Using Student Test Scores to Measure Principal Performance

Expansion of the use of student test score data to measure teacher
performance has fueled recent policy interest in using those data to
measure the effects of school administrators as well. However,
little research has considered the capacity of student performance
data to uncover principal effects. Filling this gap, this article
identifies multiple conceptual approaches for capturing the
contributions of principals to student test score growth, develops
empirical models to reflect these approaches, examines the properties
of these models, and compares the results of the models empirically
using data from a large urban school district. The paper then
assesses the degree to which the estimates from each model are
consistent with measures of principal performance that come from
sources other than student test scores, such as school district
evaluations.

The results show that choice of model is substantively
important for assessment. While some models identify principal
effects as large as 0.15 standard deviations in math and 0.11 in
reading, others find effects as low as 0.02 in both subjects for the
same principals.

The most conceptually unappealingmodels, which over-attribute school effects to principals, align more closely with non-test measures than do approaches that more
convincingly separate the effect of the principal from the effects of
other school inputs.