Leadership Assessment
A Competency-Based Leadership Assessment Plan
OPPORTUNITY: In 2017, Music for All’s Advancement Coordinator submitted a Phase I Grant Application to the CMA Foundation. Part of the requirements for the grant awarded was to assess any growth impact the leadership curriculum contributed to participants knowledge, value, and their ability to lead.
RESULTS: McREL International collaborated with Fran Kick and Music for All senior leadership to design the 2018 Summer Symposium Survey. McREL’s principal investigator Dr. Shelby Danks integrated content from Music for All’s overarching goals and outcomes for the Symposium, the I-65 Corridor Summit Initiative, critical content from existing surveys, and additional grantor requirements and expectations.
Consistent with best practice in the measurement of satisfaction and engagement with services in nonprofit organizations (e.g., ASCI, 2018; Marr & Creelman, 2011; Napier & McDaniel, 2006; Poister, 2008), as well as with good practice for the design of rubrics for programs, strategies, and their associated outcomes (Danks & Allen, 2014), specific objectives for the Symposium and its outcomes were identified, along with the hypothesized progression of practice that would be necessary to achieve them.
As part of the resulting survey architecture, a Leadership Competency Assessment and/or Knowledge Check was included. Students were asked to complete a Leadership Competency Assessment, which prompted students to reflect upon how the Leadership Weekend and Summer Symposium contributed to their knowledge, values, and ability to lead. To complete the Leadership Competency Assessment, students were asked to complete a retrospective pretest, or estimate of “change,” prompting the participant to reflect and rate their level before the Symposium, as well as rate their level after the Symposium.
UPDATE: The Leadership Competency Assessment was repeated in 2022 and 2023 alongside a Student Leadership Journal Fran Kick developed and Judy Kick designed.
REFERENCES:
ACSI (2018). The American Customer Satisfaction Index. Ann Arbor, MI: ACSI, LLC. Retrieved from www.theacsi.org
Danks, S., & Allen, J. (2014). Performance‐Based Rubrics for Measuring Organizational Strategy and Program Implementation. Performance Improvement Quarterly, 27(1), 33-49.
Kick, Fran (2023). How Parents and Teachers Can Nurture Leadership Development in their Children and their Students. Indianapolis, IN: Music for All, Inc.
Kick, Fran (2011). What We Believe When It Comes To Developing Student Leadership. Indianapolis, IN: Music for All, Inc.
Marr, B. & Creelman, J. (2011). More with less: Maximizing value in the public sector. Basingstroke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Napier, R., & McDaniel, R. (2006). Measuring what matters. Mountain View, CA: Davies-Black Publishers.
Poister, T. H. (2008). Measuring performance in public and nonprofit organizations. John Wiley & Sons.
Seemiller, C. (2013). The Student Leadership Competencies Guidebook: Designing Intentional Leadership Learning and Development. John Wiley & Sons.
Seemiller, C. (2018). A Competency-Based Model for Youth Leadership Development. Journal of Leadership Education, 17(1), 56-72.
Thalheimer, W. (2008) Measurement Best-Practices Quick-Audit. Work-Learning Research, Inc.
Fran Kick helped lead the development of a competency-based leadership assessment with McREL International and Music for All. Initial funding provided in part by a grant from the CMA Foundation. Since 1998, the leadership curriculum design, goals, and outcomes Fran Kick created were based on the Social Change Model of Leadership Development. As of 2023, it impacted 26,201 students at the Summer Symposium with 11,078 of those students also attending the Leadership Weekend.
“Fran Kick developed our leadership curriculum for the Leadership Weekend and the week-long Summer Symposium into one of the most respected leadership development training programs in our space.”
Jeremy L. Earnhart, Ed.D., President and CEO of Music for All