Randolph academy
From Defending Performance to Leading a Conversation
Executive Summary
Lori DeCarlo, superintendent at Randolph Academy, and her school board were already investing significant time and effort in the superintendent evaluation — but the process wasn’t serving them well. Managing up to 10 simultaneous goals scattered focus, and a format that required all board members to convene at once put DeCarlo in a defensive position with no opportunity to contextualize her performance.
SuperEval restructured the process — narrowing focus, enabling asynchronous board review, and transforming a high-pressure exercise into a constructive, evidence-based conversation.
The Challenge
DeCarlo and her board were not failing at the superintendent evaluation — they were trying hard. Both invested significant time and effort in the process, recognizing its importance. The problem wasn't effort. The problem was structure.
DeCarlo was managing up to 10 goals simultaneously — a scope so broad that no single priority could receive the depth of attention it deserved. The evaluation reflected the same diffusion: comprehensive in size but limited in its ability to drive meaningful development or focus district direction.
The format compounded the problem. When review time came, all board members convened at the same time to discuss DeCarlo's performance as a group. That collective, real-time setting put the superintendent in an inherently defensive position — receiving feedback on the spot, without the opportunity to review, contextualize, or prepare a considered response. Individual board voices, whether critical or complimentary, could shape the room disproportionately. The result was feedback that reflected the dynamics of the meeting as much as it reflected genuine, considered assessment — stressful for the superintendent and for the board alike.
After I submitted my self-evaluation, I was able to see all the comments from the board members in just 24 hours — and the collective weight of all those comments was informative and helpful.
- Lori decarlo
How SuperEval Changed Things
SuperEval addressed both the structural and interpersonal problems in Randolph Academy's evaluation process simultaneously.
The first change was focus. Working within the SuperEval framework, DeCarlo narrowed her annual priorities from up to 10 simultaneous goals down to three or four — a set of meaningful, strategic objectives that could receive the attention they deserved. Both DeCarlo and the board could engage more seriously with fewer, more significant priorities, producing an evaluation that was more useful as a leadership development tool.
The second change was format. Rather than a high-pressure group discussion, SuperEval shifted the process to an asynchronous model. DeCarlo completed her self-evaluation — rating herself, providing reflective narrative, and uploading supporting evidence — and submitted it for board members to review independently, on their own time. Each member engaged with the material privately, without the influence of other voices in the room, and provided their assessment before the group came together.
The final report compiled and averaged those individual assessments without identifying individual contributors. That anonymization gave critical feedback its proportionate weight rather than allowing any single voice to dominate the narrative. DeCarlo received the full picture of board sentiment — balanced, contextualized, and available within 24 hours of submitting her self-evaluation.
Results and Future Plans
Even the less tech-comfortable board members, who were initially reluctant to adopt a new platform, came to a strong consensus after the first cycle: SuperEval was helpful, easy to use, and worth continuing. The board agreed unanimously to use it going forward.
The platform also changed how critical feedback functions in the evaluation. In the past, a single critical voice could carry disproportionate weight in the written report — occupying more space than was representative of the board's collective view. SuperEval's averaging mechanism gave that feedback appropriate scale, representing the full board's assessment more accurately.
Looking forward, DeCarlo sees the focused goal structure SuperEval introduced — three to four meaningful priorities rather than ten diffuse ones — as a lasting change in how the district approaches superintendent leadership. The evaluation has become not just a compliance requirement but a genuine planning tool, aligning the board and superintendent around shared priorities for the year ahead and creating a foundation for the kind of constructive, growth-oriented relationship that strong district governance requires.
SuperEval has streamlined the focus of our communication around the evaluation process and, in particular, the priorities or goals for the next year.
- Lori decarlo | Superintendent | randolph academy
