While the importance of effective principals is undisputed, few studies have identified specific skills that principals need to promote school success. This study draws on unique data combining survey responses from principals, assistant principals, teachers, and parents with rich administrative data to determine which principal skills correlate most highly with school outcomes. Factor analysis of a 42-item task inventory distinguishes five skill categories, yet only one of them, the principals’ Organization Management skills, consistently predicts student achievement growth and other success measures. Analysis of evaluations of principals by assistant principals supports this central result. The analysis argues for a broad view of principal leadership that includes organizational management skills as a key complement to the work of supporting curriculum and instruction.
BassB. M. (1998). Transformational leadership: Industrial, military, and educational impact. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
2.
BrewerD. J. (1993). Principals and student outcomes: Evidence from U.S. high schools. Economics of Education Review, 12(4), 281–292.
3.
BrookoverW.BeadyC.FloodP.SchweitzerJ.WisenbakerJ. (1979). School systems and student achievement: Schools can make a difference. New York, NY: Praeger.
4.
BrykA.SebringP.AllensworthE.LuppescuS.EastonJ. (2010). Organizing schools for improvement: Lessons from Chicago. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
5.
DavisS.Darling-HammondL.LaPointeM.MeyersonD. (2005). School leadership study: Developing successful principals. Stanford, CA: Stanford Educational Leadership Institute.
6.
EdmondsR. (1979). Effective schools for the urban poor. Educational Leadership, 37(1), 15–24.
7.
FiglioD.LucasM. (2004). What’s in a grade? School report cards and the housing market. American Economic Review, 94(3), 591–604.
8.
GoldhaberD.HannawayJ. (2004). Accountability with a kicker: Observations on the Florida A+ accountability plan. Phi Delta Kappan, 85(8), 598–605.
9.
GoldringE.HuffJ.MayH.CamburnE. (2008). School context and individual characteristics: What influences principal practice?Journal of Educational Administration, 46(3), 332–352.
10.
GoldringE. B.MayH. (2010, June 28-30). The conceptualization and validation of the Vanderbilt Assessment of Leadership in Education (VAL-ED). Presented at the Institute of Education Sciences Research Conference, National Harbor, MD.
11.
HaleE. L.MoormanH. N. (2003). Preparing school principals: A national perspective on policy and program innovations. Washington, DC: Institute for Educational Leadership.
12.
GrissomJ. A. (in press). Can good principals keep teachers in disadvantaged schools? Linking principal effectiveness to teacher satisfaction and turnover in hard-to-staff environments. Teachers College Record.
13.
HallingerP. (2005). Instructional leadership and the school principal: A passing fancy that refuses to fade away. Leadership and Policy in Schools, 4, 1–20.
14.
HallingerP.BickmanL.DavisK. (1996). School context, principal leadership and student achievement. Elementary School Journal, 96(5), 527–549.
15.
HallingerP.HeckR. (1998). Exploring the principal’s contribution to school effectiveness: 1980-1995. School Effectiveness and School Improvement, 9, 157–191.
16.
HallingerP.MurphyJ. (1985). Assessing the instructional leadership behavior of principals. Elementary School Journal, 86(2), 217–248.
17.
HeckR. H. (1992). Principals’ instructional leadership and school performance: Implications for policy development. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 14(1), 21–34.
18.
HessF. M.KellyA. P. (2007). Learning to lead: What gets taught in principal-preparation programs. Teachers College Record, 109(1), 221–243.
19.
HorngE. L.KlasikD.LoebS. (2010). Principal’s time use and school effectiveness. American Journal of Education, 16(4), 491–523.
20.
LattinJ. M.CarrollJ. D.GreenP. E. (2003). Analyzing multivariate data. Pacific Grove, CA: Thomson Learning, Inc.
21.
LeithwoodK.JantziD. (2005). A review of transformational school leadership research 1996–2005. Leadership and Policy in Schools, 4(3), 177–199.
22.
LeithwoodK.MontgomeryD. J. (1982). The role of the elementary school principal in program improvement. Review of Educational Research, 52(3), 309–339.
23.
LevineA. (2005). Educating school leaders. New York, NY: The Education Schools Project.
24.
MarchJ. (1978). American public school administration: A short analysis. The School Review, 86(2), 217–250.
25.
MarksH.PrintyS. (2003). Principal leadership and school performance: An integration of transformational and instructional leadership. Educational Administration Quarterly, 39(3), 370–397.
26.
McLaughlinM.MarshD. (1978). Staff development and school change. Teachers College Record, 80(1), 69–94.
27.
MurphyJ. (1988). Methodological, measurement, and conceptual problems in the study of instructional leadership. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 10(2), 117–139.
28.
PorterA. C.GoldringE.MurphyJ.ElliottS. N.CravensX. (2006). A framework for the assessment of learning-centered leadership. Nashville, TN: Learning Sciences Institute.
29.
RobinsonV. M. J.LloydC. A.RoweK. J. (2008). The impact of leadership on school outcomes: An analysis of the differential effects of leadership types. Educational Administration Quarterly, 44(5), 635–674.
30.
SpillaneJ. P.CamburnE. M.ParejaA. S. (2007). Taking a distributed perspective to the school principal’s workday. Leadership and Policy in Schools, 6(1), 103–125.
31.
StrongeJ. H. (1993). Defining the principalship: Instructional leader or middle manager?NASSP Bulletin, 77(553), 1–7.
32.
van de GriftW.HoutveenA. A. M. (1999). Educational leadership and pupil achievement in primary education. School Effectiveness and School Improvement, 10(4), 373–389.
33.
WatersT.MarzanoR.McNultyB. (2003). Balanced leadership: What 30 years of research tells us about the effect of leadership on student achievement. Aurora, CO: Mid-Continent Research for Education and Learning.
34.
WitziersB.BoskerR. J.KrügerM. L. (2003). Educational leadership and student achievement: The elusive search for an association. Educational Administration Quarterly, 39(3), 398–425.
