Schools collect a great deal of data about students, instruction, climate, and culture. Leadership data can add another important perspective by helping schools understand the practices and conditions that shape teaching and learning.

But not all leadership assessments are designed to do the same thing. Some focus primarily on evaluating individual leaders. Others are intended to help schools understand leadership practices across the organization and identify opportunities for improvement.

If the goal is improvement, here are five questions worth considering when choosing a leadership assessment.

1. Does It Focus on Practices That Can Be Changed?

Knowing that educators have positive or negative perceptions of leadership can be useful. But perceptions alone may not tell leaders what to do next.

A more actionable assessment examines specific practices. For example, how are instructional priorities communicated? How often do teachers collaborate around student learning? How is professional learning connected to instructional needs? How are educators and staff members involved in decision-making?

Focusing on practices gives school teams something concrete to discuss and, when needed, change.

2. Does It Gather Perspectives From Across the School?

Leadership does not happen only in the principal's office. Assistant principals, instructional coaches, teacher leaders, teams, and other staff members can all contribute to leadership within a school.

For that reason, a school-wide leadership assessment should capture perspectives from educators in different roles.

This can also reveal important differences in experience. Administrators and teachers, for example, may have different views of how consistently a particular practice occurs. Those differences are not necessarily a problem. They can be valuable information and a starting point for productive conversation.

3. Does It Provide More Than a Score?

A score can help identify an area of strength or concern, but it does not necessarily tell a school what to do with that information.

Consider what happens after the assessment. Do results help users understand specific findings? Can leaders examine individual practices or differences among groups? Does the feedback help school teams identify possible next steps?

The most useful assessment is not necessarily the one that produces the most data. It is the one that helps education leaders make sense of the data and use it.

4. Is It Grounded in Research?

Schools should understand where an assessment comes from.

What research informed its development? Is there evidence that the instrument measures what it is intended to measure? Are its underlying ideas about leadership clearly defined?

A strong research foundation does not guarantee that an assessment will be useful in every setting, but it gives school and district leaders greater confidence in the information they are using to drive decision-making.

5. Can It Support Improvement Over Time?

Leadership assessment is most valuable when it is part of an improvement process rather than a one-time event.

Schools may want to revisit results after implementing a new strategy, compare perspectives among different groups, or examine whether particular practices are changing over time. District leaders may also want to identify patterns across multiple schools.

An assessment that supports these kinds of uses can help leaders move from simply identifying needs to monitoring improvement.

Putting These Principles Into Practice

The Comprehensive Assessment of Leadership for Learning (CALL) is one example of an assessment designed with a formative, practice-based approach.

Developed through research at the University of Wisconsin–Madison with support from the U.S. Department of Education's Institute of Education Sciences, CALL gathers input from educators across a school about specific leadership practices. Rather than evaluating an individual principal, it provides school-level feedback intended to identify strengths, areas for growth, and opportunities for action.

Whatever assessment a school chooses, the larger question is worth keeping in mind: Will the information help us strengthen teaching and improve student learning?

Ultimately, improving leadership practices is not the end goal. The value of leadership assessment lies in helping schools create the conditions in which educators can teach effectively and all students have stronger opportunities to learn.