IT Director/Coordinator Reviews

[Matt Anderson]

My Superintendent asked me today to look for staff evaluation documents other districts use when evaluating their IT Director/Coordinator. I figured I'd pose the question to you guys here and see what you have. We currently have nothing and I just have what I evaluate my staff with, which would work, but isn't very impressive.

Thanks for your input.

Matt Anderson
http://techchucker.wordpress.com

[Janice]

You have a staff? What is with that?
janice

btw - we are building the Ark now ...

[Brian Bartley]

We don't have any IT specific documents.

Brian Bartley

[Matt Anderson]

This would be a review for me as an IT Director. I kindof figured most schools wouldn't have anything but thought I'd give it a shot. In the end I think the only appropriate way to review or evaluate IT people is by evaluating us as employees, not by our field. There really aren't usually any staff at a school that are qualified to evaluate the technology aspect of our jobs.

[Brian Bartley]

That is how my boss reviews me. It is on my people skills, work ethic, willingness to do the job, etc... As he said once, he will know if I'm not doing the tech side of my job because people will be complaining that things aren't working properly.

Matt Anderson said:

This would be a review for me as an IT Director. I kindof figured most schools wouldn't have anything but thought I'd give it a shot. In the end I think the only appropriate way to review or evaluate IT people is by evaluating us as employees, not by our field. There really aren't usually any staff at a school that are qualified to evaluate the technology aspect of our jobs.

[Jen Hegna]

Here is my Eval rubric. It is based on the old ISTE standards. (They need a refresh - yet many apply today)
Its pretty comprehensive but it really helps me develop good goals each year.

[Matt Anderson]

Wowsers Jen! That is a really intense document. How often do you go through that with your Super? How long does it take to go through all of that?

That is quite in depth. I think we're going to try going for a little more basic approach. I'm going to keep this though as I might be able to incorporate some of it into my Support Specialists reviews I do.

Thank you,

Jen Hegna said:

Here is my Eval rubric. It is based on the old ISTE standards. (They need a refresh - yet many apply today)
Its pretty comprehensive but it really helps me develop good goals each year.

[Jen Hegna]

My superintendent and I review it every year. It takes about around 45 min. It really is a great tool and as I said - it helps me identify goals each year.

Several years ago, when I started to do performance evals for my staff - I found that the assessments were VERY generic and not very meaningful. This was the result after searching for meaningful PA's. It may also need updating based on your staff's job description & responsibilities. Happy viewing...

[Matt Anderson]

Right now I do a review for my staff 2 times per year. It is a fairly generic document that guides us through the process. It simply breaks things down into 5 primary categories. It's pretty simple but I evaluate them more on their being an employee rather than their technical ability as they are not native to technology.

I would like to make my reviews for them a little more comprehensive but still want the flexibility to move around a little.

For me I think the district will need to evaluate me more on an employee basis rather than a technical basis. My Super likes self evaluations which is where more of the technical aspect can come through in goals etc but there isn't anybody here capable of doing the technical aspect of my evaluation. In the end that is a pretty small part of an IT Directors job anyway. Granted if you do it poorly it's gonna show pretty quickly.

Jen Hegna said:

My superintendent and I review it every year. It takes about around 45 min. It really is a great tool and as I said - it helps me identify goals each year.

Several years ago, when I started to do performance evals for my staff - I found that the assessments were VERY generic and not very meaningful. This was the result after searching for meaningful PA's. It may also need updating based on your staff's job description & responsibilities. Happy viewing...

[Jeff Kienitz]

I go by the Dictionary of Occupational Titles. It is from the fedreral government and outlines what each job is suppposed to do. I have integrated it into my tech plan located at http://www.central.k12.mn.us/District/technology.html (This section starts about page 107.) I have also used the same in the past when I used to have staff working for or with me - but with budgets today I don't see extra staff for a while. I pulled the technology specialists descriptions/work goals from the plan since I haven't any right now due to budgets. Using the DOT listings, it creates a simple checklist based on federal data/regulations. Hope this helps.

I have not been evaluated formally on a check sheet or in writing over the past 15 years or more doing Technology in school but I have an independent contract with the school board and they seem willing to renew it every few years.... I use the Dictionary of Occupational Titles and figure a percentage of time spent on each section. Then I go to the MN dept of labor website which has the most recent pay/wage scales for the same positions. I use the DOT info with the State labor stats and determine my wage increases based on the prevailing wage for our sector. The last contract it gave me close to a 25% increase over three years and I only used the average levels. In this economy, I was very pleased. Since it was public data, the school board agreed and I didn't need to contact every school tech director in my area asking those unpleasant questions like I used to about ten years ago. The past several years, I go by what our peers in the field are doing since we are doing the same work (if not more). I feel thsi also helps us to remain competitive and hopefully prevents outsourcing as many places are doing with tech work. Hope this helps.