Principal & Assistant Principal Standards
The Professional Standards for Educational Leaders (PSEL) is the required criteria for Kentucky principals and assistant principals. Promulgated into 704 KAR 3:370, the standards were adopted in July 2020. The PSEL defines the practice of an effective leader. There are ten interdependent standards in the PSEL which reflect leadership work that research and practice suggest is essential to student success.
KY PSEL Guidance for Growth and Evaluation Tool
The Kentucky PSEL Guidance for Growth and Evaluation tool is an optional resource that schools and districts can use to help gauge progress, performance, and professional needs. The guidance tool is a resource to inform professional learning experiences for school districts that will elevate the professional practice of principals by identifying areas of promise and opportunities for growth within each standard. The guidance tool provides a common language and clear expectations of an exemplary, accomplished, developing, and ineffective school leader.
It should be noted that the guidance tool does not encompass the totality of actions that may be observed within each of the four performance levels. School system leaders may build upon the common understandings established to inform the evaluation of principals. Likewise, the tool provides districts the opportunity to create common understanding and expectations for implementation as flexibility and personalization of the tool is encouraged, specifically in the Possible Examples section of the tool. (See the PSEL video series for details regarding district personalization and structural layout of the optional tool.)
PSEL Video Series
Navigation Tutorial: Learn how to navigate the optional tool
Topic 1: Requirements & a Tool for Support
Topic 1: Requirements & a Tool for Support
Topic 2: Performance Levels
Topic 3: Critical Attributes and Possible Examples
Topic 3: Critical Attributes and Possible Examples
Topic 4: An Analysis of PSEL Utilizing Standard 6 to Model a Protocol
Topic 4: An Analysis of PSEL Utilizing Standard 6 to Model a Protocol
Topic 5: Alignment to Performance Measures
Topic 5: Alignment to Performance Measures
Topic 6: Putting It All Together
PSEL Evidence Collection for Summative Evaluation
Collecting evidence of the ten PSEL standards is an important part of the evaluation system. Having quality evidence that demonstrates highly effective implementation of the PSEL will support productive, growth-focused summative evaluation conferences. While the strategy one uses to collect evidence is up to the individual or local Certified Evaluation Plan, below is a sample strategy of PSEL evidence collection. Using a slide deck, the principal embeds links to evidence on each slide for each standard. This is not an exemplar. It is intended to promote thought regarding a strategy one might use to collect evidence.
