A Collaborative Approach to the Development and Validation of a Principal Evaluation System: A Case Study

This article provides a case history of collaboration between the South Carolina Educational Policy Center (SCEPC) at the University of South Carolina (USC), the South Carolina Department of Education (SDE), and stakeholder committees in developing a principal evaluation system for South Carolina. This case, study is based on the authors’ experiences in the process and their review of program documents. The project staff used the Personnel Evaluation Standards and the Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing to guide the review of the standards. They also worked with qualified job experts to develop performance standards, evaluation criteria, and instrumentation. The documented activities serve as evidence that validity issues were appropriately addressed. The project staff and stakeholder committees conducted an internal review and a field review of the proposed standards and criteria, as well as a pilot study of the proposed instrumentation. Stakeholder feedback served as an additional source of validity evidence. Although this case study focused on development of an evaluation system in one state, the information presented may be helpful to other states or districts that are planning to develop similar systems.