The intent of this study was to determine the evaluation policies and procedures for principals of public schools in Virginia. Specifically, the purposes of the study were to: (1) Describe the policies in and procedures currently in place for the evaluation of principals in Virginia’s public schools, (2) Determine if Virginia's public school principals believe that the policies and procedures by which they are evaluated affect their job performance, (3) Examine and describe one school division's principal evaluation policies and procedures, and (4) Compare and discuss school system descriptions of policies and procedures related to evaluation of principals with responses of principals describing those same policies and procedures.

A descriptive survey method was used in this study. Data were collected from a random sampling of all public school principals in the state. A thirty-one item questionnaire was sent to each of the 337 participating principals. A response rate of 80.4% was attained. Descriptive statistics (frequencies and percentages) were employed to report the findings.

The results of this study revealed that:

1. Principal evaluation policies and procedures are firmly established in the school divisions across Virginia.

2. Public school principals in Virginia indicated that their school division‘s principal evaluation policies and procedures have a positive impact on their job performance.

3. The principals and superintendent of one school system agree on most questions about their policies and procedures for principal evaluation. Areas of disagreement included: a procedure for reviewing principal evaluation policies and procedures, current need to revise policies and procedures, and the purpose of (on-the-job) observation as a component of principal evaluation.

4. When system-level responses were compared to principals' responses measuring knowledge of principal evaluation policies and procedures there was considerable agreement between groups. However, ten areas of disagreement were discovered. These areas included: a procedure to regularly review and revise evaluation policies and procedures, the establishment of mutually-developed goals for principal evaluation, who has input into principal evaluation, if on-the-job observation is a component of the evaluation process, and whether a dissenting statement is permitted.