An AASA study of superintendent evaluation found weak criteria and few comprehensive models. Only Hawaii, Oregon, and Texas had evaluation materials fully matching all AASA professional standards. Boards should gauge expectations, use AASA standards as a framework, match criteria to job descriptions, and peruse multiple data sources. (MLH)

The superintendent search consultant is employed by the board of education and must always act in the board's best interest. Boards want consultants to be friendly and courteous, provide information, and foster an aura of good feeling with candidates and the board. Candidates should receive accurate information, selection criteria briefings,…

To ensure they are evaluated fairly and competently, superintendents must help their school boards plan and implement sound systems of superintendent performance assessment and accountability. The Center for Research on Educational Accountability and Teacher Evaluation (CREATE) applied 21 personnel evaluation standards to existing evaluation…

State legislators are increasingly determining how school sports are conducted. Following Texas's lead, several states, including Ohio and Florida, now require students to earn passing grades or lose playing and practicing opportunities on school sport teams. Kentucky's governor signed a bill imposing stricter penalties on those threatening…

New Title I legislation--the Improving America's Schools Act--mandates that students with disabilities be included in district and statewide assessments beginning in 2001, or immediately, if such assessments already exist. Administrators should include handicapped students in assessments, when in doubt; provide needed accommodations; and report…

Argues that schools and school districts should use a developmental approach to accountability that focuses on continuous growth rather than relying solely on the attainment model proposed for the accountability mechanisms in the No Child Left Behind Act. (PKP)

According to some participating school administrators, the process of conforming to the standardized dropout reporting system required by a national pilot project to track dropouts has been time-consuming and expensive. California experienced difficulty with adding junior high statistics. Florida exerted negligible effort, using an already…

The Improving America's Schools Act (the new Title I) is changing the way public school performance is evaluated. The IASA clearly places responsibility for standards and assessments with states. Standards-based assessment assesses students against high, specific standards, determines adequate yearly progress, and demands an accurate…

Although no pressing rationale for the AASA's new standards for superintendents exists, the standards set worthwhile practice standards covering the instructional, managerial, and political roles that every superintendent must juggle with various constituencies. Failure to hold superintendents accountable for student outcomes is understandable but…

Many states are focusing all their educational reform energy on standards and assessments. Close examination of some implicit assumptions of standards-based reform leads us back to other trees in the woods. This article examines several assumptions about student priorities, motivating factors, accountability factors, higher demands, rewards,…

Inadequate school facility planning carries fiscal, human, and academic costs. Building a responsive school requires that future inhabitants participate in the planning process. The accommodation of various building-use patterns, teaching methods, and learning styles reflects how satisfactorily a school building performs for its users. New…

Describes four superintendents' plans to construct diagnostic assessments to meet identified students' needs. Superintendents wanted assessments that were aligned to local and state standards and accountability tests; reported results by standards mastered, not total test scores; eliminated teachers' test scoring and reporting burdens while…

In the Everett (Washington) School District, every practice must contribute to students reaching high standards. Everything is examined through the lens of student learning. The district's ground rules are to keep focused, plan strategically, develop an integrated work plan, create clear decision-making processes, think systemically, be…

AASA's new "Professional Standards for the Superintendency" specifies benchmarks for improving selection, preparation, development of America's school superintendents. Superintendents will be expected to work more as decentralized enablers than centralized controllers. Standards will increase respect for superintendency, encourage the…

"Professional Standards for the Superintendency" underscore the importance of the superintendent's role in developing well-educated young people and document the extraordinary range of skills, competencies, and values required of today's superintendents. Ethically defining these requirements, without homogenizing them, will help produce school…