“I’d rather get no evaluation at all than a bad one.” A charter school CEO once told me that, and it stuck. Think about it: the person running your multimillion-dollar public school—educating kids, managing budgets, solving daily crises—would rather hear nothing from the board than go through a sloppy evaluation process. That’s not a CEO problem. That’s a governance problem. Evaluating your school leader is one of the most important jobs a board has. Not fundraising. Not compliance. Not even strategic planning. Without a strong, supported CEO, none of it works. And yet, after working with hundreds of charter school boards across the country, we see the same mistakes repeated—not out of indifference, but because many boards haven’t been shown how to do it well. Here are five of the most common mistakes—and what to do instead.
1. You Just Don’t Do It—It sounds surprising, but nearly 30% of charter school CEOs report that their boards don’t follow a consistent evaluation process. That’s not a rounding error—it’s a pattern. 30% of CEOs lack a consistent evaluation process. 72% of CEOs planning to leave report no consistent evaluation. This usually isn’t neglect. It’s drift. The board is busy, no one owns the process, and the year ends without structure or feedback. But here’s what matters: CEOs actually want feedback. And our research shows 72% of CEOs planning to leave their schools within a year report no consistent evaluation process. That gap is meaningful. Do the evaluation. Every year. No exceptions.
2. You Treat It Like a Checkbox, Not a Relationship—Many boards treat evaluation as a May task: a survey, a quick conversation, and a “nice job.” But strong evaluations are year-round. The end-of-year conversation should be the final chapter of ongoing dialogue—clear goals set in the fall, check-ins throughout the year, and honest conversations along the way. When it works this way, the final evaluation isn’t a surprise or a scramble. It’s a reflection of work already discussed. It confirms what’s already been built, not what’s suddenly discovered.
3. You Confuse School Performance with CEO Performance—This is one of the most common mistakes. Test scores dip? Must be the CEO. Enrollment rises? CEO gets credit. But a CEO evaluation is not a school report card. It’s about whether the leader met board-defined goals. Did they maintain financial health? Improve teacher retention? Strengthen community partnerships? Those are the right measures. When boards blur “school performance” with “CEO performance,” they miss the real picture—and the chance to give useful feedback. You end up reacting to outcomes instead of evaluating leadership decisions.
4. You Design the Process Without the CEO—Boards sometimes assume evaluation design should happen independently. But when the process is built entirely behind closed doors and handed down, it often feels punitive instead of supportive. Better approach: involve the CEO. Let them help shape the timeline, tools, and goals. Collaboration builds trust and clarity. Our research in South Carolina shows CEOs who report strong board chair partnerships are more likely to stay and often have stronger compensation outcomes. The best evaluations don’t feel like grading—they feel like alignment. It becomes a shared system rather than a top-down review.
5. The Board Doesn’t Speak with One Voice—This is where evaluations often break down. One board member says, “You’re doing great.” Another raises concerns privately. A third says nothing. The CEO ends up hearing multiple, conflicting messages. Strong boards avoid this by consolidating feedback through a structured process—often led by a CEO Support & Evaluation Committee—and delivering one unified message. One voice. One set of priorities. No side conversations. That’s how trust is built—and how improvement actually happens. Clarity replaces contradiction.
The strongest charter schools have boards that take evaluation seriously. They invest the time, clarify the process, and treat their CEO like a partner. As charter schools grow in places like South Carolina, strong governance matters more than ever. Boards don’t need to figure it out alone—but they do need to start. Because caring about your school leader isn’t abstract. It’s operational. And the evaluation? That’s where it shows up.
Source: BoardOnTrack 2024 Charter School CEO Compensation & Turnover Study