The Superintendent Evaluation That Measures What Matters — Start the Cycle in January
January 13, 2027
On Monday, your board adopted its 2027 goals. Public commitments. Measurable targets. Data-informed benchmarks. You presented the baseline data, held the public hearing, took the vote, read the commitment statement.
Now here’s the question nobody asks in January: what are those goals actually for?
If you answered “to improve student outcomes,” you’re right, but you’re not done. Goals improve student outcomes when they drive governance action — and there is no governance action more consequential than the superintendent evaluation. The goals you adopted on Monday are the criteria for the evaluation you’ll complete in June. If you haven’t connected those two things yet, you’re already behind.
Here’s what I’ve learned from watching boards do this well: the board that connects its January goals to its June evaluation doesn’t just produce a better evaluation. It produces a better partnership with the superintendent, a clearer focus for the entire year, and an accountability structure that works because the superintendent knows exactly what success looks like.
The problem: most superintendent evaluations measure everything except what matters
I’ve seen superintendent evaluation rubrics that cover forty-two competencies. Community relations. Facilities management. Staff morale. Fiscal oversight. Technology integration. Crisis communication. If you have forty-two criteria on your evaluation rubric, you don’t have an evaluation rubric. You have a laundry list of everything a superintendent might theoretically touch in a year.
Here’s the thing about forty-two criteria: none of them are measured well. The board averages the scores across all forty-two, the superintendent gets a 3.7 out of 5, and nobody learns anything. The superintendent doesn’t know what to do differently. The board doesn’t know where to focus its support.
The root cause isn’t the rubric. The root cause is that the evaluation was designed to measure everything a superintendent does, rather than to measure what the superintendent was hired to accomplish. And what the superintendent was hired to accomplish is right there in the goals the board adopted on Monday.
An evaluation that measures what matters has one primary criterion: progress toward the board’s adopted goals. Everything else is supporting context.
The five phases of a goal-driven evaluation cycle
Starting the evaluation cycle in January — while the goals are still fresh — changes the character of the process. Instead of a year-end judgment based on impressions, the evaluation becomes a year-long conversation about progress toward shared targets.
Here’s what the cycle looks like:
Phase 1 — January: Framework confirmation
This is the conversation that most boards skip and every board needs. In January, before the data starts flowing, the board and superintendent sit down together and confirm: “We will evaluate you on progress toward the goals we just adopted. Here’s how we’ll measure that progress. Here’s what evidence we’ll consider. Here’s the timeline.”
The conversation should produce a one-page document — not a contract, a framework — that answers three questions:
- What goals are being measured? (the adopted goals)
- What does progress look like? (the metrics and targets)
- What additional evidence will we consider? (the supporting context — board communication, community engagement, operational leadership)
The superintendent should leave this conversation knowing exactly what success looks like in the board’s eyes. Not in February. Not in April. In January.
Phase 2 — February: First data checkpoint
The board’s first progress monitoring check-in (coming up on Jan 20) produces the first data point for the evaluation. This isn’t a preview of the final rating — it’s a shared understanding check. The board and superintendent review the data together and confirm they see the same picture.
If the data is on track, the conversation is brief. If the data is off track, the conversation is about what support the superintendent needs to get back on track. The evaluation is still six months away. There’s time to course-correct.
Phase 3 — March: Evidence gathering
By March, the board has enough data to begin gathering evidence for the evaluation. Not a binder of every email and memo from the year. The specific evidence that connects to the agreed criteria: goal progress data, monitoring report quality, board-superintendent communication patterns.
The evidence gathering should be systematic, not haphazard. The board’s evaluation committee (or a designee) should have a checklist of what’s needed and a process for collecting it throughout the spring.
Phase 4 — April/May: Preliminary findings
The board’s evaluation committee prepares a preliminary summary based on the evidence gathered. The superintendent reviews it for factual accuracy. This step is about getting the facts right — not negotiating the outcome.
The preliminary summary should include: the data for each goal, any adjustments to the evaluation framework that were agreed to during the year, and a preliminary assessment of progress.
Phase 5 — June: Final evaluation and goal-setting bridge
The full board reviews and adopts the evaluation. The evaluation outcomes inform the goal-setting process for the following year. The cycle closes where it began: with adopted goals driving governance action.
What changes when the evaluation measures what matters
I’ve seen boards switch from the forty-two-criteria rubric to a goal-aligned evaluation framework. The difference is immediate.
The superintendent knows what to focus on. Instead of trying to do everything well and hoping the board notices, the superintendent focuses resources and attention on the goals the board identified as priorities. The evaluation reinforces that focus instead of diluting it.
The board knows what evidence to look for. Instead of relying on impressions and secondhand reports, the board looks at goal-progress data. The evaluation becomes an evidence-based conversation instead of an opinion-based one.
And most importantly, the evaluation is never a surprise. The data that drives the evaluation is the same data the board reviews at every meeting. The evaluation becomes a summary of what the board already knows — not a single-meeting judgment based on the superintendent’s performance in that room at that hour.
The January action step
If your board adopted goals on Monday, you have a window of about two weeks to have the framework confirmation conversation. Here’s what that looks like:
Add one agenda item to your January board meeting or a January work session: “Superintendent Evaluation Framework for 2027.” Use the one-page framework format — three questions, the adopted goals, the evidence process. The meeting should produce a document that both the board and superintendent sign off on.
The superintendent should walk out of that meeting knowing: “The board evaluates me on progress toward these three goals. Here’s the evidence they’ll consider. Here’s the timeline. If I stay focused on these goals, I’ll meet their expectations.”
That’s a superintendent who can lead with clarity for the entire year. That’s an evaluation process that measures what matters.
Your free CTA: Reply to this email with the keyword Eval and I’ll send you the Superintendent Evaluation Cycle Timeline & Checklist — a one-page framework that maps your board’s adopted goals to the evaluation criteria, evidence sources, and timeline for each evaluation phase. Use it to start the framework confirmation conversation in January.
Your paid CTA: Want a clearer picture of how your current superintendent evaluation process stacks up against your adopted goals? I offer a Superintendent Evaluation Process Design & Facilitation — a half-day diagnostic that reviews your current evaluation framework, identifies gaps between your adopted goals and your evaluation criteria, and gives you a roadmap for aligning the two. Reply to this email for pricing and availability.
This continues the January Execution Arc. Monday’s piece walked you through the goal adoption process — from draft goals to public commitments. This piece shows you how those adopted goals drive the superintendent evaluation cycle. Next up: your first progress monitoring check-in of 2027 — the data review that makes evaluation real. Catch the full series in the newsletter archive at effectiveschoolboards.com/newsletter.