Managing Under Pressure: New Principals, Accountability, and Commitment in Low-Performing Urban Schools

• In Event: 66.054 - Principal Effectiveness and Leadership in an Era of Accountability

Abstract

Principals respond to school accountability policy by standardizing instruction and increasing their monitoring of teachers (Hallett, 2010; Spillane, Parise, & Sherer, 2011), but these efforts can conflict with efforts to build teachers’ commitment to one another and to their schools (Hallett, 2010). In schools that face strong accountability pressure, these conflicts may be particularly strong, but little research has explored principals’ work with teachers under these circumstances. Analyzing interviews with 12 new principals of low-performing urban schools, this study finds that new principals hold differing conceptions of the relationship between accountability and commitment-building, and often struggle to integrate these two areas over time. These findings have implications for the design of accountability systems and for principal training.

Author

• Matthew A. Shirrell, Northwestern University