“Principalsreally matter.” That’s the key finding in this report analyzing research since 2000 about school principals.
The report affirms thateffective principals have a pronounced, positive effecton the schools they lead. They contribute to important outcomes like student achievement, reduced absenteeism, and teacher retention. The report also describes thepractices that drive effectiveness. And it takes a close look ateducational equity and the principal’s rolein promoting it.
Principal Impact
“Studentslearn substantially more in both reading and mathin schools with more effective principals,” the authors say. This affirms findings from other studies. Among them isa review of activities to strengthen school leadership. This review found links between student achievement and several principal training and related efforts. Another is a 2019RAND examination of the impact of school leaders in districts with high-quality principal pipelines.
The authors of How Principals Affect Students and Schools reach their conclusion after analyzing two types of studies that use an approach different from the one used in the RAND pipeline study. One type is based on “value-added measures,” an approach that some researchers have misgivings about for examining principal effects. The other is based on ratings that supervisors or teachers give to principals. Both types find links between principals and student performance.
Research over the years points to other benefits, too. They include higher student attendance rates and less likelihood of chronic absenteeism. These effects are higher in urban schools and schools with greater concentrations of student poverty. Principals also affect teachers in areas including job satisfaction and turnover.
Gaps in Representationand Experience
The racial and ethnic make-up of the student K-12 population has changed markedly in recent decades. But thecomposition of the principal workforce has failed to keep pace during that period, 1988 to 2016.
- For example, in 1988, about9 percent of students were Hispanic.
- By 2016, that figure was23 percent.
- Yet the percentage ofHispanic principals grew far more slowly, from 3 percent to 8percent.
In addition, novice principals are more likely to be found in the highest poverty schools. “Declines in principal experience in high-poverty public schools…are an equity concern,” the authors say. That’s because “students from low-income families and other marginalized groups likely benefit the most from having an experienced principal.”
One other point. Effective principals are more likely to retain high-quality teachers and shed the lowest performers. But this pattern, called “strategic retention,” is seen more often in low-poverty than high-poverty schools, where hiring may be more challenging.
Four Behaviors of Effective Principals
Mastery of organizational, people, and instructional skillsunderpins strong principal performance. They all come into play when principals carry out four key behaviors that the research points to:
- Focusing their work with teachers on instruction. This covers a range of activities, from coaching and evaluation to smart use of data to inform improvements. Some activities often considered important in principal work with teachers may, in fact, not be helpful. These include classroom walkthroughs, depending on how a principal uses them.
- Building aproductive school climate
- Forgingcollaboration and professional learningamong teachers and others
- Managingpersonnel and resources well.
The Behaviors Through an Equity Lens
A growing body of research describes leadership for educational equity and the practices that characterize it. It also leads to questions, such as:
- How can principalsremove barriers to equity?
- How can they promote access to resources and supports for the success of all students?
- How can theyconfront institutional factors that keep certain students from realizing their full potential?
For each of the four behaviors, the authors offer possible answers. For example:
- Ininstruction, principals might work with teachers to introducealternative teaching methods that better meet the learning needs of marginalized students.
- Inproductive climate, they couldreview and change disciplinary procedures. Wouldhome visits with parents work better than suspensions?
- Incollaboration, principals could build stronger connections with families and communities to better serve marginalized students.
- Inresources, principals could look at howthey assign teachersto classes to make sure that lower-performing students benefit from outstanding instruction.
