Estimating the Effect of Leaders on Public Sector Productivity: The Case of School Principals

Posted by on February 27, 2012

What effective principals do

If principals impact student achievement, as a recent study by economist Eric Hanushek concluded, it is worthwhile to understand what effective principals do that matters, writes Karin Chenoweth in The Huffington Post. When Chenoweth and colleague Christina Theokas studied the practices and beliefs of 33 high-performing principals working in schools with substantial populations of low-income students and students of color, they found consistent patterns despite a wide variety of situations: rural, suburban, and urban; elementary and secondary; in helpful districts and not-so-helpful districts. All principals excelled at hiring and keeping strong teachers; structured the school’s work in a way that ordinary teachers could improve and be successful; and established a climate that encouraged teachers to try new things, but discontinued practices that weren’t successful. They also instituted systems that allowed teachers to focus on instruction instead of problem-solving crises. “In general, [the principals’] schools are not expected to perform well on standard achievement measures because of the demographics of their students,” Chenoweth says. “And yet, they all perform about as well — or better — than do white, middle-class schools.” These are therefore schools worth paying attention to, for anyone interested in helping all students learn.

Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/Karin%20Chenoweth/principals-matter-school-_b_1252598.html

Research: http://www.caldercenter.org/upload/CALDER-Working-Paper-32_FINAL.pdf

Related: http://ctmirror.com/story/15408/education-reform-focus-turns-improving-principals