directing an educational program. Hartford, Conn., The Department, 1940. (Bulletin No. 1, January 1940.) instrument are: Community School Development; Pupil and Teacher Personnel; Instructional Programs and Policies and their Evaluation; and Budget and Financial Data. The detailed breakdown under the first main section is reproduced here: I. COMMUNITY SCHOOL Development A. School-Community Relations Indicate by check mark the items which describe the relationship between school and community. Give concrete illustrations in the space allotted each item that you have checked. If the practice does not apply, do not fill in or give illustrations. 1. --- Members of the school personnel participated during past year in planned efforts to interpret the school to the general public and special groups. Illustration. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. Speakers from outside the community were brought into the community during the past year to aid in social interpretation. Illustration_ The community has participated in a study of its educational needs. Illustration_ The community is kept informed regarding the progress of the instructional program. Illustration.... The community is informed regarding the financial affairs of the school. Illustration___ ---- The parents participate in study groups, visiting days, parent institutes, and other activities to learn about the work of the school. Illustration____ ----- Teachers are primary agents in a program of social interpretation. The school plant is used by various community groups. Give illustrations or enclose descriptive material on policies and practices. The school has served the community during the year by means of school projects. If so, enclose a brief descriptive account of such an activity. Leaders in agriculture, business, industry, and the professions in the community were brought to the school during the past year to talk with pupil groups for guidance and instructional purposes. 11. ______ The school staff utilizes the local or regional newspapers in interpreting the school to the community. 12. Community Council: (a) A coordinating council has been organized in the community. (b) Please enclose material listing or describing the functions of the council. (c) Give the names, titles, and occupations of the officers of the council, denoting by asterisk the one to whom correspondence should be addressed. (d) What projects has the council undertaken? Please enclose descriptive material. (e) What agencies and organizations are represented in the council? Please enclose list. (f) In what ways do you consider the council to have been most effective? Least effective? B. Administrator-Board of Education Practices Check, if the practice indicated applies to the local situation. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. The superintendent is considered as the executive and professional head of the school and attends board meetings. The superintendent plans the instructional policies with the board. The superintendent keeps the board informed concerning the progress of the school program and discusses educational policies with the board. The Superintendent assists the board in planning the budget for the coming year. ----- The board purchases only such instructional supplies as are recommended by the superintendent. The board employs only such teachers as are recommended by the superintendent. ----- ... The board has outlined definite policies pertaining to the duties and relationships of nonprofessional employees. If so, attach a copy of the policies to this report. C. Adult Education 1. Estimate the total cost to the school district of the adult education program (exclude building operation). 2. Of the total cost to the local school district, how much is reimbursed by the State or federal funds? 3. List community agencies carrying on some form of adult education activities. (a) Organized class work (b) Incidental or occasional Estimated number of adults reached 4. Please enclose copies of any material you have concerning the adult education program in your community, e. g., courses offered, informal activities sponsored, fees charged, age groups served, area served, by whom sponsored, etc. Statements suggesting how the adult education program may be improved on local, State, and national levels will be appreciated. As previously noted the information provided through the medium of this document is requested as a basis for cooperation between each school district and the State department of public instruction and no effort is made to "rate" schools or school systems. It is not a scoring device. 5. Describe briefly any activities carried on in your State in this whole area (I) which in your judgment have been valuable and effective from the point of view of developing standards for administration. About one-half of the respondents submitted additional statements at this point. For the most part these statements merely reempha sized activities previously referred to. Perhaps the most significant activity was reported from Missouri where in 1940 they developed and published a comprehensive administrators handbook. Four committees with a membership of nearly 50 administrators and college faculty members contributed to this handbook. As stated in the foreword This handbook for administrators has been prepared as a part of Missouri's program of curriculum development. The school curriculum necessarily includes all of the agencies of the school, administrative as well as classroom, since all of these agencies influence the school experiences of boys and girls. It is hoped that this bulletin may be of service in coordinating the administrative organization and procedures of schools with other curricular activities. It is also the purpose of the State Department of Education to present to the administrators of the State a handbook which contains some useful guiding principles and desirable practices in school administration, as well as certain necessary regulations and standards for administering a school program on a State-wide basis... The present handbook includes sections on State, general, and elementaryschool administration as well as a section on secondary schools. Among the other statements the following refer to activities which seem to be of value suggestively: FLORIDA The handbooks for county board members, county superintendents, trustees, and principals contain lists of suggested "Best Practices," as well as "Codes of Ethics." These should be very helpful in developing standards of administration. It has been our policy to discuss all proposals with county board members, county superintendents, trustees, principals, and others at district conferences held in various parts of the State each fall and spring. These district conferences are distinctly procedures in developing better philosophy and standards for administration. MICHIGAN We feel that our emphasis on the community school has provided a core concept for the orientation of administration. TEXAS UTAH There is an active association of school administrators in Texas which has been effective in improving standards for administrators. This group has cooperated with state administrative organizations in developing and encouraging legislation. Once Three times a year the administrators of the State meet as a group. with the State Association each October; once by themselves, generally in March, and again, usually in June, in connection with the first week of summer school, at which time they discuss standards of administrative work, and other problems affecting their efficiency as administrators. An administrators handbook for high school districts. Bulletin 2, 1940. Missouri at Work on the Public School Curriculum. Chapter 2 In-Service Education of Administrative Personnel IN THIS CANVASS of leadership activities carried on by State departments of education and which have a bearing upon the improvement of administrative personnel the concept of the essential unity of the growth process has been kept constantly in mind. The inclusion of this section on in-service activities per se gives recognition to the fact that there are certain kinds of activities which are directed more specifically and consciously to the problem. This apparent dualism in our thinking and approach to the problem is understandable as we face the fact of the lag between practice and theory in our schools. It serves an important purpose also, within limits, insofar as it provides an emphasis upon the growth factor. It is only as instructional processes are planned and made effective by professionals who are themselves growing in competence and insight, that they can contribute to the ultimate purpose of the school, namely, pupil growth. In this section of the inquiry, therefore, attention is directed to those activities which are more consciously planned to provide opportunities and situations which contribute to the growth of administrative personnel. As a preface to the analysis of returns it may be helpful to review and give emphasis to a few fundamental concepts in relation to this whole matter of growth in service. These have been stated with clarity and insight by Superintendent A. J. Stoddard.' That the lag between our best and that which is practiced in so many places is "so great as to be almost appalling" is a self-evident truth. It is equally obvious that "only through a continuous program of growth in service" can progress be made "in bringing together theory and practice." "That is, one cannot receive his training in one decade and then after a period of one or two decades go back to school and study again, and keep abreast of the developments within the teaching profession. It is only through a constant understanding and adaptation to the changing and enlarging body of knowledge and techniques involved in the profession of education that significant growth takes place." (The italics are mine.) What, then, are the fundamental concepts which must be recog 1 Stoddard, Alexander J. The growth of teachers in service. Educational record, 20: 500-507, October 1939. |