Guide to Evaluation Products

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Evaluation Product Type:
360-Degree Surveys

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Description

This type of evaluation
  • Gathers and compares perception-based feedback from multiple constituents (the principal, staff, teachers, parents, students, supervisors) to create an aggregate profile of a principal’s performance on specific competencies.
  • Is usually paired with mentoring and coaching and is designed specifically to help principals to reflect holistically on their performance both through self-assessment and by examining feedback from their key constituents.
  • Includes principal self-assessment using a common set of survey questions and topic areas, which allows a principal’s perspective to be compared with the perceptions of other constituents.
  • Often provides a uniquely designed survey instrument for each constituent type but can be used for stand-alone staff, parent, and student surveys for 360-degree purposes if the questions and topics are similar and the principal uses the survey questions to engage in self-assessment.

Research Base

  • Despite their rising popularity in principal evaluation, rigorous research on the effect of 360-degree surveys on principal performance is lacking.
  • Studies of 360-degree approaches in other fields have provided mixed results, but studies suggest that this approach works best when used as part of a coaching model.

Strengths of This Evaluation Type

This type of evaluation
  • Provides a wide breadth of feedback about a principal’s performance, usually on a number of important components of leadership across a principal’s multiple roles.
  • Is designed to facilitate both broader and deeper principal self-reflection by providing access to more data during the self-assessment process.
  • Enables multiple constituents to provide feedback that can easily be compared and that is intended for formative development of the principal.

Cautions on This Evaluation Type

  • 360-degree approaches rely on perception-based data and were originally designed largely to support principal self-reflection and principal coaching; 360-surveys should not be used as a single, stand-alone measure of principal performance.
  • 360-degree surveys work best when incorporated into formative evaluations combined with strong coaching. Incorporating 360-degree survey data into summative evaluations should be used with caution and only as part of the self-assessment component in a broader evaluation model.

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