Accountability, Coherence, and Improvement: Leadership Reflection and Growth in the Los Angeles Unified School District

Abstract

This capstone explores matters of accountability, coherence, and improvement in the context of implementing a performance review and evaluation system for senior leadership in a large urban school district. Central office leaders at the Los Angeles Unified School District (the District) identified educator quality as a crucial issue in supporting District-wide improvement in student achievement. District leadership is also encouraging a shift in culture: instead of focusing on teachers and principals as the only adults who impact student achievement, they have emphasized the value of all District employees as educators, who contribute to the health, safety, achievement, and learning of all students in the district. There is a clear message from senior leaders that all adults in the system must perform at high-levels to achieve the breadth and depth of change necessary to benefit students. The capstone includes the description, findings, and analysis of a pilot study wherein 22 District leaders tested a leadership framework and growth planning tools for evaluation and reflection. The purpose of the pilot was to design and assess a growth and development program for senior leaders in the central office that is coherent and aligned with the current strategic plan and evaluation work already underway for teachers and school leaders in the system. The pilot was intended to inform a strategy for scaling this work to all senior leaders in the district. For participants who volunteered, there were three objectives: 1) to model accountability at all levels of the organization; 2) to reflect on and improve job performance with a self-assessment and the creation of an Individual Growth Plan (a set of individualized goals for improvement); and 3) to provide feedback on ways to improve the framework, tools, and processes used in the pilot, and to support its coherence with other District performance initiatives. With 100% completion for self-assessments, and over 50% completion for individual growth plans, the researcher has been able to gather feedback on the pilot to inform the improvement and scale of the evaluation system for the District’s leaders. Major findings include: the need for dedicated time of a skilled practitioner to lead this work; the necessity of devoted time for leaders to self-reflect and discuss their job performance with both colleagues and supervisors; the importance of leadership to promote and herald such systems to embed them into the culture and create employee buy-in; and the desire by leaders to explore various measures of their performance to improve their work. The work of ensuring accountability and achieving coherence are closely tied. The accountability has to make sense in and of itself, as well as in relation to the larger system. Coherence cannot be measured without some accountability mechanism in place. Bridging these two areas of work in service of organizational improvement is both efficient and sensible. What better way to develop the minds, habits, and talents of students than to offer, as guides, adults who themselves are in a constant state of development?