[Principal Effectiveness: The Efficacy of California Elementary School Principals in Moving Student Academic Outcomes.]

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Acknowledgement

I would take this opportunity to thank my research supervisor, family and friends for their support and guidance without which this research would not have been possible.

DECLARATION

I, [type your full first names and surname here], declare that the contents of this dissertation/thesis represent my own unaided work, and that the dissertation/thesis has not previously been submitted for academic examination towards any qualification. Furthermore, it represents my own opinions and not necessarily those of the University.

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CHAPTER 1

THE PROBLEM

Introduction

School principals play important and varied roles in the day to day operations of schools. As instructional leaders, principals select, monitor and support teachers, design curricula, and manage discipline. As administrative leaders, principals set budgets, manage the school facility, and develop relationships with the broader community. In addition to a broad range of responsibilities, principals have many constituents including students, parents, teachers, school boards and superintendents. (See, for example, Davis et al. (2005) and Richardson et al. (1993).) Improving principal quality has become a common focus of school reform efforts: A recent Department of Education report on turning around chronically low-performing schools recommends installing a new principal (Herman et al. (2008)) and over the last ten years many states, school districts and non-for-profits have introduced new initiatives to train and support principals. Despite the attention currently paid to principals as levers for school improvement, much remains unknown about how school leadership affects student learning. In this paper I investigate the causes and consequences of principal turnover for academic achievement and teacher turnover by studying the changes that occur around the times that schools get new principals. In particular, I attempt to answer the following four questions: Do changes in student achievement cause principal turnover? What effect does principal turnover have an student achievement? What effect does principal turnover have on teacher retention? What is the relationship between teacher retention during a principal transition and subsequent student achievement? Principal turnover is a common phenomenon nationwide. Using administrative data from Texas, Cullen and Mazzeo (2008) report that about 22% of principals switch jobs from one year to the next. Papa Jr. (2007) follows several cohorts of new principals hired in New York finds that after four years only 46% are still principals at the same school. Gates et al. (2006) follow a cohort of new principals find that after six years, only 37% of the Illinois cohort and 21% of the North Carolina cohort remained principals at the same school. In addition, it is known that more turnover takes place at low performing schools (Besley and Machin (2008) and Cullen and Mazzeo (2008)), schools located in high poverty communities, (Partlow and Ridenour (2008)), and schools with more minority and limited English proficiency students (Gates et al. (2006) and Papa Jr. (2007)). Understanding the changes that accompany principal turnover is important not only because it is widespread, but also because any ill effects are disproportionately borne by disadvantaged ...