You have reached the ECRA School Leadership 360° Appraisal information and registration site. The School Leadership 360° is designed to evaluate principals and assistant principals of schools. The appraisal is a multisource assessment in which leaders complete a self-assessment and receive anonymous, confidential feedback from the people who work around them. The appraisal instrument is an easy-to-use online survey based on extensive research and best practices in appraisal.

School Leadership and the 360° Appraisal

School leaders are drivers of school improvement, determiners of achievement focus, and leaders of the school community. School leaders set the tone for their buildings, provide leadership and direction for their schools’ instructional programs and policies, sustain professional development for school personnel and themselves, and nurture personalized school environments for all students. School leaders, in sum, set forth the conditions necessary for teachers to implement change, the integral component of the school improvement process. Qualitative studies of effective schools are unanimous in their linking of school quality to the importance of school leadership roles and to the increasingly intricate and multifaceted responsibilities of the principalship.

Though the research literature on school leadership clearly conceives of the principal as a multi-tasker whose job responsibilities are much too complex to be evaluated by a single source, many school leader appraisal processes remain top-down appraisals from superintendents, with little feedback from other stakeholders. Further complicating effective leadership appraisal is the fact that many of the benchmarks states and national organizations have developed for school principals take an overly narrow view of leadership, focusing primarily on task-oriented skills rather than the impact the principal’s leadership has on school functions; this makes it difficult for school leaders to translate the appraisal into meaningful change. Indeed, an investigation into the standards and leadership appraisal methods of 44 states found that nearly half of these states fail to give their school leaders clear feedback on ways to improve teaching and learning.

Though it is clear that the impact of leadership on school outcomes is indirect—that is, leaders influence the factors that, in turn, influence the outcomes—feedback systems for school leadership have remained simplistic, unable to offer a comprehensive perspective on a school leader’s ability to facilitate instructional improvementAs a result, though multiple-source feedback systems have come into widespread use in many United States institutions over recent years, the field of education has only recently begun to consider this assessment method.

What is 360º Appraisal?

Multiple-source feedback systems, commonly referred to as 360º appraisals, refer to the process of collecting multiple viewpoints in order to provide a detailed and accurate picture of individual performance. When 360º appraisal is applied to school leaders,  teams of evaluators—supervisors (school board members, superintendents, etc.), colleagues (assistant superintendents, curriculum directors, etc.), school personnel (educators, office staff), and community members (parents, students, etc.)—are utilized to gain the input of all members of the school’s professional community, thereby offering an overall assessment of how a leader. Because all participants respond to the same survey items, many perspectives and viewpoints on the actions and impact of the school leader are provided.

Because 360º aappraisal focuses on feedback and subsequent action to strengthen school leadership, the method is best used as a formative appraisal tool to help school leaders focus on personal and leadership development and target particular areas to lead to specific behavior change. Furthermore, by comparing a leader’s perceptions with the appraisal of the school community, schools encourage enhanced self-awareness and performance improvement from all participants. Secure, anonymous participation ensures leaders get honest feedback; in turn, it can create a culture where individuals become more ready to commit themselves to seeking and accepting feedback.