The Board's Role in Assessing Trusted Leadership: Supporting Heads of School With Evidence, Not Anecdote

Abstract

Boards are responsible for supporting and evaluating the head of school, yet they often rely on limited or anecdotal evidence. This article explains how the TrustED^® 360 can help boards understand leadership trust, support head-of-school development, strengthen accountability, and protect the mission through evidence-informed governance. It also offers practical applications for school leaders, parents, and Christian school and church leaders.

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Boards carry a serious responsibility: they are not called to manage the school's daily life, but they are entrusted with protecting the mission, supporting the head of school, ensuring accountability, and stewarding the institution's future. One of the most important ways they fulfill that responsibility is by selecting, supporting, and evaluating the chief administrator.

Yet board evaluation of school leadership is often incomplete. Board members may see the head of school in meetings, reports, public events, and strategic conversations. They may hear parent concerns, donor impressions, faculty rumors, or community praise. These inputs matter, but they can be fragmentary. A board can overvalue the loudest complaint or the most polished presentation. It can mistake relational warmth for leadership trust, or operational productivity for mission health.

Consider one of my client school boards, which began its spring evaluation season with two competing narratives. Several parents praised the head of school for being visible, warm, and responsive. At the same time, a small group of faculty members privately told trustees that communication was uneven and that major decisions often arrived without enough context. The board chair wisely resisted the temptation to decide which narrative was true. Instead, the board and head agreed to use the TrustED^® 360 as a developmental tool, not a weapon. The results revealed a leader who was deeply trusted in relational accessibility but less trusted in clarity, order, and follow-through. The data did not embarrass the head; it focused the board's support. Coaching, communication rhythms, and shared progress checkpoints followed.

The question is not which anecdote is loudest; the question is what the evidence reveals about trust.

The TrustED^® 360 provides boards with a more disciplined way to assess leadership trust. School leaders need to be accountable to stakeholders and regularly assess the integrity of their leadership bridge. The 360 gathers input from those in the leader's span of influence and provides quantifiable data to guide professional development.^[1] For a board, this offers a valuable complement to traditional head evaluation.

Using the TrustED^® 360 does not mean the board becomes intrusive in management. Rather, it helps the board ask governance-level questions with better evidence. Is the head of school trusted by those he or she leads? Which components of trusted leadership are strong? Which components need development? Are professional development resources aligned with actual leadership needs? Is the leadership team collectively strong enough to carry out the strategic plan?

Research on school leadership consistently shows that leaders influence school outcomes through organizational conditions, teacher capacity, climate, and instructional direction.^[2][3] Boards that care about student outcomes and mission fulfillment must therefore care about the trustworthiness and development of leaders. TrustED^® 360 data helps the board move beyond whether the head is liked or disliked. It focuses attention on the components and behaviors that support school improvement.

The board's posture is critical. If the TrustED^® 360 is used primarily as a weapon, it will undermine trust. If it is used as a developmental tool, it can strengthen the relationship between the board and the head. The board should communicate that assessment is part of the school's commitment to continual improvement. Just as teachers use student data and administrators review program data, senior leaders and boards should use leadership trust data.

A healthy process might begin with the head of school voluntarily participating in the TrustED^® 360 and reviewing the results with a board chair or designated evaluation committee. Together, they identify a limited number of development priorities. The board then ensures resources are available: coaching, professional development, mentoring, time, and support. Learning Forward's 2022 Standards for Professional Learning reinforce this point: development must be supported by leadership, resources, data, implementation, and attention to outcomes.^[6] Assessment without development is inspection without maintenance.

Assessment without development is inspection without maintenance.

The TrustED^® 360 can also help boards support the whole leadership team. In many schools, the head of school is evaluated while the broader leadership team remains less visible to the board. Yet the school community often experiences leadership through principals, division heads, directors, coordinators, and department leaders. Team-level trust data can help the board understand whether the strategic plan depends on a single person or is supported by collective leadership capacity.

This matters for succession. A board that has monitored leadership trust over time will be better prepared for transition. It will know which components have been strengthened under the current leader, which vulnerabilities remain, and which qualities should be prioritized in the next hire. This reduces the risk of hiring based on charisma, crisis pressure, or generic leadership language.

The TrustED^® 360 also protects the head of school from anecdotal evaluation. A head may receive criticism from a small but vocal group. Without broader data, the board may not know whether the concern reflects an isolated conflict or a genuine pattern of trust issues. Conversely, a head may receive strong public praise while faculty trust quietly erodes. The 360 gives the board a fuller picture. This is consistent with research on multisource feedback, which finds that feedback is most useful when it is connected to development, coaching, and valued outcomes rather than treated as a one-time administrative event.^[5]

Good governance requires both support and accountability. The TrustED^® 360 helps boards practice both. It gives them evidence to support the leader's growth, accountability to monitor trust, and a framework to connect leadership development to mission fulfillment. Boards do not build the bridge alone, but they are responsible for ensuring that the bridge is being inspected, maintained, and strengthened for those the school serves.

For school leaders, the application is humility. A head of school should not fear evidence that helps reveal where leadership is trusted and where it needs repair. For parents, the application is confidence. A healthy board does not govern by rumor, personality, or crisis; it uses appropriate evidence to support the leader and protect the mission. For Christian school and church leaders, the application is stewardship. If the school exists to disciple students and serve families faithfully, then leadership trust is not peripheral. It is part of the school’s moral infrastructure.

Leadership trust is not peripheral. It is part of the school’s moral infrastructure.

Boards should also clarify how the data will and will not be used. The TrustED^® 360 should inform evaluation, development, and support, but it should not replace wise governance judgment. It should not be used to micromanage the head of school or invite board intrusion into daily operations. Clear protocols protect the process and the leader. The board's task is to ensure accountability and provide support, not to become a second administrative team.

When used well, the assessment can deepen trust between the board and the head. The head knows the board is not relying only on complaints or impressions. The board knows the head is willing to be assessed and developed. Faculty and staff know their voices have a pathway into leadership growth. In this way, TrustED^® 360 data can become an instrument of governance health, not merely leadership evaluation. The goal is not to catch a leader failing. The goal is to help a leader grow stronger so the school can more faithfully fulfill its mission.

End Notes

[1] Toby A. Travis, TrustED^®: The Bridge to School Improvement (2021), Chapter 9, especially 'The Value of a School Leader 360 Assessment' and 'Putting Data to Work.'

[2] Jason A. Grissom, Anna J. Egalite, and Constance A. Lindsay, How Principals Affect Students and Schools: A Systematic Synthesis of Two Decades of Research (The Wallace Foundation, 2021), https://wallacefoundation.org/report/how-principals-affect-students-and-schools-systematic-synthesis-two-decades-research.

[3] Kenneth Leithwood, Karen Seashore Louis, Stephen Anderson, and Kyla Wahlstrom, How Leadership Influences Student Learning (The Wallace Foundation, 2004); Karen Seashore Louis et al., Investigating the Links to Improved Student Learning (The Wallace Foundation, 2010).

[4] Anthony S. Bryk and Barbara Schneider, Trust in Schools: A Core Resource for Improvement (Russell Sage Foundation, 2002); Anthony S. Bryk and Barbara Schneider, 'Trust in Schools: A Core Resource for School Reform,' Educational Leadership 60, no. 6 (2003): 40-44.

[5] James W. Smither, Manuel London, and Richard R. Reilly, 'Does Performance Improve Following Multisource Feedback? A Theoretical Model, Meta-Analysis, and Review of Empirical Findings,' Personnel Psychology 58, no. 1 (2005): 33-66.

[6] Learning Forward, Standards for Professional Learning (2022), https://standards.learningforward.org/standards-for-professional-learning/.

[7] John Hattie and Helen Timperley, 'The Power of Feedback,' Review of Educational Research 77, no. 1 (2007): 81-112.

About the Author

Dr. Toby A. Travis is the author of TrustED^®: The Bridge to School Improvement and the developer of the TrustED^® School Leader 360 Assessment. He has served as a teacher, principal, academic director, head of school, superintendent, consultant, and graduate faculty member, helping schools and school leaders build cultures of trust that support mission fulfillment, stakeholder confidence, and continual school improvement.

©2026 Toby A. Travis. All rights reserved.