Program Self-Evaluation for Continuous Improvement

Abstract

This article is designed to help educational leaders and university faculty who prepare them become aware of the increasing need to view the self-evaluation of leadership preparation programs as a pivotal new starting point in efforts to improve schools. An effective self-evaluation will lead to better preparation programs and, with other conditions, to better subsequent practice. The article begins with an outline of incentives and disincentives for proceeding with self-evaluation. It continues with highlights of inner structural changes required for initiating self-evaluation. The rest of the article offers a selfevaluation model that includes the use of outcome-based standards. The evaluation design is presented step-by-step and in great detail, including evaluation questions, evaluation criteria, evaluation data, and data collection procedures and analyses, as well as faculty and student roles in each step of the process. The model is offered as an example rather than as a dictum, a debate opener rather than a debate summarizer.