Devon Horton is the Deputy Superintendent at East St. Louis School District 189, IL. In this role, Mr. Horton supervises all campuses and directors, and his goal is to provide school leaders with real-time data to support professional growth and school improvement. Mr. Horton was interested in using the Comprehensive Assessment of Leadership for Learning (CALL) in order to “look for more in-depth information on leadership impact from the staff perspective.”

Mr. Horton sought to provide principals with data to support their school improvement planning. Here, Mr. Horton describes the process for implementing CALL in his district: “We distribute the survey twice a year. The results of the survey are shared with each campus principal. Our Office of School Turnaround uses the data to provide each campus principal feedback on successes and areas for growth.” By administering the CALL assessment twice a year, school leaders are able to compare data for growth and ongoing improvement needs.

There are multiple approaches to cut into CALL data to identify target areas, and Mr. Horton feels that the “Top 10/Bottom 10” function has been the most useful for the principals. While CALL is contained within its own system and platform, the resulting data can be used to support multiple initiatives. In the case of East St. Louis School District 189, the district “built a system called ADSS where the principals receive [CALL] feedback along with action plans to help improve in the areas [in need of improvement].” Moreover, Mr. Horton cited the evaluation process for principals as a process enhanced by using CALL: “[Principal] Evaluations are much easier to complete because leaders receive formal feedback more frequently.” Moving forward, Mr. Horton plans to continue to use CALL, with the hope that he can expand the work to assessing district-level practices. And, he has been able to overcome certain barriers due to the flexibility and nature of CALL: “The flexibility to add questions is what really won over our Union.”