An examination of how to size up the performance of principals has found that one evaluation method is best suited for judging the effectiveness of school leaders: the Vanderbilt Assessment of Leadership in Education.
Created in 2006 and just now widely available for districts to purchase, the assessment, called VAL-ED, is the newest of the principal instruments in the review conducted by Matthew Clifford and Christopher Condon, researchers with Learning Point Associates, a nonprofit educational consulting firm based in suburban Chicago. ("Assessment to Rate Principal Leadership to Be Field-Tested," Jan. 16, 2008.)