Principal Quality and the Role of Personnel Management in Public EducationÂ
Principals shape almost every aspect of schools, from curating school culture to determining classroom assignments. Leveraging the movement of principals across schools, I quantify the impact of principal quality on student academic achievement and document the practices of effective principals. I find that a one standard-deviation increase in principal value-added (PVA) raises student test scores by 5% of a standard-deviation. These improvements occur through attracting stronger teachers, retaining top faculty, and assigning better teachers to larger classrooms. I then document a robust relationship between PVA and various leadership and teacher empowerment measures emphasizing the importance of soft-skills in effective management.
The Impact of Tenure Removal on Teacher's Labor Supply Responses