How Principal Evaluation Polices Affect Learning-Centered Leadership

• In Event: The Role of Principal Professional Development and Evaluation in Promoting Effective School Leadership Practices

Abstract

Objective
This paper examines the extent to which district principal evaluation policies promote learning-centered leadership (LCL), a construct linked to student performance.

Theoretical Framework
Principals demonstrate learning-centered leadership when they cultivate teachers’ opportunities to improve their instruction and their students’ learning. Specifically, LCL involves establishing rigorous goals for student learning, coordinating curriculum, enforcing high standards for teaching, supporting teacher learning, and maintaining productive relationships among school staff (Bryk, Sebring, Allensworth, Luppescu, & Easton, 2010; Murphy, Elliott, Goldring & Porter, 2007). Further, LCL is closely related to student outcomes (Robinson et al., 2008).

Data Sources
We sampled 20 school districts from two states, Connecticut and Michigan, that vary in geographic location and district characteristics. Both states grant districts discretion in developing their principal evaluation systems, and the districts we selected maximize variation in student enrollment, urbanicity, and district principal evaluation policies. Districts range in enrollment from 2,000 to 20,000 students. For each district, we collected policy documents related to principal professional development and evaluation, monitoring of principal performance, and rewards and sanctions.

We administered a survey to principals that inquired about their experiences with principal evaluation, including the degree to which they perceived the evaluation process to focus on LCL activities versus management and external environment; their personal characteristics; whether their performance was regularly monitored; whether principal evaluation results were used to plan principal professional development; and whether such results were linked to principal rewards and sanctions.

Methods
To answer our primary research question, we fit the following statistical model which relates principals’ interpretation of the evaluation policy’s focus on LCL (Principal_LCL), to our policy predictor (LCL_focus) that was generated from coding the policy documents:
Principal_LCL = LCL_focus + X_p + J_s + Gamma_state + epsilon

Though in the baseline specification we include only these two key variables, we also add school characteristics, Principal characteristics, a state fixed effect to differentiate systematic differences across states, and apply an adjustment to account for deviations from the OLS assumption of homoscedastic standard errors, which are clustered at the school district level.

Findings
We found a moderate relationship between the degree of focus in district principal evaluation policies on LCL and principals’ enactment of LCL practices. That is, districts that address LCL practices in principal evaluation are more likely than other districts to promote LCL behaviors. This relationship is moderated to some degree by school and principal characteristics and it is attenuated by including a measure of managerial leadership.

Significance
Studying how district principal evaluation policy influences principals’ LCL practices provides insight into whether we expect such policies to induce improvements in student learning. While we know that principals shape how well schools function, teachers teach, and students learn, we know little about what districts can do to improve principal quality. Further, by grounding our study in the construct of LCL, a type of leadership that is closely related to student outcomes (Goldring et al., 2009), we are able to investigate whether an important policy lever, principal evaluation, is related to LCL.

Authors

• Morgaen L. Donaldson, University of Connecticut - Storrs

• Madeline Mavrogordato

• Shaun Michael Dougherty, University of Connecticut

• Peter A. Youngs, University of Virginia

• John L. Lane, Michigan State University

• Rachel Sue White, Old Dominion University