The accountability and educational reform movements of the last decade have focused heavily on classroom instructional effectiveness and the evaluation of teacher performance. As a result, we have acquired considerable sophistication in developing research-based evaluation criteria and procedures that reflect knowledge about effective teaching practices (see, for example, Buttram and Wilson, 1987;Denham, 1987;Ellett & Garland, 1987). However, as local school districts continue to develop district wide evaluation plans, voluntarily or in response to state mandates, educators face the challenge of designing and implementing evaluation criteria and procedures for all professional school personnel, including those whose primary responsibilities do not involve classroom teaching.
How does a personnel director (or in a small district, a school principal) competently evaluate the school nurse, school psychologist, athletic director, librarian/media specialist, work-study specialist, and school counselor? "Very uneasily," might be the flip answer, belying the level of discomfort experienced by both the specialist who is being evaluated by someone who probably has no training in the specialist's field, and the administrative generalist who not only wants to feel competent in evaluating these specialists but who also is increasingly held accountable for the performance evaluations s/he must conduct (Buttram & Wilson, 1987).
While educational literature is replete with models, programs, criteria, and procedures for evaluating the classroom teacher, little work has focused systematically on the evaluation of nonteaching professional staff. Where can the school or district evaluators turn for help? Some of the professional associations of selected staff specialists positions have begun to address the problem of evaluating their members' functions or roles. Nonetheless it is difficult for district-level supervisors to obtain, assimilate, and implement the wide range of schemes being developed separately by the various professions. We offer here a description of