Student achievement in public schools: Do principals make a difference?

Abstract

The authors of this paper find that principal behavior and attributes significantly influence individual student achievement. Effective principal activities include instructional leadership (setting clear priorities and evaluating instructional programs, and organizing and participating in staff development programs) and conflict resolution (establishing a consensus on objectives and methods, maintaining effective discipline, and mediating personal disputes). These results, based upon data from a nationally representative sample of over 14,000 elementary school students, provide strong confirmation of the major conclusions from recent case studies, which arc characterized by very limited samples and weak controls for individual student and teacher attributes. In addition, the finding that principals make a difference to student achievement adds further evidence to the debate over whether schools make a difference.