Hamilton County school board gets behind Rick Smith

CRITIQUING THE CRITIQUENowadays, student test score results are being tied to everything from student grades to teacher and principal evaluation scores. But superintendent evaluations remain largely based on subjective measures.And that’s the case in Hamilton County. Of 50 rubric points on Superintendent Rick Smith’s evaluation, 24 areas judge his relationship with the school board and community. Educational leadership takes up seven slots on the evaluation and strategic planning accounts for three.Some districts recently have sought to tie student test score results into schools chief evaluations. And that’s something board Chairman Mike Evatt says he’s willing to consider for Smith’s future evaluations.But most superintendent evaluations still don’t at all mirror the changes that have been handed down to teachers and principals in recent years, said Joseph Murphy, the Frank W. Mayborn Chair and associate dean at Vanderbilt University’s Peabody College.”I don’t think it’s unreasonable to hold superintendents accountable to outcome measures like teachers,” he said.Yet it’s much easier for a board to use a checklist or rubric-style evaluation like Hamilton County’s.”It’s hard to evaluate people when you don’t really know the job,” Murphy said. “And board members most of the time don’t really know the business of teaching and learning.”