Schools generally take on the character of the head of school. And their success or failure is often fully dependent on the performance of that leader. It is crucial for a school to have an effective head in order to have a healthy school environment. School boards are often challenged by how to best meet the needs of their school leader and provide quality feedback to this leader.
In line with the successful 360 type evaluation tools in current use, we create highly targeted head of school evaluation tools and processes to ensure head of school quality. We employ tools for analysis of leadership effectiveness, leadership coaching and school board evaluation and counsel to ensure that a healthy, ongoing head of school support system is in place.
Seating the right leader in a school has a cascading effect on all aspects of school quality, culture and outcomes. Leadership changes can be unsettling for the school. But if the process asks the right questions, probes the right depths of the school’s mission and eventually derives the right leadership, the process instead becomes unifying and launches a whole new future for the school.
Feedback is the breakfast of champions and yet it is too seldom accomplished in a quality way in schools. It is inevitable that performance excellence is sustained through accurate and timely feedback and quality suggestions for improvement. This step in accountability and feedback often falls to the bottom of a principal’s to do list as the day yields to the tyranny of the urgent.
The evaluative process can often feel mundane and highly time consuming. Often exacerbated by a principal’s lack of knowledge regarding the teacher’s specific subject or classroom conditions.
We provide standardized performance metrics which could be personalized to precisely meet a school’s specific needs and interests while retaining comparative regional or national benchmarks. Reducing a principal’s time on this function could allow them the space to focus on innovation and quality within their department.
Don’t just fill a seat while you search for new leadership. Instead, use that interim to help the school thrive. Schools need to take great care when replacing a head of school. Considering the importance of the decision and the possibility of institutional dysfunction that often exists when head of school turnover occurs, we help the interim address potential problems and introduce fixes.
Utilizing many of the NextEd tools, the interim head can identify dysfunction and implement needed interventions during his/her tenure, thus handing a healthy school to the new leader. We ensure the right leader is chosen and that the school they inherit is ready to thrive under their leadership.