Principal Accountability: Measuring Performance for Merit Pay and Ongoing Improvement

• In Event: Roundtable Session 116

Session Submission Type: Roundtable Session

Abstract

This symposium presents three papers engaging key aspects of leadership accountability policies. The first paper focuses on principal evaluation while the second two focus on principal pay-for-performance programs. Findings from these studies are distinct yet mutually reinforcing. Overall, principal accountability policies tend to be (a) shallow and uninformed in their conception; (b) diffuse and unable to generate reliable distinctions of principal effectiveness; and (c) overly reliant on measures of student achievement. Implications are discussed regarding the use of various measures for accountability and pay-for-performance given the content of what is actually being measured.

Sub Unit

• Division A - Administration / Section 1: Leadership

Papers

• Study of Standards-Based Principal Evaluation in Two Large School Districts - Tony Milanowski, Westat; Steven M. Kimball, University of Wisconsin - Madison

• Implementing Performance Pay for Principals: Findings From the Teacher Incentive Fund (TIF) I and II Grantees - H. Alix Gallagher, SRI International; Kaily Yee, SRI International; Ashley Z. Campbell, SRI International

• The Best Laid Plans of Principal Performance Pay - Peter Trabert Goff, University of Wisconsin - Madison; Ellen B. Goldring, Vanderbilt University