Addressing Challenges in Evaluating School Principal Improvement Efforts

• Author: Burkhauser, Susan.
• TeilnehmendeR: Pierson, Ashley.; Gates, Susan M.; Hamilton, Laura S.
• Year of Publication: 2012
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (41 p.)
• Notes: Description based upon print version of record.

Given the focus on accountability in education, stakeholders are interested in evaluating whether efforts aimed at improving school leadership show results; the key criteria are student outcomes. This report describes challenges that states, districts, and other entities can expect to encounter as they evaluate efforts targeting school leadership as a way to improve student outcomes and offers suggestions for dealing with those challenges.

Table of Contents

Cover; Title Page; Copyright; Preface; Contents; Acknowledgments; Abbreviations; Chapter One: Introduction; Chapter Two: RAND's Evaluation of the New Leaders Program; Program Overview; Student Outcome Analysis; Additional Components of the Evaluation; Chapter Three: Challenges in Using Outcome Data to Evaluate School Leadership Improvement Efforts; Using Student Outcome Measures; Inconsistency in Outcome Measures; Measure Manipulation; Tracking Students Across Districts; Lack of Adequate High School Outcome Measures; Effects of Student Dropout; Timing of Data and Impact

Controlling for Student CharacteristicsUnobserved Characteristics; Observed Characteristics; Accounting for School Context; Determining Appropriate Comparison Schools; Developing Measures of School Context; Measuring Principal Impact in Differing Contexts; Controlling for Principal Characteristics; Quality and Availability of Principal Tenure Data; Variation in Principal Career and Training Paths.; Incorporating Multiple Measures; Chapter Four: Conclusion; References