Assessing Equity in School Leadership in California. Technical Report. Getting Down to Facts II
Author: Grissom, Jason A.
Date: 2018-09-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: School Administration,Administrators,Instructional Leadership,Principals,Educational Quality,Administrator Effectiveness,Labor Turnover,Human Capital,Disadvantaged Schools,Institutional Characteristics

The quality of a school's leadership is a key determinant of its performance. Research links effective leadership to a variety of school outcomes, including more positive school learning climates (Sebastian &amp; Allensworth, 2012), lower rates of teacher turnover (Boyd et al., 2011; Grissom &amp; Bartanen, 2018; Ladd, 2011), and greater parental satisfaction (Grissom &amp; Loeb, 2011). These impacts on the school community translate into greater gains in student achievement. Studies using large-scale data in a variety of settings have demonstrated sizable effects providing a school with a high-quality principal on student test score growth (e.g., Branch, Hanushek, &amp; Rivkin, 2012; Coelli &amp; Green, 2012; Grissom, Kalogrides, &amp; Loeb, 2015). Moreover, effective principals and assistant principals are especially important in high-needs schools where the leadership challenges are greatest (Grissom, 2011; Leithwood et al., 2008). The central role that school leaders play in school success makes it essential that California and its school districts ensure not only that they are increasing the overall quality of school leadership in the state, but also that they are getting effective principals into the schools that need them most. This study puts the focus on bringing together some evidence on the distribution of leaders across schools with historically different levels of need. Evidence from other states, including some research that has been conducted by the authors of this article suggests that high-needs schools--such as those with large numbers of low-income and low achieving students--are less likely to be led by effective principals than their more advantaged neighbors. This research report documents a number of pressures that combine to create inequities in the distribution of leadership across relatively advantaged and disadvantaged schools. Among these, principal turnover appears to be a particularly important culprit. Principal turnover rates in high-needs schools are substantially higher, meaning that leadership vacancies in such schools arise more often. Districts tend to fill these vacancies with less qualified, less experienced principals. Because on-the-job experience is a primary means through which principals increase their efficacy in the role, turnover and the transition to a new school leader represents a loss of essential human capital. In addition, there is also some evidence that principals in high-needs schools may improve at lower rates than principals in other schools, perhaps because the skills for leading challenging schools take longer to obtain or because they have less access to opportunities for support and development (Grissom, Bartanen, &amp; Mitani, 2018). This study pulls together available data in an attempt to document patterns of leadership sorting in California and provides insight into these patterns. Implications, conclusions, and recommendations, going forward are discussed in detail.