Learning to Lead: Principals' Prior Work Experiences and Principal Performance

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

Abstract

Objective
A large number of prior studies demonstrate that principal effectiveness is a key contributor to school performance (e.g., Branch et al., 2012; Coelli & Green, 2012; Grissom, Kalogrides, & Loeb, 2015; Hallinger & Heck, 1998; Leithwood, Louis, Anderson, & Wahlstrom, 2004). Staffing schools with effective principals is thus an important goal for states and school districts. Yet identifying which candidates for school leadership positions are likely to be effective once they are hired is challenging, particularly for novice principals (i.e., those who have never before been a principal) who constitute 10% to 15% of principals each year. Research suggests that some readily available factors such as licensure examination performance or preparation program attended are poor predictors of on-the-job performance (Grissom, Mitani, & Blissett, 2017; Grissom, Mitani, & Woo, 2016).

Perspective
We focus instead on measures of prior work experience as predictors of future principal effectiveness. Studies suggest that principals with assistant principal (AP) experience, particularly AP experience in high-growth schools, see higher student performance (Bastian & Henry, 2015), suggesting that prior experiences can both build leadership capital and signal future performance. Building on this research, we investigate how both the context of principals’ prior work (e.g., working with a high-performing principal) and their own performance in those contexts predict later principal performance.

Data Sources and Methods
This investigation relies on rich administrative data covering all teachers and school leaders in Tennessee over a 13-year period, supplemented by performance metrics, such as rubric-based measures of effective practice for teachers, APs, and principals, captured by the statewide evaluation system since 2011-12. We employ regression models with rich school and student covariates and fixed effects to account for sorting by work environments.

Findings
We find that job performance ratings assigned to APs by their current principals are consistent predictors of their ratings once they assume a future principal position. APs who have worked in high-growth schools and with highly rated principals also demonstrated higher future principal performance. In fact, even when controlling for their ratings as an assistant principal, new principals who “apprenticed” under an effective principal tend to have higher performance in their first year. Among principals for whom we can observe prior ratings of their performance as a teacher, we also observe that higher ratings are associated with positive principal performance, though to a lesser extent. The predictive power of AP and teacher performance ratings and work context stands in contrast to degree attainment or total years of education experience, which do not predict measures of principal effectiveness.

Significance
These results suggest that pre-service, job-embedded experiences and learning opportunities build important capacity for early career principals. They also suggest that school districts’ principal hiring decisions can benefit from taking into account the prior experiences and performance. In particular, principals who have been effective APs and teachers are likely to be more effective principals than principals who have been less successful in those earlier roles.

Authors

• Jason A. Grissom, Vanderbilt University

• Brendan Bartanen, Vanderbilt University

• David S Woo, Vanderbilt University - Peabody College