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

Branch, Gregory F.; Hanushek, Eric A.; Rivkin, Steven G.

doi:10.3386/w17803

Cited by 184 publications

(259 citation statements)

References 41 publications

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“…Research documents that principals vary in their effectiveness, especially in high-poverty schools ( Branch, Hanushek, & Rivkin, 2012 ). By calling for the replacement of principals in low-performing schools, federal policymakers expected the new principals to be more successful than the ones they replaced.…”

Section: Background and Prior Policy Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

School turnaround in North Carolina: A regression discontinuity analysis

Heissel

Ladd

2018

Economics of Education Review

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Section: Background and Prior Policy Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

School turnaround in North Carolina: A regression discontinuity analysis

Heissel

Ladd

2018

Economics of Education Review

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“…Valueadded models identify the additional value that principals bring to student learning after isolating out the contributions of individual teachers, the school and also the ability and backgrounds of individual students. Widely cited research by Branch et al (2012) using data on schools in Texas, suggests that highly effective principals can raise the achievement of the average student in their schools by between two and seven months of learning in a school year; ineffective principals lower achievement by the same amount. These are educationally significant effects, second only to the direct effects of individual teacher quality on student learning.…”

Section: International Evidence On Principal Effectivenessmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In the economics literature, a new and emerging evidence-base using large scale data sets and value-added models provide convincing evidence that school principals matter considerably for student learning (Branch, Hanushek & Rivkin 2012;Chiang, Lipscomb & Gill 2012;Coelli & Green 2012;Grissom, Kalogrides & Loeb 2012). Valueadded models identify the additional value that principals bring to student learning after isolating out the contributions of individual teachers, the school and also the ability and backgrounds of individual students.…”

Section: International Evidence On Principal Effectivenessmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For example Clotfelter et al (2007) found that in North Carolina in the USA, there was a sharp increase in rates of principal turnover in response to the introduction of the state's test-based accountability system. To avoid low performance ratings, principals are more likely to move from worse to better performing schools, which usually involves moving from poorer to wealthier schools (Branch et al 2012;Gates, Ringel, Santibanez et al 2006;Loeb et al 2010).…”

Section: Characteristic Four: Low Levels Of Mobility and High Tenurementioning

confidence: 99%

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Informing principal policy reforms in South Africa through data-based evidence

Wills

2015

SAJCE

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“…The paper provides evidence of meaningful variation across principals-by their most conservative estimates, a school with a principal whose effectiveness is one standard deviation above the mean will have student learning gains at 0.05 standard deviations greater than average-but does not directly compare relationships among measures. Dhuey and Smith (2012) use data on elementary and middle school students, again in British Columbia, and estimate the effect of the principal on test performance using a school and principal fixed effect model that compares the learning in a school under one principal to that under another principal, similar to Branch et. al.…”

Section: Using Student Test Scores To Measure Educator Performancementioning

confidence: 99%

Using Student Test Scores to Measure Principal Performance

2012

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Expansion of the use of student test score data to measure teacher performance has fueled recent policy interest in using those data to measure the effects of school administrators as well. However, little research has considered the capacity of student performance data to uncover principal effects. Filling this gap, this article identifies multiple conceptual approaches for capturing the contributions of principals to student test score growth, develops empirical models to reflect these approaches, examines the properties of these models, and compares the results of the models empirically using data from a large urban school district. The paper then assesses the degree to which the estimates from each model are consistent with measures of principal performance that come from sources other than student test scores, such as school district evaluations. The results show that choice of model is substantively important for assessment. While some models identify principal effects as large as 0.15 standard deviations in math and 0.11 in reading, others find effects as low as 0.02 in both subjects for the same principals. We also find that the most conceptually unappealing models, which over-attribute school effects to principals, align more closely with non-test measures than do approaches that more convincingly separate the effect of the principal from the effects of other school inputs. AbstractExpansion of the use of student test score data to measure teacher performance has fueled recent policy interest in using those data to measure the effects of school administrators as well. However, little research has considered the capacity of student performance data to uncover principal effects. Filling this gap, this article identifies multiple conceptual approaches for capturing the contributions of principals to student test score growth, develops empirical models to reflect these approaches, examines the properties of these models, and compares the results of the models empirically using data from a large urban school district. The paper then assesses the degree to which the estimates from each model are consistent with measures of principal performance that come from sources other than student test scores, such as school district evaluations. The results show that choice of model is substantively important for assessment. While some models identify principal effects as large as 0.15 standard deviations in math and 0.11 in reading, others find effects as low as 0.02 in both subjects for the same principals. We also find that the most conceptually unappealing models, which over-attribute school effects to principals, align more closely with non-test measures than do approaches that more convincingly separate the effect of the principal from the effects of other school inputs. In contributing to the nascent literature on the use of student test score data to measure principal performance, this paper has four goals. First, it identifies a range of possible valueadded-style models for capturing principal effects...

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

Abstract: NBER working papers are circulated for discussion and comment purposes. They have not been peerreviewed or been subject to the review by the NBER Board of Directors that accompanies official NBER publications.

Cited by 184 publications

References 41 publications

School turnaround in North Carolina: A regression discontinuity analysis

School turnaround in North Carolina: A regression discontinuity analysis

Informing principal policy reforms in South Africa through data-based evidence

Using Student Test Scores to Measure Principal Performance

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