PART OF THE MARZANO EVALUATION SYSTEM
Most principals are evaluated on operations. The Marzano Focused School Leader Evaluation Model is designed to balance the need for operational effectiveness with impactful instructional leadership.
21 elements across 6 domains. Aligned to fully support the Focused Teacher Evaluation Model (FTEM) teacher evaluation framework so that every observation, every coaching conversation, and every PD session speaks the same language — from the classroom to the superintendent’s office.
THE PRINCIPAL TIME PROBLEM
Principals spend only 1.8% of their time formally evaluating teachers — and instructional coaching accounts for just 12.7% of their overall responsibilities
Grissom, Loeb & Master, Educational Researcher, 2013
WHY IT MATTERS
Principals with strong instructional leadership have been shown to have positive effects on student achievement — making principal evaluation a high-leverage intervention .
Robinson, Lloyd & Rowe, Educational Administration Quarterly, 2008
THE ALIGNMENT ADVANTAGE
Principals with strong instructional leadership have been shown to have positive effects on student achievement — making principal evaluation a high-leverage intervention .
When principals are evaluated using the same mastery approach as the teachers they lead, feedback becomes coaching up practice — not just compliance documentation
THE ALIGNMENT STORY
Most evaluation systems evaluate principals and teachers with separate frameworks, separate language, separate conversations. The result is that principals observe classrooms using one vocabulary while teachers are developing their practice using another. Feedback gets lost in translation.
The Marzano School Leader Model is built for alignment to the national standards for educational leaders and based on School Leadership for Results research. When a principal is evaluated on their ability to ensure “instruction of a viable and guaranteed curriculum,” they’re being held to the same standard of rigor they’re asking their teachers to achieve. Principals become active partners with teachers in achieving the school’s goals.
“It’s really important that all of your systems are aligned because then you can speak the same language, no matter what. Everybody is working towards that same vision of instruction and the evaluation tool just points out the different aspects of your model — it helps you make sure that everybody’s together and aligned and it’s cohesive.”
Natalie Schneider
Director of Elementary Education, MSD Lawrence Township
THE FRAMEWORK
The first three domains focus on instructional leadership — the behaviors that directly influence what happens in classrooms. The second three focus on the operational responsibilities that make effective instruction possible. The balance is intentional: a principal who is only an instructional leader and never addresses operation cannot be a fully effective educational leader. A principal who is only an operational manager and never improves instruction is missing the mark as well. school’s goals.
Using achievement data to set goals, monitor progress, and make instructional decisions and changes in real time, not just reporting numbers to the district.
Ensuring every student has access and the opportunity to experience rigorous, standards-aligned instruction, regardless of which teacher or classroom they're assigned to.
Using Focused Teacher Evaluation Model observation and coaching will build teacher expertise by design, connecting observation data directly to professional development and support priorities.
Building a school culture where staff, students, and families are an integral part of building a safe, respectful school, where all stakeholders are invested in shared goals.
Keeping the school focused on transparency, building trust, responsiveness, and safety, ensuring that decisions are driven by what is best for each student.
Allocating time, budget, and personnel in ways that protect instructional priorities and address identified instructional needs, not just operational ones.
WHAT MAKES IT DIFFERENT
Traditional principal evaluation often reduces to: Did the principal do the required number of observations? Did they complete the required paperwork? These are compliance questions. They have almost nothing to do with whether the principal is actually developing teachers or improving instruction.
The Marzano school leader model evaluates principals against specific, observable criteria tied to improved student and teacher outcomes — not just task completion. Every element has a desired effect. Every score is based on evidence over time. And every feedback conversation is connected to the same language principals use when they’re developing their own staff.
WHO THIS MODEL IS FOR
Get a consistent, research-backed basis for principal evaluation that holds up to board review, and gives you meaningful data to support principal development, not just annual ratings.
Finally have a structured observation and actionable feedback process for principals that mirrors what you're asking principals to do with their own teachers: specific, evidence-based, growth-oriented.
Understand exactly what effective instructional leadership looks like at each level of the developmental scale, and use the same scale language to develop your teachers that your district uses to develop you.
This model can stand alone or be a part of an integrated Marzano evaluation system.
When the Focused School Leader model is implemented alongside Focused Teacher Evaluation Model for teachers, the Non-classroom Instructional Support Personnel model, and the 2018 District Leader model, the shared language and approach creates a cascading coherence effect — every level of the organization is working from the same vision of what effective practice looks like, and every feedback conversation reinforces it.
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Deeper learning for all students — district partnerships, school improvement, and teacher professional development.
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